Art versus politics: Mike Gold, Joseph Freeman, and literary radicalism in the 1920s

Abstract

In the 1920s, when there was little support for left wing writers from either the Communist Party or the broader intellectual community, literary intellectuals Mike Gold and Joseph Freeman attempted to use their writing to further the revolutionary goals of communism, Unwilling to renounce their political concerns as intellectuals or to abandon their interest in literature as communists, Gold and Freeman sought to bridge the gap between art and politics and find roles for themselves in the communist movement. Throughout the decade they strove as intellectuals to advance communism without totally relinquishing their artistic and critical independence. Their individual backgrounds were a decisive influence in their work. Gold's background of constant poverty created in him a strong concern for the poor and the working class. He identified with the working class culturally and intellectually as well as politically, and at the beginning of the 1920s he developed a concept of proletarian art which put workers at the center of both the creation and appreciation of art and literature. Later in the decade when he became editor of the New Masses, a left wing literary journal, Gold attempted to implement his concept of proletarian art by making the magazine an outlet for working class writers. Joseph Freeman was also born in poverty, but he graduated from Columbia University and developed a strong appreciation for high culture, Freeman rejected the middle class politically, but he retained a strong affinity for bourgeois art and literature, This affinity was reflected in his literary criticism, in which he attempted to demonstrate that the hostility many bourgeois writers displayed toward middle class society made their work conducive to the broader revolutionary goals of communism. In their attempt to find roles in the revolutionary cause Freeman and Gold sought to create support for intellectuals in the communist movement, stimulate the development of left wing literature, and attract writers to communism by creating a link between radical writers and the broader literary community.