Gardner, Virginia H. (Virginia Hartwell), 1918-

Virginia Gardner (1904-1992) was a journalist, a communist, and biographer of Louise Bryant. She was raised in Fort Smith, Arkansas graduated with a B.A. in journalism from the University of Missouri in 1924, then worked at several Midwestern newspapers before joining the Chicago Tribune in 1930. Gardner gradually became a radical, joined the Communist Party c.1937, led the small Newspaper Guild group at the Tribune, and was fired for her union activism in March, 1940. Blacklisted in Chicago, she moved to New York where she worked with the Women's Division of the Democratic National Committee. After her divorce from journalist Marion (Red) Marberry, Gardner moved to Washington, DC in 1942, and was briefly Executive Secretary of the American Council on Soviet Relations. Between 1940 and 1942 Virginia Gardner was active as a member of the Citizens Committee for Harry Bridges, serving as its Executive Secretary in 1941. From 1942-1943 she worked for the Federated Press (a labor news service), resigning over its unwillingness to criticize John L. Lewis. Gardner next worked for the New Masses, resigning in 1947 when it became a monthly.

She then moved to Los Angeles, working for the Peoples World (the CPUSA West Coast newspaper) until her dismissal in 1951, and was then briefly employed at a meat packing plant. In 1952 Gardner moved to New York where, again, her first job was at a meat plant in Jamaica, Queens, before being employed by the Daily Worker where she covered the Rosenberg case in 1953, and later wrote The Rosenberg Story, which was published in 1954. In 1959 Virginia Gardner left The Worker, and between 1960 and 1962 worked as a medical writer. From 1963 to 1971 she worked as editorial assistant to Corliss Lamont. Her Louise Bryant biography was published in 1982. Soon afterwards she began working on her own autobiography. Gardner died in San Diego on January 5th, 1992.