ABOUT HIDDEN INK PRESS
The real story is better than the legend
George Washington's spy ring operated in plain sight for five years. Their identities stayed hidden for 150 more. Hidden Ink Press is bringing them back.
BY THE NUMBERS
5
YEARS THE RING OPERATED
150
YEARS THEIR NAMES STAYED HIDDEN
2+
YEARS OF RESEARCH BEHIND THIS
WHO’S BEHIND THIS
I found the Culper Ring through AMC's Turn and immediately wanted to know the real story. That question led me to archives, biographies, military records, and primary sources.
What I found was more compelling than any dramatization. Young colonists, most of them barely in their twenties, defeated the British Empire and invented an entirely new intelligence system. Almost nobody knows their names.
That's the gap Hidden Ink Press exists to fill. By day, I work in tech. By night, I'm deep in 18th-century Long Island, tracing spy routes across maps that are older than the country itself.
Pat Allen
Founder, Hidden Ink Press
HOW WE WORK
The principles behind every story
Accuracy first, always
Every story is grounded in primary sources such as letters, military records, memoirs, and contemporary accounts. Where the historical record is incomplete, uncertainty is acknowledged rather than invented facts substituted.
Character-driven, not textbook-adjacent
These were real people making impossible decisions under impossible conditions. The stories treat them that way — with the complexity, fear, and conviction that the historical record actually supports.
The "wait, this actually happened?" standard
If a reader finishes a story and immediately wants to verify whether it was real, that's the goal. The most unbelievable parts are usually the ones that are documented.
What's coming
Four prequel stories. One complete history. A universe still being written.
2026
2027
Beyond
Culper Ring: Origins - four prequel stories
Nathan Hale, Benjamin Tallmadge, Abraham Woodhull, and Caleb Brewster.
The complete history - the full novel
Where all four prequel arcs converge. The definitive narrative of America's first successful spy network.
The Undeclared — historical fiction
What if the ring never dissolved? Espionage across centuries, clearly labeled as fiction, rooted in the same world.
Read it before the rest of the world does.
Early subscribers get every story two weeks before it goes public, plus exclusive content between releases.