The Never-Ending Wrong

by Katherine Anne Porter

Little Brown,, 1977.. Fine in a very good+ dustjacket with some short closed tears.. First printing. A very personal account of the days leading up to the execution of the anarchists Sacco and Venzetti - one which Porter and many other writers protested. 64 pages, plus 8 pages of photographs.

Genres: Nonfiction

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

Katherine Anne Porter was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist, essayist, short story writer, novelist, and political activist. She is known for her penetrating insight; her works deal with dark themes such as betrayal, death and the origin of human evil.
See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katherin...

Reviews

[Kristel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reason read: American author challenge/Katherine Anne Porter and this is the last of her written work. It is essentially a essay or a small memoir of an event in history that she participated in; the Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti case. They were Italian anarchists who were convicted and executed for the 1920 robbery and murder of a shoe factory paymaster and guard in South Braintree, Massachusetts. This divided the nation with many protests because it was felt the trial was not fair. To this day, it really is unknown if they were guilty, if one was guilty or none.

Quotes:

"It is my conviction that when events are forgotten, buried in the cellar of the page--they are no longer even history".

"...never-never-land of the theoretically classless society which could not take root and finally withered ont he stalk."

"...I knew too well that this whole protest was the work of a complicated machine or a set of machines working together even if not always intentionally or with the same motives, and we were all of us being put rather expertly through set paces by distant operators, unknown manifulators whose motives and designs were far different from outs."

"I find that any recollections however vivid and lasting, must unavoidably be mixed with many afterthoughts."

This is in the afterwards and is in reference to Emma Gordon (Radical Activist Among Progressive Reformers) and Prince Kropotkin.
"...cause to which they devoted their lives--to ameliorate the anguish that human beings inflict on each other, the never-ending wrong, forever incurable."

"She finally came to admit sadly that the human race in its weakness demands government and all government was evil because human nature was basically weak and weakness is evil."

I found it was interesting and I thought about how some of this reflects even our current times. I again and again am reminded that what goes around comes around. There is nothing new under the sun.

[KOMET · Rating 4 out of 5]

"THE NEVER-ENDING WRONG" is essentially Katherine Anne Porter's account of the experiences she had during the 1920s working with a group protesting the conviction of the shoemaker Nicola Sacco and the fishmonger Bartolomeo Vanzetti (both by political conviction, anarchists) on the charge of murder by a Massachusetts court. Porter focuses on what she observed and experienced during the final hours leading to the execution of both Sacco and Vanzetti in August 1927. In its time, the Sacco-Vanzetti case was a cause célèbre that garnered considerable support and attention - both nationally and internationally - among notable people like Porter who believed that both men had been wrongly convicted. This book, originally published in 1977 - 3 years before Porter's death at age 90 -- is also a retrospective for the author on the previous 5 decades.

"THE NEVER-ENDING WRONG" at 63 pages is a short book. But one rich in insights such as the following observation made by the author: "... the grim little person named Rosa Baron ... who was head of my particular group during the Sacco-Vanzetti demonstrations in Boston snapped at me when I expressed the wish that we might save the lives of Sacco and Vanzetti: ' Alive --- what for? They are no earthly good to us alive.' These painful incidents illustrate at least four common perils in the legal handling that anyone faces when accused of a capital crime of which he is not guilty, especially if he has a dubious place in society, an unpopular nationality, erroneous political beliefs, the wrong religion socially, poverty, low social standing --- ... Both... Sacco and Vanzetti, suffered nearly all of these disadvantages."

[Daphne Vogel]

This wasn’t at all what I was expecting. It’s written fifty years after the fact, based on her notes taken at the time. She admits memory is a malleable and fickle thing, and so the focus jumps around, almost staccato. But it does provide some startlingly clear windows into moments, lucid photographs of the past.

I’ll shelve this next to Koestler and the other wholly disillusioned Communists, because she has no good words to say regarding that aspect of the protests. But she acknowledges that anarchy is likely the last desperate step to try to make the world a better place, and grudgingly allows that the people attracted to anarchy were far more likely to be intelligent and empathetic, whereas the Communist beliefs and goals chilled her to the bone.

Scattered but fascinating little book. Will move on to Ehrmann’s The Case That Would Not Die, once I acquire it.

[David Sterritt]

“The Never-Ending Wrong” is Katherine Anne Porter’s highly personal account of the unjust trial and execution of Sacco and Vanzetti in the 1920s. She is sharply disillusioned with Soviet-influenced radicalism, admirably candid about her ambivalence regarding the guilt of the two anarchists, and profoundly concerned about “the anguish that human beings inflict on each other,” which is the eternal wrong invoked by her title. This is a sensitive and beautiful memoir. Highly recommended.

[Bap]

An interesting account written fifty years after the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti. Porter is in her 80's and has lots of time to reflect on her clippings and notes when she picketed and was jailed to protest the execution. Initially, one believes that the never ending wrong was the execution and it is clear that she still considers the trial to be a travesty of justice, which it most certainly was. However, the account turns its attention to the motley groups of protesters, some passionate and sincere but others seeking to garner propaganda points for their cause. When Porter laments that the two will be executed and yearns for a last minute pardon, a harpy communist says: what good would that be, we need martyrs to the cause. With the passage of time, Porter realizes that the communists were manipulative and talked blithely of settling scores after the revolution. They were also completely clueless but ready to exploit young idealists for their ends.

[Jason Aufdemberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. It was an interesting perspective on the sacco and vanzetti trial from an artist/author who was deeply involved with other artists of that time (John Dos Passos, Edna St. Vincent Millay) in protesting against the trial and requesting a fair trial.