Corliss Lamont
Encyclopedia
Corliss Lamont was a socialist philosopher, and advocate of various left-wing and civil liberties
causes. As a part of his political activities he was the Chairman of National Council of American-Soviet Friendship starting from early 1940s
. He was the great-uncle of 2006 Democratic Party
nominee for the United States Senate
from Connecticut
, Ned Lamont
.
. His father, Thomas W. Lamont
, was a Partner and later Chairman at J.P. Morgan & Co.
. Lamont graduated as valedictorian
of Phillips Exeter Academy
in 1920, and magna cum laude from Harvard University
in 1924. In 1924 he did graduate work at New College
University of Oxford
while he resided with Julian Huxley
. The next year Lamont matriculated at Columbia University
, where he studied under John Dewey
. In 1928 he became a philosophy instructor at Columbia and married Margaret Hayes Irish. He received his Ph.D. in philosophy in 1932 from Columbia University. Lamont taught at Columbia, Cornell
, Harvard, and the New School for Social Research
. In 1962 he married Helen Elizabeth Boyden.
Lamont served as a director of the American Civil Liberties Union
from 1932–1954, and chairman until his death, of the National Emergency Civil Liberties Committee
, which successfully challenged Senator Joseph McCarthy
's senate subcommittee and other government agencies. In the process Lamont was cited for contempt of Congress
, but in 1956 an appeals court overturned his indictment. From 1951 until 1958, he was denied a passport
by the State Department
.
In 1965 he secured a Supreme Court ruling against censorship of incoming mail by the U.S. Postmaster General. In 1973 he discovered through Freedom of Information Act requests that the FBI had been tapping his phone, and scrutinizing his tax returns and cancelled checks for 30 years. His subsequent successful lawsuit set a precedent in upholding citizens' privacy rights. He also filed and won a suit against the Central Intelligence Agency
for opening his mail.
. He funded the collection and preservation of manuscripts of American philosophers, particularly George Santayana
. He became a substantial donor to both Harvard and Columbia, endowing the latter's Corliss Lamont Professor of Civil Liberties, currently held by Vincent A. Blasi. During the 1960s he and Margaret had divorced, and he married author Helen Boyden, who died of cancer in 1975. Lamont married Beth Keehner in 1986.
Lamont was president emeritus of the American Humanist Association
, and in 1977 was named Humanist of the Year. In 1981, he received the Gandhi Peace Award
. In 1998 Lamont received a posthumous Distinguished Humanist Service Award from the International Humanist and Ethical Union
.
Still an activist at the age of 88, he protested U.S. involvement in the Persian Gulf War
in 1991. He died at home in Ossining, New York
.
and socialist for much of his life. During the 1930s he was openly Marxist. In 1934, Corliss Lamont identified himself to former communist Max Eastman
as a 'Truth Communist', saying according to Eastman, that he "did not accept the policy of political lying to the masses practiced by the official communist parties under Stalin." Later, Eastman would openly challenge Lamont on his avowed loyalties, charging that:
In 1936, Lamont helped found and subsidized the magazine Marxist Quarterly. After the Dewey Commission
exposed the truth behind Joseph Stalin's Soviet Union and the phoney Show Trials
, including the trial in absentia of Leon Trotsky
and executions of prominent Soviet citizens and government officials in Moscow, Lamont, along with other left-wing intellectuals refused to accept their published findings. In 1937, under the influence of the Popular Front
, Lamont and 150 other left-wing writers affirmed Stalin's actions and that "the preservation of progressive democracy" demanded that Stalin's actions be ratified.
Lamont remained sympathetic to the Soviet Union well after World War II and the establishment of satellite Communist governments in Central and Eastern Europe, even authoring a pamphlet entitled The Myth of Soviet Aggression in 1952. In it, he wrote:
Only a year later, in 1953, Lamont penned Why I Am Not a Communist. Despite his allegiance to Marxism, he never joined the Communist Party USA
, and even supported the Korean War
. He ran two losing campaigns for the U.S. Senate from New York, in 1952
on the American Labor
ticket, and again in 1958 on the Independent-Socialist
ticket. Upon Fidel Castro
's victory in Cuba
in 1959, Lamont became an enthusiastic supporter of Castro and his revolutionary government.
and Bertrand Russell
.
Civil liberties
Civil liberties are rights and freedoms that provide an individual specific rights such as the freedom from slavery and forced labour, freedom from torture and death, the right to liberty and security, right to a fair trial, the right to defend one's self, the right to own and bear arms, the right...
causes. As a part of his political activities he was the Chairman of National Council of American-Soviet Friendship starting from early 1940s
1940s
File:1940s decade montage.png|Above title bar: events which happened during World War II : From left to right: Troops in an LCVP landing craft approaching "Omaha" Beach on "D-Day"; Adolf Hitler visits Paris, soon after the Battle of France; The Holocaust occurred during the war as Nazi Germany...
. He was the great-uncle of 2006 Democratic Party
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
nominee for the United States Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
from Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
, Ned Lamont
Ned Lamont
Edward Miner "Ned" Lamont, Jr. is a businessman and heir and most recently an unsuccessful candidate for the 2010 Democratic nomination for Governor of Connecticut. On May 22, 2010, Lamont received more than fifteen percent of the vote at the state Democratic convention, and appeared on the...
.
Early years
Lamont was born in Englewood, New JerseyEnglewood, New Jersey
Englewood is a city located in Bergen County, New Jersey. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 27,147.Englewood was incorporated as a city by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 17, 1899, from portions of Ridgefield Township and the remaining portions of...
. His father, Thomas W. Lamont
Thomas W. Lamont
Thomas William Lamont, Jr. was an American banker.- Biography :Lamont was born in Claverack, New York. He graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy in 1888 and earned his degree from Harvard University in 1892. He became a generous benefactor of the school once he had amassed a fortune, notably...
, was a Partner and later Chairman at J.P. Morgan & Co.
J.P. Morgan & Co.
J.P. Morgan & Co. was a commercial and investment banking institution based in the United States founded by J. Pierpont Morgan and commonly known as the House of Morgan or simply Morgan. Today, J.P...
. Lamont graduated as valedictorian
Valedictorian
Valedictorian is an academic title conferred upon the student who delivers the closing or farewell statement at a graduation ceremony. Usually, the valedictorian is the highest ranked student among those graduating from an educational institution...
of Phillips Exeter Academy
Phillips Exeter Academy
Phillips Exeter Academy is a private secondary school located in Exeter, New Hampshire, in the United States.Exeter is noted for its application of Harkness education, a system based on a conference format of teacher and student interaction, similar to the Socratic method of learning through asking...
in 1920, and magna cum laude from Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
in 1924. In 1924 he did graduate work at New College
New College, Oxford
New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.- Overview :The College's official name, College of St Mary, is the same as that of the older Oriel College; hence, it has been referred to as the "New College of St Mary", and is now almost always...
University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
while he resided with Julian Huxley
Julian Huxley
Sir Julian Sorell Huxley FRS was an English evolutionary biologist, humanist and internationalist. He was a proponent of natural selection, and a leading figure in the mid-twentieth century evolutionary synthesis...
. The next year Lamont matriculated at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, where he studied under John Dewey
John Dewey
John Dewey was an American philosopher, psychologist and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. Dewey was an important early developer of the philosophy of pragmatism and one of the founders of functional psychology...
. In 1928 he became a philosophy instructor at Columbia and married Margaret Hayes Irish. He received his Ph.D. in philosophy in 1932 from Columbia University. Lamont taught at Columbia, Cornell
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
, Harvard, and the New School for Social Research
The New School
The New School is a university in New York City, located mostly in Greenwich Village. From its founding in 1919 by progressive New York academics, and for most of its history, the university was known as the New School for Social Research. Between 1997 and 2005 it was known as New School University...
. In 1962 he married Helen Elizabeth Boyden.
Lamont served as a director of the American Civil Liberties Union
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union is a U.S. non-profit organization whose stated mission is "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States." It works through litigation, legislation, and...
from 1932–1954, and chairman until his death, of the National Emergency Civil Liberties Committee
National Emergency Civil Liberties Committee
The National Emergency Civil Liberties Committee was an organization formed in 1951 to "to reestablish the freedoms guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and The Bill of Rights", and was called the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee until 1968...
, which successfully challenged Senator Joseph McCarthy
Joseph McCarthy
Joseph Raymond "Joe" McCarthy was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957...
's senate subcommittee and other government agencies. In the process Lamont was cited for contempt of Congress
Contempt of Congress
Contempt of Congress is the act of obstructing the work of the United States Congress or one of its committees. Historically the bribery of a senator or representative was considered contempt of Congress...
, but in 1956 an appeals court overturned his indictment. From 1951 until 1958, he was denied a passport
Passport
A passport is a document, issued by a national government, which certifies, for the purpose of international travel, the identity and nationality of its holder. The elements of identity are name, date of birth, sex, and place of birth....
by the State Department
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...
.
In 1965 he secured a Supreme Court ruling against censorship of incoming mail by the U.S. Postmaster General. In 1973 he discovered through Freedom of Information Act requests that the FBI had been tapping his phone, and scrutinizing his tax returns and cancelled checks for 30 years. His subsequent successful lawsuit set a precedent in upholding citizens' privacy rights. He also filed and won a suit against the Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
for opening his mail.
Later life
Following the deaths of his parents, Lamont became a philanthropistPhilanthropist
A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...
. He funded the collection and preservation of manuscripts of American philosophers, particularly George Santayana
George Santayana
George Santayana was a philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist. A lifelong Spanish citizen, Santayana was raised and educated in the United States and identified himself as an American. He wrote in English and is generally considered an American man of letters...
. He became a substantial donor to both Harvard and Columbia, endowing the latter's Corliss Lamont Professor of Civil Liberties, currently held by Vincent A. Blasi. During the 1960s he and Margaret had divorced, and he married author Helen Boyden, who died of cancer in 1975. Lamont married Beth Keehner in 1986.
Lamont was president emeritus of the American Humanist Association
American Humanist Association
The American Humanist Association is an educational organization in the United States that advances Humanism. "Humanism is a progressive philosophy of life that, without theism and other supernatural beliefs, affirms our ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfillment that...
, and in 1977 was named Humanist of the Year. In 1981, he received the Gandhi Peace Award
Gandhi Peace Award
The Gandhi Peace Award is an annual award bestowed by the peace education organization Promoting Enduring Peace for "contributions made in the promotion of international peace and good will." It is named in honour of Mahatma Gandhi.- History :...
. In 1998 Lamont received a posthumous Distinguished Humanist Service Award from the International Humanist and Ethical Union
International Humanist and Ethical Union
The International Humanist and Ethical Union is an umbrella organisation embracing humanist, atheist, rationalist, secular, skeptic, freethought and Ethical Culture organisations worldwide. Founded in Amsterdam in 1952, the IHEU is a democratic union of more than 100 member organizations in 40...
.
Still an activist at the age of 88, he protested U.S. involvement in the Persian Gulf War
Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
in 1991. He died at home in Ossining, New York
Ossining (village), New York
Ossining is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States. The population was 25,060 at the 2010 census. As a village, it is located in the Town of Ossining.-Geography:Ossining borders the eastern shores of the widest part of the Hudson River....
.
Political views
Corliss Lamont's political views were MarxistMarxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
and socialist for much of his life. During the 1930s he was openly Marxist. In 1934, Corliss Lamont identified himself to former communist Max Eastman
Max Eastman
Max Forrester Eastman was an American writer on literature, philosophy and society, a poet, and a prominent political activist. For many years, Eastman was a supporter of socialism, a leading patron of the Harlem Renaissance and an activist for a number of liberal and radical causes...
as a 'Truth Communist', saying according to Eastman, that he "did not accept the policy of political lying to the masses practiced by the official communist parties under Stalin." Later, Eastman would openly challenge Lamont on his avowed loyalties, charging that:
- You continued to run with the Stalinist chiefs. You never exposed their political lies, or said publicly what you said to me in private. For a very long time you played friends with both 'Lie Communists' and 'Truth Communists', and gave your money with one hand to the Stalinists and with the other to independent revolutionary papers…Anybody who plays both sides in quiet times will be found in a crisis on the side of power...
In 1936, Lamont helped found and subsidized the magazine Marxist Quarterly. After the Dewey Commission
Dewey Commission
The Dewey Commission was initiated in March 1937 by the "American Committee for the Defense of Leon Trotsky." It was named after its Chairman, John Dewey...
exposed the truth behind Joseph Stalin's Soviet Union and the phoney Show Trials
Moscow Trials
The Moscow Trials were a series of show trials conducted in the Soviet Union and orchestrated by Joseph Stalin during the Great Purge of the 1930s. The victims included most of the surviving Old Bolsheviks, as well as the leadership of the Soviet secret police...
, including the trial in absentia of Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....
and executions of prominent Soviet citizens and government officials in Moscow, Lamont, along with other left-wing intellectuals refused to accept their published findings. In 1937, under the influence of the Popular Front
Popular front
A popular front is a broad coalition of different political groupings, often made up of leftists and centrists. Being very broad, they can sometimes include centrist and liberal forces as well as socialist and communist groups...
, Lamont and 150 other left-wing writers affirmed Stalin's actions and that "the preservation of progressive democracy" demanded that Stalin's actions be ratified.
Lamont remained sympathetic to the Soviet Union well after World War II and the establishment of satellite Communist governments in Central and Eastern Europe, even authoring a pamphlet entitled The Myth of Soviet Aggression in 1952. In it, he wrote:
- The fact is, of course, that both the Truman and Eisenhower Administrations, in order to push their enormous armaments programs through Congress and to justify the continuation of the Cold War, have felt compelled to resort to the device of keeping the American people in a state of alarm over some alleged menace of Soviet or Communist origin.
Only a year later, in 1953, Lamont penned Why I Am Not a Communist. Despite his allegiance to Marxism, he never joined the Communist Party USA
Communist Party USA
The Communist Party USA is a Marxist political party in the United States, established in 1919. It has a long, complex history that is closely related to the histories of similar communist parties worldwide and the U.S. labor movement....
, and even supported the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
. He ran two losing campaigns for the U.S. Senate from New York, in 1952
New York state election, 1952
The 1952 New York state election was held on November 4, 1952, to elect a U.S. Senator, as well as all members of the New York State Assembly and the New York State Senate.-Nominations:...
on the American Labor
American Labor Party
The American Labor Party was a political party in the United States established in 1936 which was active almost exclusively in the state of New York. The organization was founded by labor leaders and former members of the Socialist Party who had established themselves as the Social Democratic...
ticket, and again in 1958 on the Independent-Socialist
Independent-Socialist
The Independent-Socialist ticket appeared on the ballot in the 1958 New York state election. Led by the candidacy of John T. McManus, one of the founders of the leftist National Guardian newspaper, for Governor of New York, the line hoped to retain the support of the former American Labor Party...
ticket. Upon Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
's victory in Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
in 1959, Lamont became an enthusiastic supporter of Castro and his revolutionary government.
Publications by Lamont
Lamont was a prolific author. He wrote sixteen books, dozens of pamphlets, and thousands of letters to newspapers on significant social issues during his life-long campaign for peace and civil rights. In 1935 he published The Illusion of Immortality, which was a revised version of his Ph.D. dissertation. His most famous work is the 1949 book, The Philosophy of Humanism, now in its eighth edition. He also published intimate portraits of John DeweyJohn Dewey
John Dewey was an American philosopher, psychologist and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. Dewey was an important early developer of the philosophy of pragmatism and one of the founders of functional psychology...
and Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic. At various points in his life he considered himself a liberal, a socialist, and a pacifist, but he also admitted that he had never been any of these things...
.
- Illusion of Immortality, introduction by John Dewey, (1935), 5th edition 1990, Continuum Intl Pub Group, ISBN 0-8044-6377-8
- The Philosophy of Humanism, (1949), 1965 edition: Ungar Pub Co ISBN 0-8044-5595-3, 7th rev. edition 1990: Continuum Intl Pub Group, ISBN 0-8044-6379-4, 8th rev. edition (with gender neutral references by editors Beverley Earles and Beth K. Lamont) 1997 Humanist Press ISBN 0-931779-07-3
- Online version of The Philosophy of Humanism (8th edition) in Adobe AcrobatAdobe AcrobatAdobe Acrobat is a family of application software developed by Adobe Systems to view, create, manipulate, print and manage files in Portable Document Format . All members of the family, except Adobe Reader , are commercial software, while the latter is available as freeware and can be downloaded...
PDF format.
- Online version of The Philosophy of Humanism (8th edition) in Adobe Acrobat
- The Myth of Soviet Aggression Lamont, Corliss (1952)
- Freedom Is As Freedom Does: Civil Liberties in America, forward by Bertrand Russell, (orig. pub. 1956), reprint ed. 1990, Continuum Intl Pub Group, ISBN 0-8264-0475-8
- Lover's Credo: Poems of Love, (1972), 1983 edition: ISBN 0-87233-068-0, 1994: William L. Bauhan, ISBN 0-87233-114-8
- Online version of Lover's Credo: Poems of Love (1994 edition) in HTMLHTMLHyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....
format.
- Online version of Lover's Credo: Poems of Love (1994 edition) in HTML
- Voice in the Wilderness: Collected Essays of Corliss Lamont, 1979 Prometheus Books, ISBN 0-87975-060-X
- Yes to Life: Memoirs of Corliss Lamont, 1981 Horizon Press: ISBN 0-8180-0232-8, rev. edition 1991: ISBN 0-8264-0477-4
- A Lifetime of Dissent, (1988), New York: Prometheus Books ISBN 0-87975-463-X
External links
- Corliss Lamont Website sponsored by the Half-Moon Foundation (a non-profit created to promote educational and informational activities consistent with the vision of founder Corliss Lamont, now run by his widow, Beth Keehner Lamont)
- photo collection