Writers on the Left - (Morningside Books) by Daniel Aaron (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Writers on the Left provides a chronicle of the involvement of American writers with the critical style and politics of communism. Emphasizing the golden age of American communism, Aaron traces the movement's bohemian origins to its demise in the early 1940s. Aaron creates a perceptive portrait of writers like Max Eastman, Floyd Dell, John Reed, Mike Gold and Joseph Freeman. Aaron also discusses the attractions of communism for more ambivalent but influential fellow travellers such as Edmund Wilson, Malcolm Cowley, Theodore Dreiser, Richard Wright and Langston Hughes.

From the Back Cover

Writers on the Left chronicles the involvement of American writers with the progressive and radical movement from its bohemian origins in 1912 to its disillusionment and demise in the early 1940s. Aaron creates a perceptive and often poignant portrait of writers such as Max Eastman and Floyd Dell, who tried to wed the seemingly conflicting impulses behind the need for uninhibited artistic expression and to abolish the inequalities of class and race.