Joseph P. Lash
Encyclopedia
Joseph P. Lash was an American radical political activist, journalist, and author. A close friend of Eleanor Roosevelt
, Lash won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography and the National Book Award
in 1972 for Eleanor and Franklin, the first of two volumes he wrote about the former First Lady
.
. Joseph was the eldest of three sons and two daughters of the couple.
He received his Bachelor's degree
from City College of New York
in 1931 and a Master's degree
from Columbia University
in New York City in 1932.
(SPA), in which he remained a member until his resignation in 1937.
Following his graduation in 1932, Lash went to work for the League for Industrial Democracy
(LID), an independent socialist
organization closely tied to the SPA. He remained as the head of the Student League for Industrial Democracy
(SLID) and editor of its publication, Student Outlook, from 1933 until 1935. At that time became the Executive Secretary of the American Student Union
, a popular front
organization which brought together members of the youth organizations of the rival Socialist and Communist
parties. Lash served in this capacity until 1939.
About 1937, Lash went to Spain, then in the midst of a civil war
between "Loyalist" defenders of the Spanish Republic
, backed by the world communist and socialist movements, and pro-fascist
rebels under the leadership of Francisco Franco
. Lash did not participate in the fighting in Spain, but rather spoke to Spanish youth groups in an effort to help rally support for the Loyalist cause. He grew politically close to the Communist Party in this period.
Lash met Eleanor Roosevelt
on a train in 1939 and became a lifelong friend of the first lady. Lash would later gain his greatest fame as her biographer.
In 1939 Lash was subpoenaed to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee
, colloquially known as the "Dies Committee" after its chairman, to be questioned about his activities with the American Student Union and the American Youth Congress
. Lash was a hostile witness and refused to cooperate with the committee in its effort to obtain the names of members of the Communist Party and to expound upon their influence. The White House press corps
was stunned when the first lady herself made an appearance at Lash's hearing to lend moral support to her new young friend. After the hearing, Lash attended a dinner at the White House
at Eleanor Roosevelt's invitation, along with others called to testify before the Dies Committee.
Lash was shaken by the turn of the Soviet Union and its supporters of the Communist Party USA
away from militant anti-fascism to neutrality towards the Adolf Hitler
regime following the 1939 Nazi-Soviet Pact. He established a non-communist national student organization, the International Student Service, in 1940 and served as that group's head until 1942.
In 1942, at his own request, Lash made a second appearance before the Dies Committee, at which he renounced his former Communist Party allies, while at the same time refusing to provide information about individuals with whom he worked during the Popular Front period.
Lash applied for a commission with Naval Intelligence during World War II but was apparently turned away as a potential security risk. He instead enlisted in the U.S. Army, in which he entered as a Sergeant
before gaining promotion rank of Second Lieutenant
. During the wartime years he maintained a correspondence with the First Lady, who visited him during her 1943 American Red Cross
tour of the Pacific.
With Eleanor Roosevelt, Lash was a co-founder and New York Director of Americans for Democratic Action
(ADA), an anti-communist national membership organization of American liberals
. He remained in this capacity with ADA until 1949.
as the paper's United Nations
correspondent.
Lash began his career as a chronicler of the Roosevelt Administration in 1952, when he assisted Franklin D. Roosevelt
's son, Elliott Roosevelt
, with the editing for publication of two volumes of the President's letters.
In 1961, Lash published his first full-length book, a biography of U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld
. Thereafter, he moved to a position as assistant editor of the New York Post's editorial page, staying in that capacity until 1966.
Following Eleanor Roosevelt's death in 1962, Lash set to work writing a memoir of her, published two years later as Eleanor Roosevelt: A Friend's Memoir. This fair and familiar treatment of his friend kept him in the Roosevelt family's eye. Two years after the publication of this book, in 1966, Lash received a telephone call from Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr., the literary executor
of his mother. Roosevelt asked whether Lash might like to take a look at Eleanor Roosevelt's personal papers, with a view to writing a biography. Lash accepted this offer with gusto, quit his job at the Post, and began a five year project which would culminate in the publication of the first installment of a two-part biography, Eleanor and Franklin. This book, which dealt sympathetically but candidly with the Roosevelts' sometimes troubled marriage, made headlines and garnered critical praise. It won the Pulitzer Prize
for biography in 1972, cementing Lash's prominence as an independent writer. A series of literary projects ensued.
In addition to the Pulitzer Prize, Lash was also a recipient of the National Book Award
and the Frances Parkman Prize.
During his lifetime Lash's books were translated into a number of European languages, including German, French, Spanish, Swedish, Danish, and Croatian.
Lash's papers are held by the New York State Archives
in Albany, New York
and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library in Hyde Park, New York
.
Eleanor Roosevelt
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was the First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945. She supported the New Deal policies of her husband, distant cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and became an advocate for civil rights. After her husband's death in 1945, Roosevelt continued to be an international...
, Lash won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography and the National Book Award
National Book Award
The National Book Awards are a set of American literary awards. Started in 1950, the Awards are presented annually to American authors for literature published in the current year. In 1989 the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization which now oversees and manages the National Book...
in 1972 for Eleanor and Franklin, the first of two volumes he wrote about the former First Lady
First Lady
First Lady or First Gentlemanis the unofficial title used in some countries for the spouse of an elected head of state.It is not normally used to refer to the spouse or partner of a prime minister; the husband or wife of the British Prime Minister is usually informally referred to as prime...
.
Early years
Joseph P. Lash was born in New York City, the son of the former Mary Avchin and Samuel Lash, ethnic Jewish immigrants from the Russian empireRussian 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...
. Joseph was the eldest of three sons and two daughters of the couple.
He received his 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...
from City College of New York
City College of New York
The City College of the City University of New York is a senior college of the City University of New York , in New York City. It is also the oldest of the City University's twenty-three institutions of higher learning...
in 1931 and a Master's degree
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
from 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 in 1932.
Political activism
In 1930, while a Junior at City College, Lash joined the Socialist Party of AmericaSocialist 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...
(SPA), in which he remained a member until his resignation in 1937.
Following his graduation in 1932, Lash went to work for the League for Industrial Democracy
League for Industrial Democracy
The League for Industrial Democracy , from 1960-1965 known as the Students for a Democratic Society , was founded in 1905 by a group of notable socialists including Harry W. Laidler, Jack London, Norman Thomas, Upton Sinclair, and J.G. Phelps Stokes...
(LID), an independent socialist
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
organization closely tied to the SPA. He remained as the head of the Student League for Industrial Democracy
Student League for Industrial Democracy
There have been two organization by this name, both were the student affiliates of the adult League for Industrial Democracy.*A group known originally as the Intercollegiate League for Industrial Democracy, existing as an autonomous section of the League for Industrial Democracy during the early...
(SLID) and editor of its publication, Student Outlook, from 1933 until 1935. At that time became the Executive Secretary of the American Student Union
American Student Union
The American Student Union was a national left-wing organization of college students of the 1930s, best remembered for its protest activities against militarism. Founded by a 1935 merger of Communist and Socialist student organizations, the ASU was affiliated with the American Youth Congress...
, a 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...
organization which brought together members of the youth organizations of the rival Socialist and Communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
parties. Lash served in this capacity until 1939.
About 1937, Lash went to Spain, then in the midst of a civil war
Civil war
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same nation state or republic, or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly-united nation state....
between "Loyalist" defenders of the Spanish Republic
Second Spanish Republic
The Second Spanish Republic was the government of Spain between April 14 1931, and its destruction by a military rebellion, led by General Francisco Franco....
, backed by the world communist and socialist movements, and pro-fascist
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
rebels under the leadership of Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...
. Lash did not participate in the fighting in Spain, but rather spoke to Spanish youth groups in an effort to help rally support for the Loyalist cause. He grew politically close to the Communist Party in this period.
Lash met Eleanor Roosevelt
Eleanor Roosevelt
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was the First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945. She supported the New Deal policies of her husband, distant cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and became an advocate for civil rights. After her husband's death in 1945, Roosevelt continued to be an international...
on a train in 1939 and became a lifelong friend of the first lady. Lash would later gain his greatest fame as her biographer.
In 1939 Lash was subpoenaed to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee
House Un-American Activities Committee
The House Committee on Un-American Activities or House Un-American Activities Committee was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives. In 1969, the House changed the committee's name to "House Committee on Internal Security"...
, colloquially known as the "Dies Committee" after its chairman, to be questioned about his activities with the American Student Union and the American Youth Congress
American Youth Congress
American Youth Congress was an early youth voice organization composed of youth from all across the country to discuss the problems facing youth as a whole in the 1930s. It met several years in a row - one year it notably met on the lawn of the White House. The delegates are known to have caused...
. Lash was a hostile witness and refused to cooperate with the committee in its effort to obtain the names of members of the Communist Party and to expound upon their influence. The White House press corps
White House Press Corps
The White House Press Corps is the group of journalists or correspondents usually stationed at the White House in Washington, D.C. to cover the president of the United States, White House events and news briefings. Their offices are located in the West Wing....
was stunned when the first lady herself made an appearance at Lash's hearing to lend moral support to her new young friend. After the hearing, Lash attended a dinner at the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
at Eleanor Roosevelt's invitation, along with others called to testify before the Dies Committee.
Lash was shaken by the turn of the Soviet Union and its supporters 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....
away from militant anti-fascism to neutrality towards the Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
regime following the 1939 Nazi-Soviet Pact. He established a non-communist national student organization, the International Student Service, in 1940 and served as that group's head until 1942.
In 1942, at his own request, Lash made a second appearance before the Dies Committee, at which he renounced his former Communist Party allies, while at the same time refusing to provide information about individuals with whom he worked during the Popular Front period.
Lash applied for a commission with Naval Intelligence during World War II but was apparently turned away as a potential security risk. He instead enlisted in the U.S. Army, in which he entered as a Sergeant
Sergeant
Sergeant is a rank used in some form by most militaries, police forces, and other uniformed organizations around the world. Its origins are the Latin serviens, "one who serves", through the French term Sergent....
before gaining promotion rank of Second Lieutenant
Second Lieutenant
Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces.- United Kingdom and Commonwealth :The rank second lieutenant was introduced throughout the British Army in 1871 to replace the rank of ensign , although it had long been used in the Royal Artillery, Royal...
. During the wartime years he maintained a correspondence with the First Lady, who visited him during her 1943 American Red Cross
American Red Cross
The American Red Cross , also known as the American National Red Cross, is a volunteer-led, humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief and education inside the United States. It is the designated U.S...
tour of the Pacific.
With Eleanor Roosevelt, Lash was a co-founder and New York Director of Americans for Democratic Action
Americans for Democratic Action
Americans for Democratic Action is an American political organization advocating progressive policies. ADA works for social and economic justice through lobbying, grassroots organizing, research and supporting progressive candidates.-History:...
(ADA), an anti-communist national membership organization of American liberals
Liberalism in the United States
Liberalism in the United States is a broad political philosophy centered on the unalienable rights of the individual. The fundamental liberal ideals of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion for all belief systems, and the separation of church and state, right to due process...
. He remained in this capacity with ADA until 1949.
Journalist and biographer
In 1950, Lash went to work for the New York PostNew York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
as the paper's United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
correspondent.
Lash began his career as a chronicler of the Roosevelt Administration in 1952, when he assisted Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
's son, Elliott Roosevelt
Elliott Roosevelt
Elliott Roosevelt was a United States Army Air Forces officer and an author. Roosevelt was a son of U.S. President Franklin D...
, with the editing for publication of two volumes of the President's letters.
In 1961, Lash published his first full-length book, a biography of U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld
Dag Hammarskjöld
Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskjöld was a Swedish diplomat, economist, and author. An early Secretary-General of the United Nations, he served from April 1953 until his death in a plane crash in September 1961. He is the only person to have been awarded a posthumous Nobel Peace Prize. Hammarskjöld...
. Thereafter, he moved to a position as assistant editor of the New York Post's editorial page, staying in that capacity until 1966.
Following Eleanor Roosevelt's death in 1962, Lash set to work writing a memoir of her, published two years later as Eleanor Roosevelt: A Friend's Memoir. This fair and familiar treatment of his friend kept him in the Roosevelt family's eye. Two years after the publication of this book, in 1966, Lash received a telephone call from Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr., the literary executor
Literary executor
A literary executor is a person with decision-making power in respect of a literary estate. According to Wills, Administration and Taxation: a practical guide "A will may appoint different executors to deal with different parts of the estate...
of his mother. Roosevelt asked whether Lash might like to take a look at Eleanor Roosevelt's personal papers, with a view to writing a biography. Lash accepted this offer with gusto, quit his job at the Post, and began a five year project which would culminate in the publication of the first installment of a two-part biography, Eleanor and Franklin. This book, which dealt sympathetically but candidly with the Roosevelts' sometimes troubled marriage, made headlines and garnered critical praise. It won the Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
for biography in 1972, cementing Lash's prominence as an independent writer. A series of literary projects ensued.
Death and legacy
Lash died August 22, 1987 in Boston, Massachusetts, where he had been undergoing treatment for a heart ailment. He was 77 years old at the time of his death.In addition to the Pulitzer Prize, Lash was also a recipient of the National Book Award
National Book Award
The National Book Awards are a set of American literary awards. Started in 1950, the Awards are presented annually to American authors for literature published in the current year. In 1989 the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization which now oversees and manages the National Book...
and the Frances Parkman Prize.
During his lifetime Lash's books were translated into a number of European languages, including German, French, Spanish, Swedish, Danish, and Croatian.
Lash's papers are held by the New York State Archives
New York State Archives
The New York State Archives is a unit of the Office of Cultural Education within the New York State Education Department, with its main facility located in the Cultural Education Center on Madison Avenue in Albany, New York, United States...
in Albany, New York
Albany, New York
Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...
and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library in Hyde Park, New York
Hyde Park, New York
Hyde Park is a town located in the northwest part of Dutchess County, New York, United States, just north of the city of Poughkeepsie. The town is most famous for being the hometown of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt....
.
Works
- The Campus Strikes Against War. New York: Student League for Industrial Democracy, 1936.
- War, Our Heritage. With James A. Wechsler. New York: International Publishers, 1936.
- Toward a "Closed Shop" on the Campus. New York: American Student Union, 1936.
- The Campus: A Fortress of Democracy. New York: American Student Union, n.d. [1937].
- The Student in the Post-Munich World. New York: American Student Union, 1938.
- Dag Hammarskjöld: Custodian of the Brushfire Peace. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1961.
- Eleanor Roosevelt: A Friend's Memoir. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1964.
- Eleanor and Franklin: The Story of their Relationship, Based on Eleanor Roosevelt's Private Papers. New York: W.W. Norton, 1971.
- Eleanor: The Years Alone. New York: W.W. Norton, 1972.
- From the Diaries of Felix Frankfurter. New York: W.W. Norton, 1975.
- Roosevelt and Churchill, 1939–1941: The Partnership That Saved the West. New York: W.W. Norton, 1976.
- Helen and Teacher: The Story of Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan Macy. New York: Delacorte Press, 1980.
- "Life was Meant to be Lived": A Centenary Portrait of Eleanor Roosevelt. New York: W.W. Norton, 1984.
- A World of Love: Eleanor Roosevelt and Her Friends, 1943–1962. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1984.
- Dealers and Dreamers: A New Look at the New Deal. New York: Doubleday, 1988.