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12 Facts About Phoebe Pool

1.

Phoebe Pool was a British art historian and spy for the Soviet Union.

2.

Phoebe Pool was diagnosed with depression at an early age.

3.

In 1931 Phoebe Pool won a scholarship to Somerville College, Oxford, entering in 1932 to study history.

4.

In 1934, Phoebe Pool was awarded the Deakin History Essay Prize, but her mental illness prevented her from taking her degree.

5.

In 1954, Phoebe Pool studied Art History as an external student at the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London.

6.

Phoebe Pool received a BA in 1957 with first class honours and two years later she obtained her PhD with her thesis on the literary and philosophical background to the early work of Pablo Picasso.

7.

Phoebe Pool's supervisor was Anthony Blunt, who was a spy for the Soviet Union.

8.

Blunt and Phoebe Pool wrote a book together, Picasso: The Formative Years: a Study of his Sources.

9.

Phoebe Pool used the library of the Courtauld Institute of Art for most of her research.

10.

Blunt told Martin that Phoebe Pool had worked as his courier in the 1930s.

11.

Phoebe Pool confirmed Blunt's story and admitted passing messages with Hart to the Floud brothers from "Otto", identified as Arnold Deutsch.

12.

Phoebe Pool died by suicide in December 1971 by throwing herself under a train.