Daniel Aaron's chapter on Dos Passos, footnote 12

12. The quotation ending "emerging today" is by Alan Calmer in *NR*, LXXI (July 20, 1932), p. 264. Commenting on Hart Crane's death, Calmer remarked that had Crane been born a decade later, he might have been saved by Communism. Dos Passos's advice to middle-class liberals is in his article "Back to Red Hysteria!" *NR*, LXIII (July 2, 1930), p. 169. See also his "Wanted: An Ivy Lee for Liberals," NR, LXIII (Aug. 13, 1930), pp. 371-72, and his "Intellectuals in America," *NM, VI (Aug. 1930), p. 8, with a reply by Robert Evans (Joseph Freeman), pp. 8-9. The theme running through an these articles was the importance of attracting the ideologically salvageable elements of the middle class for the revolution. Dos Passos, with his Veblenian bent, felt they could be found among "the engineers, scientists, independent manual craftsmen writers, artists, actors, technicians of one sort or another." Freeman acknowledged that such people under "the pressure of economic depression" might swing to the working class, but the writer himself must not waste his time by "seeking impossible middUe roads." He must use his talents to paint the horrors of capitalism. For evidence of Soviet interest in Dos Passos's work, see issues of *International Literature*, especially between 1932 and 1934. Two writers ask him in an open letter to come out in the press against imperialism (Nos. 2 and 3, 1932, p. 109). A report of an organized discussion of his work held in Moscow in the spring of 1933 contains friendly criticisms and high praise: "What's good in Dos Passos? That he is seeking. That he is active and hates the old world. That he has experienced in his own skin the meaning of peace and war (capitalistic). That he is broad. That he is candid. That he is simple (*cries of*—'Yes! yes!')" (No. 5, 1933-1934, p. 108). A review of two Soviet productions of Fortune Heights (running simultaneously in Moscow) by David Mirsky (No. 3, 1934, pp. 152-54).

AARON CHAPTER | PREVIOUS NOTE | NEXT NOTE

50s HOME | READING LIST | NEWS | FILREIS HOME

Document URL: http://www.english.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/aaronfn12.html
Last modified: Thursday, 31-May-2007 09:42:54 EDT