Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T23:07:38.117Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Edmund Wilson and The Modern Monthly, 1934–5: a Phase in Wilson's Radicalism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 January 2009

Haim Genizi
Haim Genizi
Affiliation:
Bar-Ilan University, Israel
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Edmund Wilson (1895–1972) was one of America's most distinguished critics. As an international man of letters, he did not confine himself to literature alone, but also investigated main areas of human thought. He fluently pursued learning in seven languages, making it alive for American intellectual readers. He was indeed a ‘ superlative interpreter ’, as Alfred Kazin pointed out. Due to Wilson's wide horizons and perspectives, his works included such diverse areas as literature, politics, language, history and travel. During the 1930s he was mainly interested in political and industrial reporting, as well as studying Marxism, partly neglecting literary criticism. His activities of that decade were not only the outcome of an intellectual curiosity, but a personal need as well, that strongly influenced his political outlook. The growing concern for social justice and for the suffering of the lower classes was the dominant force in Wilson's thought during the thirties. One of the stages in his gradual radicalization was his association in 1934–5 with The Modern Monthly, an anti-Marxist journal. What led the prominent critic, the literary editor of the prestigious New Republic, to join the editorial board of the Monthly, a little magazine with a small circulation? What was Wilson's contribution to the magazine's political approach? Why did he resign after a fourteen-month editorship? How did his association with the editors V. F. Calverton and Max Eastman — who had been denounced by the Communist Party as ‘ social fascists ’ and Trotskyists — influence Wilson's political standing with the Communists? These questions deserve close examination.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of American Studies , Volume 7 , Issue 3 , December 1973 , pp. 301 - 319
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1973

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Kazin, Alfred, On Native Grounds (New York: Doubleday Anchor Books, 1956), p. 346Google Scholar.

2 Until 1933 it had been The Modern Quarterly and 1938 it was to revert to that title.

3 Cowley, Malcolm, ‘ The 1930's Were an Age of Faith ’, The Book Review Section of The New York Times, 13 12 1964Google Scholar.

4 See Adamic, Louis, My America, 1928—1938 (New York and London: Harper and Brothers, 1938), p. 91;Google ScholarCowley, , Think Back On Us : A Contemporary Chronicle of the 1930's, edited with Introduction by Piper, Henry Dan (London: Teffer and Simons, 1966), p. 387Google Scholar.

5 Hicks, Granville, ‘ Communism and American Intellectuals ’, in Whose Revolution? A Study of the Future Cause of Liberalism in the United States, ed. by De Witt Talmadge, Irving (New York: Howell, Soskin, 1941), pp. 85–9;Google ScholarAaron, Daniel, Writers on the Left (New York, An Avon Library Book, 1965), pp. 167–9Google Scholar.

6 Calverton, V. F., ‘ Leftward Ho ’, The Modern Quarterly, 6 (Summer, 1932), 27Google Scholar. The Quarterly hereinafter cited as MQ.

7 Wilson, , ‘ The Case of the Author ’, The American Jitters : A Year of Slump (New York and London: Scribner's, 1932), pp. 297—313Google Scholar. Quoted from Aaron, , Writers on the Left, p. 212Google Scholar.

8 See Wilson, , ‘ A Preface to Persius ’, The New Republic, 52 (19 10 1927), 237–9;Google ScholarWilson, , ‘ The Men from Rumpelmayer ’, in The American Earthquake : A Documentary of the Twenties and the Thirties (New York: Anchor Books, 1958), pp. 152–60Google Scholar. (The New Republic hereinafter cited as NR.)

9 Wilson, , ‘ American Heroes ’, NR, 54 (4 04 1928), 226Google Scholar.

10 Lewis Mumford to V. F. Calverton, 8 May 1929, Calverton Papers (The New York Public Library). The Papers hereinafter are cited as VFC.

11 ‘ How I Came to Communism ’, The New Masses, 8 (09 1932), 8Google Scholar.

12 Wilson, , ‘ An Appeal to Progressives ’, in The Shores of Light : A Literary Chronicle of the Twenties and Thirties (New York: Vintage Books, 1952), p. 522Google Scholar. (The article originally appeared in the NR on 14 June, 1931.)

13 Ibid., pp. 518, 521, 525–6, 532–3.

14 Josephson, Matthew, ‘ The Road of Indignation ’, NR, 66 (18 02 1931), 14Google Scholar.

15 Wilson, , ‘ What Do the Liberals Hope For? ’ NR, 69 (10 02 1932), 348Google Scholar. Steffens admitted that the liberals failed to grasp the situation and the revolution had been carried out by a dictator and not by liberal methods. He went so far as to accept Soviet Russia without reservations because ‘ that is the only movement I see that is moving in a hopeful direction here ’. Steffens, , ‘ Bankrupt Liberalism ’, NR, 70 (17 02 1932), 16Google Scholar.

16 Wilson, , ‘ Foster and Fish ’, in American Earthquake, p. 194nGoogle Scholar. See also Cantwell, Robert, ‘ Wilson as Journalist ’, The Nation, 186 (22 02 1958), 171Google Scholar.

17 Wilson's disgust at the Communists' tactics is seen in his articles, ‘ Frank Keeney's Coal Diggers ’, American Earthquake, p. 321Google Scholar; ‘ The Scottboro Freight-Car Case ’, ibid., pp. 340, 347.

18 ‘ I learned later that this committee had been inspired and directed by the Communists. I had not yet seen enough of them to recognize their hand in the framing of the depositors' demands ’, recalled Wilson, . ‘ The Bank of the United States ’, in American Earthquake, p. 204Google Scholar.

19 Aaron, , Writers on the Left, p. 199Google Scholar.

20 Ibid., p. 213. Among the signatories were Sherwood Anderson, Newton Arvin, Lewis Corey, Malcolm Cowley, Countee Cullen, H. W. L. Dana, John Dos Passos, Waldo Frank, Sidney Hook, Granville Hicks, Edwin Seaver and Lincoln Steffens.

21 Cited in Cowley, , Thinly Back on Us, p. 116Google Scholar.

22 See Fadiman, Clifton's review of Wilson's American Jitters in MQ, 7 (Summer, 1932), 113Google Scholar.

23 Howe, Irving, ‘ Edmund Wilson: A Reexamination ’, The Nation, 167 (16 10 1948), 430Google Scholar; Richard Chase, ‘ Wilson as Critic ’, ibid., 186 (22 February 1958), 164.

24 Wilson, , ‘ Equity for Americans ’, NR, 70 (30 03 1932), 186Google Scholar.

25 Josephson, , ‘ The Road of Indignation ’, NR, 66 (18 02 1931), 15Google Scholar.

26 Wilson to Calverton, 19 April 1932 (VFC).

27 Calverton, , ‘ Backward March: Liberal Command ’, The Modern Monthly, 7 (02 1933), 28–9Google Scholar; Editorial, ‘ In Defense of the Democratic Tradition ’, ibid. (March 1933), 69–70. The Monthly hereinafter cited as MM. See also Calverton, , For Revolution (New York: John Day, 1932), passimGoogle Scholar.

28 Singer, Herman, ‘ The Modern Quarterly : 1923–1940 ’, MQ, 11 (Fall, 1940), 13Google Scholar.

29 Elistratova, A., ‘ New Masses ’, International Literature, 1 (1932), 107, 114Google Scholar; Ramsey, David and Calmer, Alan, ‘ The Marxism of V. F. Calverton ’, The New Masses, 8 (01 1933), 9–27Google Scholar.

30 Calverton to Joseph Shipley, 17 November 1934 (VFC).

31 Eastman, Max, ‘ Artists in Uniform ’, MM, 7 (08 1933), 397–404Google Scholar; Eastman, ibid. (November 1933), 623—31; Harrison to Calverton, 19 January 1933 (VFC); Harrison, , ‘ An Excommunicant Replies ’, MM, 7 (06 1933), 313Google Scholar.

32 Lamont to Calverton, 6 January 1934; Hallgren to Calverton, 17 July 1934 (VFC).

33 Editorial, MM, 7 (01 1934), 707Google Scholar.

34 Blankfort to Calverton, n.d.; Hicks to Calverton, 8 January 1933; Arvin to Calverton, 15 September 1933; Crichton to Calverton, 28 February 1933; Siegmeister to Calverton, 12, 20 November 1933; Sheel to Calverton, 12 March 1934; Briffault to Calverton, 7 April 1933; Davis to Calverton, 4 April 1933; Seaver to Calverton, 17 February 1933 (VFC). See also Gold, Michael's ‘ confession ’ in the Daily Worker, 6 11 1933Google Scholar.

35 Mauritz Hallgren had been also invited, but he refused to join the magazine. Hallgren to Calverton, 24 September 1933; Calverton to Eastman, 18 November 1933 (VFC). Thus, the editorial board of March 1934 included, in addition to Calverton, Wilson and Eastman, the remnants of the old staff, Ernst Sutherland Bates, Sterling Spero and Nina Melville. Diego Rivera, the radical artist, became the magazine's art editor in June 1933 (Rivera to Calverton, 31 May 1933 (VFC)).

36 Calverton to A. J. Muste, 28 October 1933 (VFC).

37 Wilson to Calverton, 19 April 1932 (VFC).

38 Eastman to Calverton, 23 May 1933 (VFC).

39 Eastman, , Love and Revolution : My Journey Through an Epoch (New York: Random House, 1964), p. 611Google Scholar.

40 Wilson to Eastman, 4 November 1933 (VFC).

41 ‘ Statement of Policy of the Modern Monthly ’ (VFC). One may wonder whether a party of such a native character could be defined as Marxist.

42 Eastman to Wilson, 18 October 1933; Wilson to Eastman, 4 November 1933 (VFC).

43 Calverton to Eastman, 18 November 1933 (VFC). Since Wilson and Eastman joined the magazine, officially, only in May 1934, Calverton was free, meanwhile, of Wilson's censor-ship and ran an editorial in the October issue, that was very similar in its contents and even in its phrases to the ‘ Statement ’. Editorial, MM, 7 (10 1933), 518Google Scholar.

44 ‘ Statement of Policy ’ (VFC); Editorial, MM, 7 (10 1933), 518Google Scholar.

45 Calverton to Muste, 28 October 1933: Louis Budenz to Calverton, 29 January 1934; Muste to Calverton, 29 January 1934 (VFC). On Calverton's role in the development of the AWP, see Genizi, Haim, ‘ V. F. Calverton and Americanization of Marxism ’, Criticism and Interpretation, 1 (03 1970), 71–9 (Hebrew)Google Scholar. A good statement of the AWP policy is in Muste, , ‘ An American Revolutionary Party ’, MM, 7 (01 1934), 713–19Google Scholar.

46 Calverton to Muste, 28 October 1933 (VFC).

47 Cowley, , Thinly Back on Us, p. 120Google Scholar.

48 Gold's criticism was mentioned in Muste to Calverton, 1 March 1934 (VFC).

49 Wilson to Calverton, 12 March 1934 (VFC).

50 Minutes of the Provisional Organizing Committee, ‘ Statement on Relation Between the AWP and the Modern Monthly ’, 8 March 1934 (VFC).

51 Spero to Calverton, 14 June 1934 (VFC).

52 Calverton to Bates, 23 June 1934; Calverton to Spero, 23 June 1934 (VFC).

53 Eastman to Calverton, 26 June 1934 (VFC).

54 Wilson to Calverton, 29 June 1934 (VFC).

55 See the MM, 7, 8, 9 (1933–1935)Google Scholar.

56 Beginning in June 1934 this paragraph appeared on the front page of every issue of the magazine.

57 Editorials, MM, 7 (01 1934), 707Google Scholar; 8 (January 1935), 649; 9 (April 1935), 69.

58 Wilson, , American Jitters, pp. 310–11Google Scholar.

59 ‘ I like [it] very much and … I think [it] is essentially sound ’, wrote Calverton to Eastman, referring to an editorial that Eastman had prepared. ‘ My only fears are that Bunny Wilson may not like it…. Of course while it is signed by you he is in no sense responsible for it. ’ Calverton to Eastman, 28 July 1934 (VFC). Nevertheless, Eastman's editorial never saw light in the pages of the Monthly.

60 Eastman to Calverton, 26 June 1934 (VFC).

61 Wilson, 's introduction to Malraux's Conquerors, MM, 8 (03 1934), 69–70Google Scholar; Wilson, ‘ Beppoand Beth ’, ibid. (May 1934), 217–24, 231; Wilson, ‘ The Zero Hour in Washington ’, ibid. (July 1934), 327–36.

62 Wilson to Calverton, 19 March 1934 (VFC).

63 Eastman to Calverton, 26 June 1934; Wilson to Calverton, 2 June, 16 July 1934, 25 February 1935; Hook to Calverton, 23 April 1934; Humphries to Calverton, 15 September 1934 (VFC); interview with Eastman, 10 April 1967.

64 Calverton to Eastman, 28 July 1934 (VFC).

65 Once he was shocked to see his ‘ old friend Mike Gold depicted in a chamber pot ’, in a drawing by John Sloan. He suggested taking his name off the list of editors, ‘ so that I won't be made editorially responsible for anything else of the kind that occurs ’; Wilson to Calverton, 2 June 1934 (VFC).

66 ‘ No reputable magazine does this ’. Wilson to Calverton, 16 July 1934; Eastman to Calverton, 26 June, 25 September 1934 (VFC).

67 Eastman to Calverton, 26 June 1934 (VFC).

68 Calverton to Eastman, n.d. (September 1934) (VFC).

69 Calverton to Eastman, n.d. (June 1934); 30 July; 29 September 1934 (VFC).

70 See Calverton's remarks on Wilson's letter to Calverton, 2 June 1934 (VFC).

71 Wilson to Calverton, 25 February 1935; Eastman to Calverton, 4 March 1935 (VFC).

72 The issue of April 1935 was the last one where Wilson and Eastman appeared as editors.

73 Wilson's remark on his letter of resignation that he is more a Marxist than Eastman, Bates and Hook, with whom he disagreed, could be a hint in that direction. A memorandum referring to Wilson's resignation, n.d. (VFC).

74 Wilson never fulfilled his promise to send some contributions after his resignation. On the contrary, he even refused to provide a review for the special issue of the Modern Quarterly which was the Calverton Memorial Issue. Wilson to Calverton. 25 February 1955; Nina Melville to Wilson, 3 January 1941; Wilson to Melville, 10 January 1941 (VFC).

75 Wilson to Eastman, 4 November 1933 (VFC).

76 Calverton to Carter, 14 April 1934 (VFC).

77 Wilson, , The Shores of Light, p. 616Google Scholar.

78 One of Wilson's resignations was because of an attack on Gold. Wilson to Calverton, 2 June 1934. When an editorial attacked Freeman [MM, 8 (05 1934), 197Google Scholar], Wilson strongly protested. Wilson to Calverton, 3 May 1934 (VFC).

79 See Wilson to Eastman, 4 November 1933 (VFC).

80 Stork, A., ‘ Mr. Calverton and His Friends ’, International Literature, 3 (1934), 97–124Google Scholar.

81 Wilson, , Shores of Light, pp. 610–11Google Scholar.

82 Wilson, , ‘ Letter to the Russians About Hemingway ’, Internatsionalnaya Literalura, 2 (1936)Google Scholar, in The Shores of Light, pp. 618–25Google Scholar. The quotations are from pp. 625–6.

83 Wilson's reports on his Soviet tour first appeared in a series of articles in the New Republic between March and May 1936. The quotations are from the last article, ‘ Russian Paradoxes ’, NR, 87 (13 05 1936), 12–13Google Scholar.

84 Ibid., p. 13.

85 Cowley's review of Wilson's Travels in Two Democracies, in Thinly Back on Us, p. 116.

86 His admiration of the Communist regime in Russia, that he so colourfully described in Travels in Two Democracies, soon faded and he became growingly critical of Stalin's political and intellectual dictatorship. ‘ Stalin's violent methods of silencing ’ his political enemies led to the extinction of ‘ the last sparks of intellectual light ’ in Communist circles. Wilson was convinced, therefore, in 1937, that it was ‘ pretty difficult to hope that any intellectual health will ever come out of Stalinist Communism ’; (Wilson, , ‘ The Literary Left ’, NR, 89 (20 01 1937), 345–6Google Scholar). The Moscow trials of 1936–8, the assassination of Kirov and the condemnation of Radek, Zinoviev and Kamenev, of which ‘ a good deal must certainly be false ’ (ibid., p. 345), led him to disillusionment with the Communist dream. He strongly criticized Cowley's support of those trials. (See Wilson to Cowley, 20 October 1938, in Aaron, , Writers on the Left, p. 349Google Scholar.) In the light of the Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939, Wilson disapproved not only of Soviet Russia but of the Marxist idea as well. In 1940 he considered Marxism not as a key to the events, but only a ‘ technique of analyzing political phenomena in social terms ’. As far as Marxism was concerned, Wilson was convinced that ‘ an era in its history has ended ’ (Wilson, , ‘ Marxism at the End of the Thirties ’, Shores of Light, pp. 742, 732Google Scholar).