Max Eastman facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Max Eastman
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Max Forrester Eastman
January 4, 1883 Canandaigua, New York, US
|
| Died | March 25, 1969 (aged 86) Bridgetown, Barbados
|
| Education | Williams College Columbia University |
| Occupation | Writer, political activist |
| Spouse(s) |
Ida Rauh
(m. 1911–1922)Elena Krylenko
(m. 1924–1956)Yvette Skely
(m. 1958–1969) |
Max Forrester Eastman (born January 4, 1883 – died March 25, 1969) was an American writer and political activist. He wrote about books, ideas, and society, and was also a poet. When he moved to New York City for college, he joined groups in Greenwich Village that wanted big changes in society.
Eastman believed in socialism, which is an idea about sharing wealth and resources more equally. He also supported the Harlem Renaissance, a time when Black artists and writers created amazing works. He was active in many causes that pushed for more freedom and big changes. For several years, he was the editor of a magazine called The Masses. In 1917, he and his sister, Crystal Eastman, started another magazine called The Liberator. It was a magazine about politics and art that also wanted big changes.
From 1922 to 1924, Eastman lived in the Soviet Union. He saw the power struggle between two leaders, Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin, and how Stalin eventually took full control. After seeing how strict and controlling the Soviet Union became, he started to strongly criticize Stalin's rule and then communism and socialism in general. Even though he didn't believe in God, he became a supporter of free market ideas, where businesses are mostly free from government control. He also became against communism. In 1955, he wrote a book called Reflections on the Failure of Socialism. Later in his life, he wrote for conservative magazines like National Review, but he always thought for himself. For example, he spoke out against the Vietnam War in the 1960s, which was earlier than many others.
Contents
Early Life and School
Eastman was born in 1883 in Canandaigua, New York. He was the youngest of four children. His parents, Samuel and Annis Eastman, were both ministers in the Congregational Church, a type of Protestant church. His mother was one of the first women in the United States to become an ordained minister. They worked together as pastors.
The area where he grew up was known for strong religious movements and social causes like abolitionism, which was the movement to end slavery. His parents were friends with the famous author Mark Twain, and Max met him when he was young.
Eastman went to Williams College and graduated in 1905. His roommate there was Charles White Whittlesey, who later became a hero in World War I. From 1907 to 1911, Eastman studied philosophy at Columbia University. He decided not to officially get his Ph.D. degree, even though he had finished the work.
He moved to Greenwich Village in New York City with his sister Crystal. There, he became involved in social causes, like helping to start the Men's League for Women's Suffrage in 1910. This group supported women's right to vote.
A Leader for Change
Max Eastman became an important person in the Greenwich Village community, which was known for its new and sometimes radical ideas. He used his knowledge from school to explore many topics like literature, psychology, and making society better.
In 1913, he became the editor of The Masses, a leading socialist magazine in America. This magazine mixed ideas about society with art. Many famous writers and artists contributed to it, including Carl Sandburg and Upton Sinclair. In his first editorial, Eastman said the magazine was for big changes, had a sense of humor, and wasn't afraid to print what was too honest for other newspapers.
The magazine often spoke out against America joining World War I. This caused problems with the government. Eastman was put on trial twice under laws like the Sedition Act of 1918, which made it illegal to criticize the government during wartime. But he was found not guilty both times. In 1918, The Masses had to close because of charges under the Espionage Act of 1917, another law used to stop people from speaking out against the war.
Eastman helped send the writer John Reed to Russia in 1917. His magazine published Reed's articles from Russia, which later became the famous book Ten Days That Shook the World, about the Bolshevik Revolution.
In 1919, Eastman and his sister Crystal started a new magazine called The Liberator. They published writers like Ernest Hemingway and Helen Keller. In 1922, another group took over the magazine because of money problems. Eastman left the magazine in 1924.
In 1922, Eastman traveled to the Soviet Union to learn about how Marxism was being put into practice there. He stayed for almost two years and saw the power struggles between Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin. After seeing a big political meeting in May 1924, he left Russia.
When he came back to the United States in 1927, Eastman wrote several books that were very critical of Stalin's system. One essay, "Since Lenin Died," talked about a secret letter from Vladimir Lenin (the first leader of the Soviet Union) that suggested Stalin should be removed from power. Eastman had secretly brought a copy of this letter out of Russia. The Soviet leaders said Eastman's story wasn't true. His writings about Russia made many American leftists (people who wanted big social changes) dislike him at the time. But later, many people saw his writings as honest descriptions of the Soviet system under Stalin.
His time in the Soviet Union changed Eastman's mind about Marxism as it was practiced there. However, he still believed in left-wing ideas for a while. While in the Soviet Union, he became good friends with Trotsky. Eastman learned Russian and translated several of Trotsky's books into English, including his three-volume History of the Russian Revolution.
In the 1930s, Eastman also wrote about modern literature. He criticized writers like James Joyce, saying their work was too hard to understand. He also wrote books like Enjoyment of Laughter (1936) and questioned some ideas from Sigmund Freud about the mind. He traveled around the country giving talks on different topics.
Supporting Women's Rights
Eastman was a strong supporter of the women's rights movement in the early 1900s. He was the president of the Men's Equal Suffrage League in New York and helped start the Men's League for Women's Suffrage in 1910. In 1913, he gave a speech at Bryn Mawr College about why he believed women should have the right to vote.
Changing His Views
After the Great Depression, a time of severe economic hardship, Eastman began to change his mind about his socialist beliefs. He became more critical of the ideas of Karl Marx and other thinkers he had once admired.
In 1941, he started working as an editor for Reader's Digest magazine, a job he kept for the rest of his life. Around this time, he also became friends with economists who believed in free markets, like Friedrich Hayek. Eastman helped publish Hayek's book The Road to Serfdom in Reader's Digest. Later, Eastman wrote articles criticizing socialism for other magazines.
At first, Eastman supported groups like the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and Senator Joseph McCarthy, who were looking for communist influence in America. In the early 1950s, Eastman's articles against communism were important during a time known as McCarthyism. However, he soon felt that the anti-communist movement was going too far and confusing the fight for fairness with being a communist. In 1955, he published Reflections on the Failure of Socialism, where he stated that the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia had created "the most perfect tyranny in all history" instead of freedom. Also in 1955, he became one of the first contributing editors for the conservative magazine National Review.
In the 1950s, Eastman joined the Mont Pelerin Society, a group that supported classical liberal ideas (which focus on individual freedom). Even though he became friends with conservative thinkers, Eastman remained an atheist his whole life.
In the 1960s, he disagreed with his friend William F. Buckley Jr. and left the National Review because he felt the magazine was too focused on Christianity. Soon after, he began to speak out publicly against the United States being involved in the Vietnam War. Even though he supported free market ideas, Eastman had many views that were unusual for a political conservative. He liked to call himself a "radical conservative."
His Writings
Eastman was a very productive writer, publishing more than twenty books. He wrote about many different topics, including science, humor, Freudian psychology, and Soviet culture. He also wrote memoirs and stories about his friendships with many famous people of his time. Historians have called his descriptions of people "brilliant."
He wrote five books of poetry and one novel. He also translated some of the work of the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin into English. For the Modern Library, he edited a shorter version of Marx' famous book Das Kapital.
Eastman wrote two books about his own life and two books recalling his friendships and meetings with many leading figures of his time. These included Charlie Chaplin, Albert Einstein, Ernest Hemingway, Mark Twain, and Leon Trotsky. His last memoir was Love and Revolution: My Journey Through an Epoch (1964). He passed away in 1969 at his summer home in Bridgetown, Barbados, at 86 years old.
Selected Books
- Enjoyment of Poetry, 1913.
- Child of the Amazons, and other Poems, 1913.
- Journalism Versus Art, 1916.
- Colors of life; poems and songs and sonnets, 1918.
- The Sense of Humor, 1921.
- Leon Trotsky: The Portrait of a Youth, 1925
- Since Lenin Died, 1925.
- Marx and Lenin: The Science of Revolution, 1927.
- The End of Socialism in Russia, 1928.
- The Literary Mind: Its Place in an Age of Science, 1931.
- Artists in Uniform, 1934.
- Enjoyment of Laughter, 1936.
- Stalin's Russia and the Crisis in Socialism, 1939.
- Marxism: Is It a Science?, 1940.
- Heroes I Have Known, 1942.
- Enjoyment of Living, 1948.
- Reflections on the Failure of Socialism, 1955.
- Love and Revolution: My Journey Through an Epoch, 1964.
- Seven Kinds of Goodness, 1967
Max Eastman in Movies and Books
- Eastman was the narrator for the documentary film Tsar to Lenin (1937).
- An actor named Edward Herrmann played Eastman in the movie Reds (1981). This movie was about the life of John Reed.
- Actor Mark Pellegrino played him in the 2012 TV movie Hemingway & Gellhorn.
- He is mentioned in James Thurber's book The Years With Ross (1959).
- He appears in Thomas Hart Benton's 1930 mural "America Today".
Personal Life
In 1911, Max Eastman married Ida Rauh, who was a lawyer, actress, writer, and also believed in big social changes and women's rights. They divorced in 1922. They had one child, Dan, but Eastman didn't have contact with him for many years after their separation. Eastman said that Ida was the one who first introduced him to socialism.
In 1924, he married Elena Krylenko, a painter from Moscow. He had met her during his nearly two-year stay in the Soviet Union. Elena's brother, Nikolai Krylenko, was a powerful figure in the Soviet government who later organized many famous "show trials" before he himself was arrested and executed. Elena decided to leave Russia with Eastman. To do this, they had to get married quickly so she could leave the country with him. Elena passed away in 1956.
In 1958, Eastman married Yvette Szkely, who was born in Budapest. She had a long relationship with the writer Theodore Dreiser before marrying Eastman. She wrote a memoir called Dearest Wilding in 1995. She died in New York in 2014 at 101 years old.
Images for kids
-
Max Eastman
-
Eugene V. Debs, Eastman and Rose Pastor Stokes, 1918
-
Charlie Chaplin and Eastman in Hollywood, 1919
See also
In Spanish: Max Eastman para niños
