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This digital document, covering the life and work of John (Silas) Reed, is an entry from Contemporary Authors, a reference volume published by Thompson Gale. The length of the entry is 2565 words. The page length listed above is based on a typical 300-word page. Although the exact content of each entry from this volume can vary, typical entries include the following information:

• Place and date of birth and death (if deceased)
• Family members
• Education
• Professional associations and honors
• Employment
• Writings, including books and periodicals
• A description of the author's work
• References to further readings about the author

Product Description
A biography of John Reed who was regarded as a revolutionary and model for young radical writers during the 1930s. The book covers Reed's education, his experiences during World War I and his life in both the USA and Russia during and after the war. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Not a great novel
Initially I was intrigued and eager to read this novel because of my interest in the writer and journalist John Reed, his wife Louise Bryant, and their circle (which has grown since I saw the film "Reds" back in 1981).John Reed led an extraordinarily full life; died young, and made choices not always easily understood.He also left behind a body of work that is compelling to read.

I was disappointed when I discovered that 2/3 of the book is written in the first person.Reading this felt, at times, a little like intruding on someone's fantasy.The author seems to have wanted to convey an autobiographical feel to the story --as if this were the autobiography that Reed never got to write-- but, I don't know, to me a false note was struck almost thoughout.

The final chapter, which is written from Louise Bryant's perspective, is actually quite good.The description of their reunion after Reed's final trip to Baku (where he caught typhus) and his deathbed are excellent, mostly because I believe Mr. Cheuse incorporates a great deal of known facts here and avoided the temptation of trying to assume what Reed's thoughts were on his deathbed.

Trying to recreate a fictionalized account of a real person brings its own set of problems, namely, that a reader might be familiar with the real life (from biographical material) and have a difficult time with the writer's fictional choices... This was the case with me.The character of Mabel Dodge Luhan comes across as a complete flake, which is pretty much contrary to everything I've read about her.Various characters in THE BOHEMIANS refer to Louise Bryant as "Lou", which just doesn't sound "right".Louise introduces herself to John Reed as "Louise Trullinger", when it's easily discovered from biographical material that she kept her maiden name throughout her life.

There are some odd turns of phrase --the author refers to Louise's hair color as "scarlet"; "a rumor of nipples" under her blouse, among other unusual turns of phrase.This is an early novel by this author so these may have been kinks that he needed to work out.Maybe if the novel had gone through one more draft, there would have been less clumsiness and more of a "true" feeling to the story.I don't know.Despite my initial curiosity this was an uncomfortable read for me.

Having now read a novel about John Reed's life, my feeling is: why fictionalize it when the real thing was so fascinating?

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Customer Reviews (4)

Romantic Revolutionary, Indeed!
John Reed, Harvard Class of 1910, epitomized the best of the pre-World War I bourgeois radicals. Unlike the vast majority of his Class and class he cast his fate with the working people and oppressed of America at a time when the dominant left bourgeois movement- the Progressive movement- was busy applying band aids to the increasingly inequitable capitalist system. The radical movement is always in need, sometimes desperately in need, of intellectuals to tell its side of the story. Despite some exceptions, like Reed, the intellectuals then, as now, either stood on the sidelines or at most acted as `fellow travelers' to the movement. Reed on the contrary put all his energies into the movement. As a journalist he sought out all the radical hotspots of his time starting with his coverage of the Mexican Revolution, through the various workers' strikes of the 1910's in America culminating in his coverage of the heroic period of the Russian Revolution. His journalistic account of the Bolshevik seizure of power, Ten Days That Shook the World, stands even today as one of the best eyewitness accounts of that turbulent time in Russia.

John Reed's political development also offers today's militant leftists an insight into how the swirl of events drives the best militants leftward. Reed started out in the typically Bohemian milieu of New York City's Greenwich Village and imbibed its avante guarde cultural offerings and its pretensions. However, as the United States lurched into participation into World War I he grew stronger as an anti-war advocate and placed himself on the line to oppose that war. This was the great dividing point in the radical movement of the time. This separated the dilettantes and mere reformists from serious revolutionaries. Not an unusual political development, but an important one.

Under the influence of the Russian Revolution Reed led the left wing of the American Socialist Party on a program of opposition to the war and defense of the Bolshevik Revolution. When the left wing was forced out of the Socialist Party he formed a communist organization based on the centrally of the native American working class as the vanguard of the American Revolution. Opposed to that were left-wingers, mainly foreign born elements based on the various language federations of the old Socialist Party, who essentially wanted to act as cheerleaders for the Russian Revolution-and no much else. The result was the creation of two communist organizations that caused no end of problems both in America and in the Communist International. But the fights to lead the Socialist party leftward and later between the communist organizations are stories for another time, and worth separate space. Read this book for starters.

by the author of "The Dream of the Decade"
The last full biography of Reed was published in 1967. The Lost Revolutionary was a Cold War attempt at character assassination. Apart from a psychoanalytical epilogue that dismisses his subject as naive, Rosenstone's account is remarkably fair. Reed, brought up in Babbit-style Oregon, was educated at Harvard and at 26 left Greenwich Village's burgeoning bohemia to cover the Mexican Revolution. His political awakening came just before he left for the land of Villa and Zapata, while covering a story on the Paterson silk strike. 'In Paterson,' writes the American biographer, 'Jack had smelled, tasted and felt the spirit of radicalism, and found it good.'

After Mexico and reporting from the Western Front, came romance in the shape of Louise Bryant the sole justification for the title of the book. All this time Reed was writing articles, plays and stories, but for all his worldly experience, they were mediocre against the work of contemporaries such as O'Neil, Yeats and Pound. Reed's greatness would be established by reportage published only a year before his burial at the foot of the Kremlin. Ten Days That Shook The World not only illuminates the trials of revolution, but also shows up the caprice of the winds of change.

An exceptional examination of an exceptional life!
An epic tour-de-force which examines the fascinating life of John Reed, the only American to be buried in the Kremlin Wall.An ecclectic mix of personalities - from Lenin to Gertrude Stein, from Lincoln Steffens toTeddy Roosevelt - pass thru the tapestry which was Reed's life, each havingtheir own unique impact on the art which remains.From his childhood instoic Portland Oregon to his years in Harvard and New York to his coming ofage in Mexico covering the Villa revolution, Reed absorbed experience andreflected his concept of justice and equality in his writing.Each stopalong the way was preparation for Reed's ultimate mission - to report onthe earth-shattering 1917 Russian Revolution.The book "Ten Days inOctober" is still the seminal work on the topic, and this book delvesinto the evolution of Reed from middle-class dabbler to full-blownSocialist commentator.Mr. Rosenstone does the man justice -well-documented, fair, and without overt "gushiness".Anexceptional read.

The book the academy-award movie "Reds" was based on.
This is the book the academy-award winning movie "Reds",starring Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton, was based on. An epic (buttrue)love story, you finish reading it in awe at how much life was packedby these people in such a short time. ... Read more

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A biography of the "father of modern journalism" whose coverage of the turbulent events of his times earned him a world-wide reputation. ... Read more

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Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more