First published in 1952, witness was at once a literary effort, a philosophical treatise, and a bestseller. Whittaker Chambers had just participated In America's trial of the century in which chambers claimed that alger ...First published in 1952, witness was at once a literary effort, a philosophical treatise, and a bestseller. Whittaker Chambers had just participated In America's trial of the century in which chambers claimed that alger hiss, a full-standing member of the political establishment, was a spy for the soviet union.