Trinity of Passion: The Literary Left and the Antifascist Crusade

American Literary Left Trilogy #2

by Alan M. Wald

The 2nd of three volumes by Wald tracking political & personal lives of several generations of US left-wing writers, "Trinity of Passion" carries forward the chronicle launched in "Exiles from a Future Time: The Forging of the Mid-20th-century Literary Left." This volume delves into literary, emotional & ideological trajectories of radical cultural workers in the era when the Internat'l Brigades fought in the Spanish Civil War ('36-39) & the USA battled in WWII ('41-45). Probing in detail the controversial impact of the Popular Front on literary culture, he explores the ethical & esthetic challenges that pro-Communist writers faced. He presents a cross section of literary talent, from famous to forgotten. The writers examined include Len Zinberg (aka Ed Lacy), John Oliver Killens, Irwin Shaw, Albert Maltz, Ann Petry, Chester Himes, Henry Roth, Lauren Gilfillan, Ruth McKenney, Morris U. Schappes & Jo Sinclair. He also uncovers dramatic new information about Arthur Miller's complex commitment to the Left. Confronting heartfelt questions about Jewish masculinity, racism at the core of liberal democracy, the corrosion of utopian dreams & the thorny interaction between antifascism & Communism, Wald recreates the intellectual & cultural landscape of a remarkable era.
Preface
Introduction: the strange career of Len Zinberg
Tough Jews in the Spanish Civil War
The agony of the African American left
The peculiarities of the Germans
A rage in Harlem
Disappearing acts
The conversion of the Jews
Arthur Miller's missing chapter
Conclusion: the fates of antifascism
Notes
Acknowledgments & Sources
Index

Genres: History

339 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2007

About the author

Alan M. Wald is an American professor emeritus of English Literature and American Culture at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and writer of 20th-Century American literature who focuses on Communist writers; he is an expert on the American 20th-Century "Literary Left."