Interesting post, but it’s about 6 years late. Was Duranty still reporting from Russia in ‘39?
Yes, apparently he was with the Slimes until 1940.
“Walter Duranty (1884–October 3, 1957) was a Liverpool-born British journalist who served as the New York Times Moscow bureau chief from 1922 through 1936. Duranty won a Pulitzer Prize in 1932 for a set of stories written in 1931 on the Soviet Union. Duranty’s reporting has fallen into disrepute primarily because of his reports denying the famine in Ukraine. He has also been criticized for his favorable portrayals of Stalin and his uncritical coverage of Stalin’s show trials.”
“Duranty left Moscow in 1934. Later in that same year, he visited the White House in the company of Soviet Officials including Litvinov. He continued as a special correspondent for the New York Times through 1940.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Duranty#Later_career
Sorry, I didn’t catch the “from Russia with love” part of your question. Apparently he was not reporting from there by 1936.