Joseph Freeman (writer)
Encyclopedia
Joseph "Joe" Freeman was an American writer and magazine
editor. He is best remembered as a contributor and editor to The New Masses
, a literary and artistic magazine closely associated with the Communist Party USA
, and as a founding editor of the magazine Partisan Review
.
in the Ukraine
, which was then part of the Russian empire
. Freeman's parents, Stella and Isaac Freeman, were of ethnic Jewish extraction, forced to live in the Pale of Settlement
by the anti-semitic laws of the Tsarist regime. At the behest of his grandfather, Freeman spoke Yiddish as a small boy. His parents worked as shopkeepers.
In his memoirs, Freeman recalled a traumatic boyhood incident which had followed shortly after a pogrom
of the Jewish population of a neighboring town:
Along with hundreds of thousands of others fleeing ethnic violence in Russia, the Freemans emigrated to the United States in 1904. Joseph was naturalized as a US citizen in 1920. In the new world, the Freemans managed to achieve a middle class existence in Brooklyn, New York, with Isaac Freeman earning a living in America as a real estate
dealer.
Freeman joined the Socialist Party of America
in 1914, when he was 17 years old. He worked as a telegraph clerk, a waiter, and a retail clerk during his college years.
Freeman attended Columbia University
in New York City
, from which he graduated with a Bachelor's degree
in 1919.
entitled Illustrated History of the World War. He also worked on the editorial staff of Women's Wear
in 1919 and 1920.
Freeman went abroad in 1920 to take a position on the staff of the Paris
edition of the Chicago Tribune
, later moving to London
to work for the paper from that location.
In 1922 Freeman returned to New York City, where he shortly took a position on the staff of Garment News, the New York-based publication of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers Union. He became a member of editorial staff of the left wing artistic magazine The Liberator
in 1922 and became Associate Editor of that publication in 1923.
Freeman became a member of the Workers Party of America
, forerunner of the Communist Party USA
during this interval. He was subsequently active in various mass organizations of the party, including the American Committee for Protection of Foreign Born and the All-America Anti-Imperialist League.
In 1924, Freeman became the publicity director of the American Civil Liberties Union
(ACLU).
Freeman was a founding editor of the magazine Partisan Review
in 1934, a publication which touted itself as "A Bi-Monthly of Revolutionary Literature Published by the John Reed Club of New York." The magazine was launched with the understanding that it would concentrate primarily on literary and cultural themes, thereby leaving The New Masses to pursue a heavier portion of political themes.
In 1936, Freeman published his memoirs, An American Testament: A Narrative of Rebels and Romantics. He left the Communist movement at about that time, working as a freelance writer for such publications as The Nation
, Fortune
, and Life
.
In 1940, Freeman returned to the ACLU for a second stint as its publicity director, working in that capacity until 1942. He then moved into radio
, working on the editorial staff of a news program called "Information Please."
From 1948 until 1961, Freeman worked in the private sector in the field of public relations
, employed by the firms of Edward L. Bernays and Executive Research, Inc.
. They divorced in 1931. Freeman married American journalist, abstract painter, and art critic, Charmion von Wiegand
, in 1932 or 1934, in New York.
Freeman's papers, consisting of 4 linear feet of material, are housed in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library of Columbia University in New York City. Master negative microfilm of The New Masses, the magazine with which Freeman was most closely associated, is held by New York Public Library
.
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
editor. He is best remembered as a contributor and editor to The New Masses
The New Masses
The "New Masses" was a prominent American Marxist publication edited by Walt Carmon, briefly by Whittaker Chambers, and primarily by Michael Gold, Granville Hicks, and Joseph Freeman....
, a literary and artistic magazine closely associated with 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 as a founding editor of the magazine Partisan Review
Partisan Review
Partisan Review was an American political and literary quarterly published from 1934 to 2003, though it suspended publication between October 1936 and December 1937.-Overview:...
.
Early years
Joseph Freeman was born October 7, 1897 in the village of Piratin, part of the Poltava districtPoltava Oblast
Poltava Oblast is an oblast of central Ukraine. The administrative center of the oblast is the city of Poltava.Other important cities within the oblast include: Komsomolsk, Kremenchuk, Lubny and Myrhorod.-Geography:...
in the Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
, which was then part of the Russian empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
. Freeman's parents, Stella and Isaac Freeman, were of ethnic Jewish extraction, forced to live in the Pale of Settlement
Pale of Settlement
The Pale of Settlement was the term given to a region of Imperial Russia, in which permanent residency by Jews was allowed, and beyond which Jewish permanent residency was generally prohibited...
by the anti-semitic laws of the Tsarist regime. At the behest of his grandfather, Freeman spoke Yiddish as a small boy. His parents worked as shopkeepers.
In his memoirs, Freeman recalled a traumatic boyhood incident which had followed shortly after a pogrom
Pogrom
A pogrom is a form of violent riot, a mob attack directed against a minority group, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes and properties, businesses, and religious centres...
of the Jewish population of a neighboring town:
"Less than a week later a bearded peasantPeasantA peasant is an agricultural worker who generally tend to be poor and homeless-Etymology:The word is derived from 15th century French païsant meaning one from the pays, or countryside, ultimately from the Latin pagus, or outlying administrative district.- Position in society :Peasants typically...
came into my mother's store drunk. He asked for tobacco in a voice that frightened me, and my mother handed him a package.
'I'm not going to pay you,' he said. 'You filthy Jews get too much money.'
'Then you can't have the tobacco.'
The peasant took a clasp knife from his pocket. He opened the long blade and brandished it at my mother.
'I'll kill you,' he growled. Then he walked over to me and brandished the knife over my head. 'We'll have a nice little pogrom. We'll kill all the goddam Jews in this goddam town.'
I was terrified and clung to my mother's skirt. She held me tightly to her and I saw the tears run down her cheeks. The door creaked. I saw it open. Our clerk came in. He seized the drunk by the collar and threw him into the street. The man rolled head down into the sewer-ditch. A policeman came running, dragged the peasant to his feet and lugged him into a carriage.... I felt sorry for the peasant, and felt guilty because I felt sorry."
Along with hundreds of thousands of others fleeing ethnic violence in Russia, the Freemans emigrated to the United States in 1904. Joseph was naturalized as a US citizen in 1920. In the new world, the Freemans managed to achieve a middle class existence in Brooklyn, New York, with Isaac Freeman earning a living in America as a real estate
Real estate
In general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...
dealer.
Freeman joined the Socialist Party of America
Socialist Party of America
The Socialist Party of America was a multi-tendency democratic-socialist political party in the United States, formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party which had split from the main organization...
in 1914, when he was 17 years old. He worked as a telegraph clerk, a waiter, and a retail clerk during his college years.
Freeman attended 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...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, from which he graduated with a Bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
in 1919.
Career
Following graduation from Columbia, Freeman went to work on the editorial staff of a book project initiated by Harper's magazineHarper's Magazine
Harper's Magazine is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts, with a generally left-wing perspective. It is the second-oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. . The current editor is Ellen Rosenbush, who replaced Roger Hodge in January 2010...
entitled Illustrated History of the World War. He also worked on the editorial staff of Women's Wear
Women's Wear Daily
Women's Wear Daily is a fashion-industry trade journal sometimes called "the bible of fashion." WWD delivers information and intelligence on changing trends and breaking news in the fashion, beauty and retail industries with a readership composed largely of retailers, designers, manufacturers,...
in 1919 and 1920.
Freeman went abroad in 1920 to take a position on the staff of the Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
edition of the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
, later moving to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
to work for the paper from that location.
In 1922 Freeman returned to New York City, where he shortly took a position on the staff of Garment News, the New York-based publication of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers Union. He became a member of editorial staff of the left wing artistic magazine The Liberator
The Liberator (magazine)
The Liberator was a monthly socialist magazine established by Max Eastman and his sister Crystal Eastman in 1918 to continue the work of The Masses, which was shut down by the wartime mailing regulations of the U.S. government. Intensely political, the magazine included copious quantities of art,...
in 1922 and became Associate Editor of that publication in 1923.
Freeman became a member of the Workers Party of America
Workers Party of America
The Workers Party of America was the name of the legal party organization used by the Communist Party USA from the last days of 1921 until the middle of 1929. As a legal political party the Workers Party accepted affiliation from independent socialist groups such as the African Blood Brotherhood,...
, forerunner of 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....
during this interval. He was subsequently active in various mass organizations of the party, including the American Committee for Protection of Foreign Born and the All-America Anti-Imperialist League.
In 1924, Freeman became the publicity 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...
(ACLU).
Freeman was a founding editor of the magazine Partisan Review
Partisan Review
Partisan Review was an American political and literary quarterly published from 1934 to 2003, though it suspended publication between October 1936 and December 1937.-Overview:...
in 1934, a publication which touted itself as "A Bi-Monthly of Revolutionary Literature Published by the John Reed Club of New York." The magazine was launched with the understanding that it would concentrate primarily on literary and cultural themes, thereby leaving The New Masses to pursue a heavier portion of political themes.
In 1936, Freeman published his memoirs, An American Testament: A Narrative of Rebels and Romantics. He left the Communist movement at about that time, working as a freelance writer for such publications as The Nation
The Nation
The Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...
, Fortune
Fortune (magazine)
Fortune is a global business magazine published by Time Inc. Founded by Henry Luce in 1930, the publishing business, consisting of Time, Life, Fortune, and Sports Illustrated, grew to become Time Warner. In turn, AOL grew as it acquired Time Warner in 2000 when Time Warner was the world's largest...
, and Life
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
.
In 1940, Freeman returned to the ACLU for a second stint as its publicity director, working in that capacity until 1942. He then moved into radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
, working on the editorial staff of a news program called "Information Please."
From 1948 until 1961, Freeman worked in the private sector in the field of public relations
Public relations
Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....
, employed by the firms of Edward L. Bernays and Executive Research, Inc.
Personal life
In 1929, while working for TASS in Mexico, Freeman met and married Ione Robinson, an American painter who modeled for and studied under Diego RiveraDiego Rivera
Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez was a prominent Mexican painter born in Guanajuato, Guanajuato, an active communist, and husband of Frida Kahlo . His large wall works in fresco helped establish the Mexican Mural Movement in...
. They divorced in 1931. Freeman married American journalist, abstract painter, and art critic, Charmion von Wiegand
Charmion Von Wiegand
Charmion von Wiegand was an American journalist, abstract painter, and art critic. She was the daughter of Inez Royce and Karl Henry von Wiegand, the German-born journalist....
, in 1932 or 1934, in New York.
Death and legacy
Joseph Freeman died in August 1965. He was 67 years old at the time of his death.Freeman's papers, consisting of 4 linear feet of material, are housed in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library of Columbia University in New York City. Master negative microfilm of The New Masses, the magazine with which Freeman was most closely associated, is held by New York Public Library
New York Public Library
The New York Public Library is the largest public library in North America and is one of the United States' most significant research libraries...
.
Works
- Dollar Diplomacy: A Study in American Imperialism. Co-author with Scott NearingScott NearingScott Nearing was an American radical economist, educator, writer, political activist, and advocate of simple living.-The early years:...
. New York: Vanguard Press, 1925. - Voices of October: Art and Literature in Soviet Russia. Co-editor, with Joshua Kunitz and Louis Lozowick. New York: Vanguard Press, 1930.
- The Soviet Worker: An Account of the Economic, Social and Cultural Status of Labor in the USSR. New York: International Publishers, 1932.
- The Background of German Fascism. New York: [International Publishers?], n.d. [c. 1932].
- Proletarian Literature in the United States: An Anthology. Co-editor with Granville Hicks. New York: International Publishers, 1936.
- An American Testament: A Narrative of Rebels and Romantics. New York: Farrar and Rinehart, 1936.
- Never Call Retreat. New York: Farrar and Rinehart, 1943.
- The Long Pursuit. New York: Farrar and Rinehart, 1947.
Criticism
Criticism- Bloom, James. Left Letters: The Culture Wars of Mike Gold and Joseph Freeman (Columbia University Press, 1992)
External links
- Finding Aid for the Joseph Freeman Papers, Butler Library, Columbia University, New York. Retrieved July 19, 2010.