In 1920 Friedman and his wife quit Riverbank and the nonsense of the mythical Shakespeare ciphers and began work with the government developing cryptography systems, teaching courses and (of course) cryptanalyizing messages. In fact, he made up the term 'cryptanalysis' to help alliviate the confusion of deciphering (one has the key) and cryptanalyizing (determining the key and then deciphering), otherwise known as 'cracking' today. Perhaps Friedman's greatest 'crack' was the reconstruction of a rotor machine in use during WWI by the Japanese. The reconstruction, deemed 'Magic', came after months of grueling work by Friedman and his team. After completing the machine, Friedman suffered a nervous breakdown and was not allowed to work for more than a week without a week's break.
Friedman retired from government work in 1955 at age sixty-four, but remained as a consultant. He was awarded the Medal of Merit (highest award for cival service) and at a retiremnt party in 1955, he was given a National Security Agency pin by the directory of then Central Intelligence Agency (the pin was the highest award within the NSA). At the ceremony, Friedman was so overcome with surprise that the was fighting back tears.
Friedman published numerous other articles and books about cryptology. Among others: pieces for journals about Edgar Allen Poe's cryptology skills, results from inquries into the history of cryptology and historical ciphers, and instructional guides to cryptology for the military (Military Cryptanalytics was an excellent resource for the authors of this site). Friedman and his wife came full circle when in 1957 they published a book that quite throughly thrashed previous 'pseudocryptoanalysist' attempts on works of Shakespeare. Through delightful examples that turn the tables on previous methods of translation, the Friedmans book will leave no doubt as to the hidden messages in Shakespeare.
While on the topic, Mrs. Elizebeth Friedman deserves at least a paragraph - really much more. She herself was an accomplished cryptologist and like her husband was employed for the government. Her most famous cryptanaylist event occurred during the Prohibition when she helped solve the codes used by the rum runners to bring in illegal alcohol from Canada. Her help to the Coast Guard resulted in several arrests and convictions as well as the shutting down of large scale organized crime operations.
The Friedmans retired happily, with the government granting them a $100,000 compensation fee in 1956 for William Friedman's inventions and patents that he was not able to capitalize on because of their threat to the security of the nation. William Friedman died in 1969, and his wife in 1980. They rest in Arlington National Cemetery, with a headstone with the prophetic and appropriate epithet - "Knowledge is Power".
