Days of Anger, Days of Hope is the memoir of one of the most important organizations of writers in the history of American literature. Franklin Folsom, executive secretary to the League of American Writers for five of its seven years of often controversial activity, brings to life a time when writers became aware of the threats of fascism, and recalls vigorous efforts of many of this country's best writers to rescue from European concentration camps their anti-Nazi colleagues. Founded during the tense, pre-war period of the 1930s, the League sought to promote intellectual and political freedom worldwide. At its peak, it had more than eight hundred members, including many of the most important literary personalities of this century, with whom Folsom had personal dealings: Theodore Dreiser, Dashiell Hammett, Lillian Hellman, Langston Hughes, Ralph Ellison, Ernest Hemmingway, Richard Wright, Malcolm Cowley, Ring Lardner, Jr., Archibald MacLeish, Thomas Mann, Dorothy Parker, Upton Sinclair, John Steinbeck, Dalton Trumbo, and William Carlos Williams, among many others. This lively history of the League of American Writers provides a unique insider's account of the group's wide-ranging activities, including the organization of four national writers congresses, the establishment of schools for writers, and campaigning for the rights of African Americans, the foreign-born, and labor. No book offers more information about the internal conflicts and external pressures that preceded the demise of the League, which the FBI considered one of the most successful of what it called "Communist front organizations." Folsom has deftly woven his personal anecdotes and writings with League records and FBIfiles to create an engrossing portrait of the organization, its members, and its role during a crucial period in American cultural and social history.
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Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
Both scrapbook and memoir, Folsom's book on the League of American Writers (LAW) documents the short life of the Communist-guided organization for which he served as executive secretary. LAW opposed Spanish fascism, supported writers exiled by the Nazis, and sponsored congresses, workshops, and publications. The writers' ideals balanced shakily with party agenda, an equation calmly analyzed at a 50-year distance by Folsom, the author of many children's books and, more recently, Impatient Armies of the Poor (Univ. Pr. of Colorado, 1991). Folsom offers fragments of recollection on famous members like Edmund Wilson and Richard Wright, but the book will appeal most to specialists.
Robert F. Nardini, North Chichester, N.H.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Robert F. Nardini, North Chichester, N.H.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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