Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Left and Right with Lion and Ryan | 1969 | Robert Littell | Buy |
Robert Littell’s picture book Left and Right with Lion and Ryan (1969) was published at the very start of his career, before he became known as an espionage novelist.
The book teaches young children directional concepts through a story about a lion named Lion and a child named Ryan. It came out the same year Littell was transitioning from journalism to book writing, making it a curious footnote in the career of a man who would go on to write dense Cold War thrillers.
Littell’s first spy novel, The Defection of A.J. Lewinter, followed in 1973. The gap between a children’s picture book and espionage fiction is wide, and Left and Right with Lion and Ryan remains a rare collector’s item rather than a well-known part of his bibliography.