Abstract
Beginning in the mid-1930s and continuing throughout his tenure, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover used staff-written letters to convert his fame and his bureau's authority into a powerful public relations tool. Journalists like The American Magazine's Courtney Ryley Cooper, Fulton Oursler of Reader's Digest, and Jack Carley of the Memphis Commercial Appeal came to believe that they were close confidantes of the iconic FBI director. The relationships built and maintained through personal correspondence provided the FBI with a community of journalist-adjuncts, friends of the bureau who stood ready to promote and defend the FBI in their publications.
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