Dwight Macdonald facts for kids

Dwight Macdonald (born March 24, 1906 – died December 19, 1982) was an American writer, critic, and activist. He was part of a group called the New York Intellectuals. Macdonald was also the editor of their magazine, Partisan Review, for six years. He wrote for other famous magazines like Time, The New Yorker, and The New York Review of Books. In 1944, he even started his own magazine called Politics.

Early Life and Start in Writing

Dwight Macdonald was born in New York City into a well-off family. He went to good schools, including Phillips Exeter Academy and Yale University. At Yale, he was the editor of the student humor magazine, The Yale Record. His first job after college was at a big department store, Macy's.

In 1929, Macdonald started working at Time magazine. The founder, Henry Luce, who also went to Yale, offered him the job. A year later, he became an editor at Fortune magazine, which was new at the time.

The Great Depression (a time when many people lost jobs and money) made Macdonald think more about politics. In 1936, he left Fortune because they changed an article he wrote that was critical of a big steel company. In 1934, he married Nancy Gardiner Rodman. She is said to have helped him become more interested in social and political issues.

A Voice in Magazines

From 1937 to 1943, Macdonald was an editor at Partisan Review. This magazine was a place for thinkers to share their ideas. He left Partisan Review because he wanted to create a magazine with even stronger political views. So, from 1944 to 1949, he published his own magazine, Politics.

As an editor, he helped many important writers and thinkers get their work published. Some of these included George Orwell and Mary McCarthy. Besides editing, he also wrote for The New Yorker magazine from 1952 to 1962. He was also a movie critic for Esquire magazine. In the 1960s, his movie reviews became so popular that he even appeared on a TV show called The Today Show.

His Political Ideas

Macdonald was very interested in politics. At first, he supported a political idea called Trotskyism. However, he later disagreed with Leon Trotsky over an event called the Kronstadt rebellion. After that, Macdonald moved towards democratic socialism, which supports democracy and social equality.

He was against all forms of totalitarianism, which is when a government has total control over people's lives. This included fascism (like the Nazis) and Bolshevism (like the early Soviet Union). He believed defeating these was important for civilization. For example, he criticized Joseph Stalin for allowing the German Army to crush the Warsaw Uprising in 1944.

During World War II (1939–1945), Macdonald became very sad and tired watching the war's terrible events. He was especially upset by the bombing of cities and civilians, like the fire bombing of Dresden. By the end of the war, his views changed to pacifism (believing all war is wrong) and libertarian socialism (supporting freedom and social equality).

In 1952, he debated with writer Norman Mailer about East–West politics. Macdonald said that if he absolutely had to choose a side, he would pick the Western bloc. He saw Bolshevism as the biggest threat after the war. However, he later changed his mind about picking sides. This was because of McCarthyism (1950–1956), a time when people were unfairly accused of being communists.

For a year, Macdonald was an editor for Encounter magazine. He didn't know that this magazine was secretly funded by the CIA (a US intelligence agency) to influence cultural leaders during the Cold War (1945–1991). When he found out, he strongly spoke out against the CIA funding literary groups.

A Critic of Culture

In the late 1950s and 1960s, Macdonald wrote a lot about culture. He often criticized the rise of mass media and "middle-brow" culture. He felt that some popular culture was too simple or not truly artistic. For example, he criticized a play called Our Town and the simple language of a new Bible version.

He wrote a famous review of a dictionary, Webster's Third Edition, in 1961. This review became very important for those who criticized the dictionary. Macdonald also reviewed a book called The Other America by Michael Harrington. This book talked about poverty in the United States. President Kennedy read Macdonald's review, and it helped lead to the "War on Poverty" plan, which President Johnson later continued.

Some people, like Franklin Foer, said Macdonald was too harsh on popular culture. They suggested he wanted people who enjoyed "high culture" (like serious art and literature) to ignore everything else. However, another critic, Louis Menand, said Macdonald wasn't trying to blame people. Instead, he wanted people to realize if they were truly enjoying or benefiting from the culture they consumed.

Standing Up for What He Believed In

Macdonald continued to write essays and reviews for magazines like The New Yorker. His review of The Other America in 1963 was very important. It highlighted the poverty and inequality faced by many Americans. Some historians say this review helped start the "War on Poverty" program.

Macdonald was against the Vietnam War (1945–1975). He supported American university students who protested the war. He even supported the Columbia University students who organized a sit-in to stop the university's activities. As a political radical, he also criticized some student groups for not being radical enough.

To show his opposition to the Vietnam War, Macdonald signed the "Writers and Editors War Tax Protest." This meant he refused to pay income tax to avoid helping fund the war. He also signed an anti-war statement called "A Call to Resist Illegitimate Authority" in 1967. He was part of an organization called RESIST, which helped coordinate anti-war efforts.

Interesting Stories

Dwight Macdonald was known for speaking his mind, which sometimes annoyed people.

• The writer Gore Vidal once told him, "You have nothing to say, only to add."
• Leon Trotsky reportedly said, "Every man has a right to be stupid but comrade Macdonald abuses the privilege."
• Another writer, Paul Goodman, joked, "Dwight thinks with his typewriter."

He once described a fellow anti-Stalinist, Heinrich Blücher, as a "true, hopeless anarchist."

Selected Works

• Fascism and the American Scene (1938)
• Henry Wallace: The Man and the Myth (1948)
• The Root Is Man: Two Essays in Politics (1953)
• The Ford Foundation: The Men and the Millions – an Unauthorized Biography (1955)
• The Responsibility of Peoples, and Other Essays in Political Criticism (1957)
• Memoirs of a Revolutionist: Essays in Political Criticism (1960)
  • Reprinted as Politics Past (1970)
• Parodies: An Anthology from Chaucer to Beerbohm – and After (1960, as editor)
• Albert Camus. Neither Victims nor Executioners (1960, as translator)
• Against The American Grain: Essays on the Effects of Mass Culture (1962)
• Our Invisible Poor. (1963)
• Poems of Edgar Allan Poe (1965, as editor)
• Dwight Macdonald on Movies (1969)
  • Reprinted as On Movies (1981)
• Discriminations: Essays and Afterthoughts 1938–1974 (1974)
• My Past and Thoughts: The Memoirs of Alexander Herzen (1982, as editor)

See also

• James Agee
• William F. Buckley Jr.
• Noam Chomsky
• F. W. Dupee
• Irving Howe