He published a total of twenty books, in addition to writing short stories and articles for publications such as Atlantic Monthly, The New Yorker, Esquire, Reader's Digest, McCall's, and The New York Times Sunday Magazine.
Berger had a hard time earning money and for about year lived in poverty until he found a job with the government-sponsored Federal Writer's Project.
His 1937 Cape Cod Pilot became a success and enabled him to obtain a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship the next year, which he used to write In Great Waters, a history of the Portuguese in New England.
[1][2] Berger, who wrote under the pen name Jeremiah Digges, went to Washington, D.C., in 1940 to become the editor of reports for the U.S. House of Representative Select Committee to Investigate Interstate Migration of Destitute Citizens.
[1] He also wrote a book named "Bowleg Bill, The Sea-Going Cowboy" The Venona project has revealed that Berger was approached by the KGB after a lead by Samuel Krafsur.