Whittaker Chambers was originally born with the name Jay Vivian Chambers on April 1, 1901 (Whittaker, 2004). After Chambers graduated high school he left his home in Long Island and worked as a construction worker replacing railroad tracks (Boston, 2011). After working on the railroads Chambers decided to attend college. He attended Columbia University in New York between the years of 1920 and 1924 (Boston, 2011). During his time at Columbia, Chambers became a very gifted writer. While attending Columbia, Chambers decided he wanted to try and become a poet; however, he understood that he could “never write poetry good enough to be worth writing” (Boston, 2011). Realizing this Chambers decided to focus his writing skills on more traditional methods. Unlike poetry, Chambers was very gifted at this type of writing. In 1924, Chambers started to read much of Vladimir Lenin’s work (Chambers, 2013). The work of Lenin was an inspiration to Chambers and he quickly began to agree with the views and ideologies of Lenin. Because of this, in 1925 he decided to join the Communist Party (Boston, 2011).
After joining the Communist Party Chambers received his first job working for a Communist paper: the Daily Worker (Tannenhaus, 1997). Chambers was a talented writer for the Daily Worker. During this time Chambers also worked as an editor at The New Masses (Boston, 2011). After seeing how well Chambers did with these two jobs, he was asked to join the underground movement of the Communist Party (Boston, 2011). Chambers was asked to be a part of the underground because he was Ivy League educated and was well connected to respected intellectuals, he was very good at speaking other languages and was fluent already in German, and he al...
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...nger or disappear like Poyntz and have his family be alone. After Chambers left the party he received a job at TIME Magazine as a book and film reviewer (Chambers, 2013). Eventually Chambers decided that he wanted to expose the communist cell in the U.S. This was very risky for Chambers; however, he wanted to help expose all those involved in the Communist Party. While working underground for the Soviets, Chambers recognized Alger-Hiss. Alger-Hiss worked for the U.S State Department and was also working for Soviet Russia. After hearing of this news, Chambers met with Adolf Berle who was one of the top aides in the Roosevelt administration (Chambers, 2013). However, Berle dismissed the claim by Chambers and decided that a politician like Hiss could not be involved in such espionage. Chambers accepted this and decided to leave the issue alone for a few years.
At birth, Horowitz became a “red diaper baby” by virtue of his parents being members of the communist party. As Horowitz grew up, he attended the communist’s school and communist’s summer camp. Horowitz grew up in an environment surrounded by communist`s. The book covers Amer...
Throughout history there have been many poets and some have succeeded while other didn’t have the same luck. But in history e.e. Cummings has stunned people with his creativity and exposure to the real world and not living in the fantasy people imagine they live in. Cummings was a great poet, and was able to make his own way of writing while he was also involved greatly in the modernist movement. But he demonstrates all his uniqueness in all and every poem, delivering people with knowledge and making them see the world with different eyes as in the poem “Since feeling is first”.
Litz, A. Walton. American Writers: A Collection of Literary Biographies, Supplement 2, Part 2. New York: Charles
Amos Bronson Alcott was a man of many talents and professions, including, but not limited to, educator, philosopher, conversationalist and poet. He was born on a farm near Wolcott, Connecticut, and formally educated only until he was 13, as his family did not have enough money to educate him any further. His dreams of attending Yale, therefore, died. However, he did continue teaching himself. And never really stopped reading and self-educating. Despite this, he never became very wealthy, and in fact, struggled most of his life to make enough money to support his family. Though not rich in material goods, he was rich in values. (Mott, 2). He stood up very strongly for what he believed in. He not only defended his ideals through his conversations and writings, but also through his actions.
The first reason Americans began fearing the Communist party, is due to the party’s association with Russia and Stalinism. Russia was the most widely known Communist state in the world and the American Communist party’s adoration of it was the best-known thing about them . This became a large problem for the American Communist party when Stalin became a terrifying figure to the average American as knowledge of his atrocities and betrayals began to leak past the Iron Curtain. While most of the American Communists “just didn’t believe” these rumours, the average person did, and they did not see a difference between the American C...
... of his suspicions. Back then it was considered taboo to have any relation or alliance with a Communism source. In this case McCarthy is correct in suspecting that Radulovich could quite possibly be affiliated with Communism. Though his motives may have been correct, his tactics were unjust and rash. It is part of Murrow’s career as a Journalist to seek out the facts, and confirm them with credible sources and evidence, therefore Murrow has a greater foundation on which to rest his defending statements. McCarthy’s claims however provide no valid grounds and lack the stance necessary to create a solid and logical argument. The way Murrow defends Radulovich may lead to a conclusion that Murrow could quite possibly be a Communist.
Stephen Crane was one of America’s most influential nineteenth century writers of realism. He was credited for being a novelist, short-story-writer, poet, and journalist. He was born on November 1, 1871, in Newark, New Jersey, as Stephen Townley Crane. Stephen was the youngest sibling of fourteen children (“Stephen Crane Biography”). His writing inspiration came from his family. His mother dedicated her life to social concerns, while his father was a Methodist minister. Two of Crane’s brothers were journalists so it was destined for Stephen Crane to become a writer. His passion came from his parents and the insights from his family life. He attended preparatory school at Claverack College, where he developed a better concept of the Civil War. He attended at Lafayette College and Syracuse University for less than two years. He quit college to become a full-time writer. His first work was Maggie: A Girl of the Streets. In his novel, he used firsthand experiences of poverty. The realism in this novel shows his readers what a realistic writer he was to become later (“Stephen Crane”).
When a writer starts his work, most often than not, they think of ways they can catch their reader’s attention, but more importantly, how to awake emotions within them. They want to stand out from the rest and to do so, they must swim against the social trend that marks a specific society. That will make them significant; the way they write, how they make a reader feel, the specific way they write, and the devotion they have for their work. Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Edgard Allan Poe influenced significantly the American literary canon with their styles, themes, and forms, making them three important writers in America.
To further transform the Soviet Union, state officials encouraged citizens to help improve the literacy rate and recognize the many heroes of the socialist state. These heroes, including Joseph Stalin, “received huge amounts of fan mail and were lionized on appearances throughout the country” (72). They also encouraged the remaking of individuals, particularly through work. Before the transformation, many did not enjoy working, but “under socialism, it was the thing that filled life with meaning” (75). Numerous interviews an author had with “transformed” felons, illustrated that even criminals could be transformed into good citizens through work (76). However, Sheila Fitzpatrick argues that these interviews were “clearly a propaganda project.”
William C. Bryant unable to support himself as a poet, opened a law partnership in 1816 into the the 1820s as a lawyer. In 1821, he was wedded to Frances Fairchild and fathered two daughters. Within the same year, the reading of his poem, “The Ages,” on the progress of liberty at Harvard College, stimulated him to publish his “Poems” later that year. In addition to being a lawyer, he was also the editor of the New York Review and Atheneum Magazine in New York City. In the peak of his success, Bryant traveled within the country and abroad, writing essays on his experience traveling and also published a number of volumes of poetry between 1832 and 1876. The publication of his collected of his poems in 1876 placed a crown on his career. In 1878, Bryant died after giving...
Franz Kappus, a 19-year old student, wanted to solicit a career advice and a literary critique for the poems he had written (“Rainer Maria Rilke: Letters to a Young Poet” 1). Kappus solicited the advice and critique of Rainer Maria Rilke, a pioneer Austrian poet (“Rainer Maria Rilke: Letters to a Young Poet” 1). Rilke wrote ten letters in order to provide assistance to the needs of Kappus. These letters were in Rilke’s work, entitled, “Letters to a Young Poet.”
Like millions of Americans or hundreds them that never really enjoy a poem I’m definitely one of them. There is so much anger in this poem that it quickly grabs my attention and pulled me into his world. I have never knew that such a poem could express such a strong emotion on paper, and even though, I don’t consider myself a communist lover I can clearly understand why he might have been one. His world was clearly different from mine and through his words I was able to feel his pain and suffering because of it. For people that never consider reading a poem they should give it a try because one’s never know what they will find.
Ralph Waldo Emerson was a philosopher and transcendentalist of the 19th century, composing controversial, philosophical and religious essays in order to inform people. Emerson was a strong influence on other personalities of his time, including American figures such as; “Henry Thoreau” and “Walt Whitman”. “Emerson’s father (William Emerson) influenced the good taste of Emerson’s essays due to he was a man of the church.” William died because of a stomach cancer just two weeks before Ralph Waldo fulfilled eight years old. This death leads the family to an edge of poverty and a life of limited luxuries. That’s the point when Emerson’s career began. “His mother managed so that all of her children could get accepted into Harvard University with scholarships.” There was Ralph's stop when he was only fourteen years old. In Harvard College he was an apprentice under the president of the constitution. The task was to accuse his colleagues in criminal activity letting the ‘faculty’ know. Meanwhile, Emerson began keeping a list of books he had read and started a journal in a series of notebooks that would be called ‘World Wide’. Emerson performed odd jobs to cover his school expenses, including as a waiter for the Junior Commons and occasionally working as a teacher with his uncle Samuel in Waltham, Massachusetts. He began his famous Journal, an anthology and patchwork of passages that surprised and astonished his readers with their comments, ended up reaching 182 volumes. In his senior year at Harvard, Emerson decided to take his middle name as Waldo. He attended class Poetry; as usual, and presented an original poem on Harvard's Class Day, a month before his official graduation. On August 29, 1821, when he was 18 not noted as a student he...
As every well-read person knows, the background in which you grow up plays a huge role in how you write and your opinions. Fuller grew up with a very strict education, learning multiple classic languages before she was eight years old. Fern grew up with writers all throughout her family and had a traditional education and saw first hand the iniquities of what hard-working had to contend with. Through close analysis of their work, a reader can quickly find the connections between their tone, style, content, and purpose and their history of their lives and their educational upbringing.
Inspired by the works of Karl Marx, V.I. Lenin nonetheless drew his ideology from many other great 19th century philosophers. However, Marx’s “Communist Manifesto” was immensely important to the success of Russia under Leninist rule as it started a new era in history. Viewed as taboo in a capitalist society, Karl Marx started a movement that would permanently change the history of the entire world. Also, around this time, the Populist promoted a doctrine of social and economic equality, although weak in its ideology and method, overall. Lenin was also inspired by the anarchists who sought revolution as an ultimate means to the end of old regimes, in the hope of a new, better society. To his core, a revolutionary, V.I. Lenin was driven to evoke the class struggle that would ultimately transform Russia into a Socialist powerhouse. Through following primarily in the footsteps of Karl Marx, Lenin was to a lesser extent inspired by the Populists, the Anarchists, and the Social Democrats.