John Silas Reed
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John "Jack" Silas Reed (October 22, 1887 – October 19, 1920) was an American journalist 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 and was the subject of a 1981 movie, Reds.
Birth and education
Reed was born in 1887 in Portland, Oregon. Despite recent pride by Portlanders in John Reed, he was not fond of the city of his birth. According to his own writings, he left Portland as soon as he could, to attend Harvard University in 1906, where he wrote for The Harvard Lampoon and was president of the Harvard Glee Club. He went on to graduate in 1910.Journalism
He became well known for his journalism particularly for his sympathetic coverage of workers strikes and his reporting of the Mexican Revolution. He had a brief relationship with the society hostess Mabel Dodge. Reed and his wife, Louise Bryant, were also close friends of Eugene O'Neill's. While in Europe covering the events of World War I, Reed heard about the brewing Bolshevik Revolution, and went to Russia in 1917. His experiences and interviews with Vladimir Lenin became the subject of a book.Communism
Returning to America he threw himself into the embryonic Communist movement and was a leading figure in the Socialist Party left wing, and a sympathizer of the radical labor union The Industrial Workers of the World. As such he was instrumental in the foundation of the Communist Labor Party. This party was illegal and only one of two parties vying for the support of the newly founded Communist International (Comintern). It was as a delegate of this party to the Comintern that Reed returned to Russia. He died in Moscow and became the only American buried in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis in Red Square.
Trivia
- A perennial urban legend in Reed's home town is that Reed College was named for this journalist. Although Reed College's unofficial and tongue-in-cheek motto is "Atheism, Communism, and Free Love", there is no truth to this rumor.
- The 1981 film Reds starring Warren Beatty, Diane Keaton, and Jack Nicholson, was based on his life, won three Academy Awards, and was nominated for nine more.
- Another movie adaptation of his life is the 1982 Soviet two-parter Red Bells, starring Franco Nero.
External links
- [The John Reed Internet Archive] on Marxists.org
- [The Last Days With John Reed] by Louise Bryant
- [Free eBook: Ten Days That Shook The World] at Project Gutenberg
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