Benutzer:Vinegar66/Joseph Freeman

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Joseph "Joe" Freeman (1897–1965) war ein US-amerikanischer Journalist, Schriftsteller und Publizist. Er ist insbesondere als Herausgeber von The New Masses, einem Literatur- und Kunstmagazin aus dem Umfeld der Kommunistischen Partei der USA, und als Mitbegründer der Partisan Review bekannt.

Biography

Frühe Jahre

Joseph Freeman wurde am 7. Oktober 1897, im Dorf Piratin, zum Poltava district in der Ukraine gehörend, damals Teil des Russischen Reichs Russian empire, geboren. Freemans Eltern, Stella und Isaac Freeman, gehörten zur Jüdischen Bevölkerung und waren durch die antisemitischen Gesetze des zaristischen Regimes gezwungen, in einem Ansiedlungsrayon zu leben. Auf Geheiss seines Grossvaters sprach Freeman Jiddisch bereits als kleiner Junge. Seine Eltern besassen ein Ladengeschäft.[1]

Zusammen mit Tausenden anderen ethnischen Flüchtlingen emigrierten die Freemans 1904 in die Vereinigten Staaten. Joseph wurde 1920 US-amerikanischer Bürger.[2] In der Neuen Welt erarbeiteten sich die Freemans in Brooklyn, New York, eine Mittelklasseexistenz, indem Isaac Freeman als Grundstückmakler real estate wirkte.[3]

Freeman trat 1914, im Alter von 17 Jahren, der Sozialistischen Partei Amerikas bei.[2] Er arbeitete als Collegeschüler als Telegraphenangestellter, Kellner und Detailhandelsangestellter.[3]

Freeman studierte an der Columbia University in New York City, wo er mit einem Bachelor's degree 1919 abschloss.[2]

Karriere

Following graduation from Columbia, Freeman went to work on the editorial staff of a book project initiated by Harper's magazine entitled Illustrated History of the World War.[2] He also worked on the editorial staff of Women's Wear in 1919 and 1920.[3]

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.[3]

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.[3] 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.[3]

Freeman became a member of the Workers Party of America, forerunner of the Communist Party USA during this interval.[4] 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.[2]

In 1924, Freeman became the publicity director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

In 1926, Freeman became a co-founder and a founding editor of The New Masses magazine. From 1926 to 1927, he was the magazine's correspondent in Moscow. In 1929, he was the magazine's editor in Mexico.[5]

Freeman's brother, Harry Freeman, introduced Whittaker Chambers to the Daily Worker newspaper. Chambers socialized with the brothers and their circle, which Chambers said included TASS. Freeman worked for TASS in the late 1920s, followed by brother Harry in 1929. From 1931-1933, he became editor again at The New Masses magazine, during the period when Chambers joined the Soviet Underground (1932). The Freeman's social circle included Harry's wife Vera Schaap (wife of Al Schaap, a Young Communist League founder), Sender Garlin, Abe Magill, James S. Allen, Joseph North (of the Daily Worker and The New Masses), Anna Rochester, Grace Hutchins, Nadya Pavlov, and Kenneth Durant.[6]

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.[7]

In 1936-1937, Freeman served again as editor of The New Masses.[5]

In 1939, he left the Communist Party.[5] About that time, he worked as a freelance writer for publications including The Nation, Fortune, and Life.[2]

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."[2]

From 1948 until 1961, Freeman worked in the private sector in the field of public relations, employed by the firms of Edward L. Bernays (1948-1952) and Executive Research, Inc. (1952-1961).[2][5]

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 Rivera.[8][9] They divorced in 1931.[9]

Freeman married American journalist, abstract painter, and art critic, Charmion von Wiegand, in 1932[10][11] or 1934,[12] in New York.

Death and legacy

Joseph Freeman died on August 8, 1965. He was 67 years old at the time of his death.[5]

Some of 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. His correspondence and other of his papers (81.4 linear feet) are in the Hoover Institution Archives at Stanford University. See the Register of the Joseph Freeman Papers, 1904-1966; Stanford [13] Master negative microfilm of The New Masses, the magazine with which Freeman was most closely associated, is held by New York Public Library.

  1. ↑ Joseph Freeman, An American Testament: A Narrative of Rebels and Romantics. New York: Octagon Books, 1973; pp. 4-5.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h Francis X. Gannon: A Biographical Dictionary of The Left: Volume 4. Western Islands, 1973, S. 376-378 (Abgerufen am 18 October 2018).
  3. ↑ a b c d e f Solon DeLeon with Irma C. Hayssen and Grace Poole (eds.), The American Labor Who's Who. New York: Hanford Press, 1925; pg. 79.
  4. ↑ Alan Wald, The New York Intellectuals: The Rise and Decline of the Anti-Stalinist Left from the 1930s to the 1980s. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1987; pg. 51.
  5. ↑ a b c d e Joseph Freeman papers. Stanford University.
  6. ↑ Whittaker Chambers: Witness. Random House, New York 1952, S. 217 (background), 219 (Daily Worker), 224 (foreign news), 231–2 (Chambers' wife), 232 (petition), 241–242 (succession, James S. Allen, TASS), 243 (Lovestoneite).
  7. ↑ Wald, The New York Intellectuals, pg. 78.
  8. ↑ James Bloom: About Joseph Freeman (1897-1965). MAPS (Modern American Poetry). Abgerufen im 14 December 2010.
  9. ↑ a b Gary McConnell: Joseph Freeman: Artist in Uniform. In: Modern Age. 40, Nr. 1, Winter 1999, 1999, S. 40–46.
  10. ↑ Charmion Von Wiegand. Smithsonian Institution. Abgerufen im 22 April 2010.
  11. ↑ Charmion von Wiegand (1896 — 1983). Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC. Archiviert vom Original am 19 December 2010. Abgerufen im 14 December 2010.
  12. ↑ Wald (p. 183.)
  13. ↑ Finding Aid for the Joseph Freeman Papers, Columbia University, New York.
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