Jack Reed
From Kaiserreich
John "Jack" Silas Reed (October 22, 1887 – ) was an American journalist, poet, and communist activist, famous for his first-hand account of the Bolshevik Revolution, Ten Days that Shook the World. He was the husband of the writer and feminist Louise Bryant.
Early life and education
Reed was born in Portland, Oregon, the son of Charles Jerome and Margaret (Green) Reed. His mother was the daughter of a leading Portland citizen who had made a fortune in pig iron manufacturing. His father, who had recently come from the East when they married in 1886, represented an agricultural machinery manufacturer and with his ready wit quickly won acceptance in Portland’s business community The young John, universally called Jack, was born in his mother’s mansion and baptized in the fashionable Trinity Episcopal Church (later abandoning religion).Homberger, He grew up surrounded by nurses and servants, his upper-class playmates carefully selected. He had a brother, Harry, two years his junior, A sickly child, he was sent to the recently-established Portland Academy, a private boarding school where he was unhappy, at the age of nine In September 1904, he was sent to Morristown School, New Jersey, to prepare for college (his father had not gone to college and wanted his sons to attend Harvard). There, he made the football team and although he did poorly in most subjects, showed literary promise. Around this time his father’s social standing fell due to his muckraking activities in exposing the timber industry’s corruption.Homberger,
Reed entered Harvard College in September 1906 (passing the entrance examination on his second try – something he was allowed to do despite having earned a C in English, a D in history and French, a pass in Chemistry, and failing Latin and geometry).Tall, handsome, and light-hearted, he threw himself into all manner of student activities. He was a member of the swimming team and the dramatic club; he served on the editorial boards of the Lampoon and the Harvard Monthly; he served as president of the Harvard Glee Club; he wrote a play produced by the Hasty Pudding Club, and was made ivy orator and poet. He attended meetings of the Socialist Club, which his friend Walter Lippmann founded in May 1908, but never joined – his social conscience was still dormant and there were too many contradictions involved He failed to make football and crew, but participated in low-prestige sports like swimming and water polo, at which he excelled. He was frustrated by the dismissive attitude the Eastern aristocracy showed the energetic young man, passing him over for membership in the waiting clubs (which one joined in preparation of the final clubs) despite his having broken a friendship with a Jewish classmate for the purpose of social advancement Still, his mentor, literature professor Charles Copeland, helped develop his talents. Graduating in 1910, he visited England, France, and Spain before moving to New York City in March 1911.
Journalism
He grew to love New York, relentlessly exploring it and writing poems about it. Reed enjoyed the independence he now had from his parents, from Portland (which he hated), and from Harvard snobbery. Although living in Greenwich Village, he kept somewhat apart from its myriad intense, hostile cliques. He joined the staff of the American Magazine in 1911 with Lincoln Steffens' invaluable help, and in 1912 published “Sangar”, probably his finest poem (Poetry, December 1912; also privately printed), besides producing the first of the Dutch Treat Club shows, Everymagazine. The following year he issued privately The Day in Bohemia.
Reed's central, tortuous, relationship in New York was with Mabel Dodge, a married woman eight years his senior. They met in early spring 1913. She dominated and suffocated him, threatening suicide several times when he seemed to neglect her. Visiting Europe later that year, they consummated their relationship in Paris. Problems soon developed. He was very interested in the sights the continent had to offer. She was mainly preoccupied with him. Upon their return she continued to attempt to keep his mind off politics.
His serious interest in social problems was first aroused, at about this time, by Lincoln Steffens and Ida Tarbell, and once aroused it quickly led him to a far more radical position than theirs. In 1913 he joined the staff of The Masses, edited by Max Eastman, contributing more than fifty articles, reviews and shorter pieces. The first of Reed's many arrests came in Paterson, New Jersey, in 1913, for attempting to speak on behalf of the strikers in the silk mills. A short jail term radicalized him. He allied himself with the IWW (though he was still not a socialist).[18] His brilliant account of his experiences appeared in June as "War in Paterson". During the same year, following a suggestion made by Bill Haywood, picked up by Dodge and enthusiastically endorsed by Reed, he put on "The Pageant of the Paterson Strike" in Madison Square Garden for the benefit of the strikers.
In the autumn of 1913 he was sent to Mexico by the Metropolitan Magazine to report the Mexican Revolution. Dodge followed him to El Paso but returned several days later.[20] He participated for four months in the perils of Pancho Villa's army, while his articles brought him national reputation as a war correspondent. They were republished in book form as Insurgent Mexico (1914). He was with Villa's Constitutionalist Army when it defeated Federal forces at Torreón, opening the way for its advance on Mexico City. He adored Villa. Carranza left him cold. Reed deeply sympathized with the plight of the peons and vehemently opposed American intervention, which came shortly after he left. On April 30, he arrived in Colorado, scene of the recent Ludlow massacre. There he spent a little more than a week and investigated the events, spoke on behalf of the miners, wrote an impassioned article on the subject ("The Colorado War", published in July), and came to believe much more deeply in class conflict. That summer he spent in Provincetown, Massachusetts with Dodge and her son, putting together Insurgent Mexico and interviewing President Wilson on the subject. (The resulting report, much watered down at White House insistence, was not a success
Politics
Jack is a president candidate to the 1936 elections.
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