The View from Alger's Window is Tony Hiss's memoir of the trial and imprisonment of one of the most famous victims of the Cold War witch-hunts: his father. Tony Hiss was seven years old when Whittaker Chambers first accused Alger Hiss of passing secrets to the Russians. For the rest of his childhood, Tony and his family experienced the cruelties and intimidations of the time.<BR>Drawing on hundreds of letters Alger sent from prison, the author counters public perceptions of Hiss and shows the fundamental decency and essential goodness of his father and, along the way, draws a compelling portrait of an innocent man. At the same time he lets us see how adversity drew this father and son together, allowing them to achieve a closeness they might never have been able to otherwise. Here is the father who wrote home about pheasants at play on the prison grounds, the importance of Picasso, and the tender business of parenting from a distance. Here, too, is the son whose "duck-and-cover" fears paled in comparison to the terror of seeing justice wielded as an instrument of torture.