Eastman, Max

Max Eastman (1883-1969) was a well-known radical whose journal, the Liberator, voiced support for controversial issues such as restrictions on liberty during World War I and the Red Scare. Eastman was arrested twice under the Espionage Act, each trial resulting in a hung jury. He visited Soviet Russia in the 1920's and became a follower of Trotsky, acting as his translator and literary agent. He became critical of the Soviet government after 1924 and opposed Stalin through the release of "Lenin's Testament" warning the party of Stalin's aims. William O'Neill writes that: "In 1939 when Moscow betrayed the anti-fascists by signing a pact with Berlin, opening the way for Germany's invasion of Poland and World War II, Max was prepared. Within a year, he brought out two big books, his most penetrating and finished critiques of Soviet politics and ideology. In Stalin's Russia and the Crisis of Socialism he reviewed Soviet history, exposed the Moscow Purge Trials as fraudulent, and disproved Russian claims to social and economic virtue. In Marxism: is it Science? Max showed that it was not" (O'Neill, 1991).

Eastman authored twenty-six books, including poetry and fiction. He edited the Masses, a socialist journal, which covered art and opinion. In an article written upon Eastman's death, The New York Times (26 March 1969) noted: "Mr. Eastman will probably be best remembered by those who date back to World War I as editor of the left-wing Masses as well as for his later exposure of the Bolshevik tyranny. He himself considered his two major contributions to be his theory on metaphor and simile in poetry, as outlined his first book, "The Enjoyment of Poetry," and his theory on wit and humor, discussed in another book, "Enjoyment of Laughter."

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