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Left Letters: The Culture Wars of Mike Gold and Joseph Freeman
The names of Mike Gold (1893-1967) and Joseph Freeman (1897-1965) predominate in cultural histories and literary annals of the 1920s and 1930s as among the most influential literary Communists during the heyday of American Communism. James Bloom examines their works and careers, demonstrating the enduring relevance of these once prominent writers.
Each writer's reputation now rests on one major work, Gold's Jews Without Money (1930) and Freeman's An American Testament (1936). Their more comprehensive contributions, however, have been largely forgotten. This is an ironic development, Bloom observes, in view of the steadily leftward movement of literary scholarship in the U.S. over the last twenty years and in view of the persistence of their agendas in much contemporary writing, notably E. L. Doctorow's The Book of Daniel.
Left Letters rescues two writers whose influence and accomplishments have been eclipsed for the past half-century. This valuable book complements efforts to recover "proletarian" authors from the shipwreck of party-line writing.
Each writer's reputation now rests on one major work, Gold's Jews Without Money (1930) and Freeman's An American Testament (1936). Their more comprehensive contributions, however, have been largely forgotten. This is an ironic development, Bloom observes, in view of the steadily leftward movement of literary scholarship in the U.S. over the last twenty years and in view of the persistence of their agendas in much contemporary writing, notably E. L. Doctorow's The Book of Daniel.
Left Letters rescues two writers whose influence and accomplishments have been eclipsed for the past half-century. This valuable book complements efforts to recover "proletarian" authors from the shipwreck of party-line writing.
156 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 1992
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