Synopses & Reviews
A vivid first-hand account of Left culture in America in the heady days of the 20s through the 40s. Herrick grew up in New York with pictures of Lenin over his crib and provides colorful stories of riding the rails during the Depression, organizing Black sharecroppers, working on the collective Sunrise Farm and as Orson Welles' secretary. Like many of his generation, he fought in Spain with the Lincoln Brigades, and his experiences there shattered his political world, as he recounts horror stories of the Stalinist purges of anarchist fighters. His depictions of the Spanish Civil War have made him "our American Orwell."andmdash;Paul Berman
William Herrick is the author of 10 novels, including Hermanos! and Shadows and Wolves. He lives in upstate New York.
Synopsis
An "American Orwell" provides a stunning account of his time fighting in Spain, as well as his early years as a hobo, labor organizer and communal farmer.
Synopsis
Fiction. "I'm an anarcho-social democrat. I have a deep, instinctive distrust of power.When people start claiming they can save humankind, run like hell"-William Herrick. Herrick has been called "our American Orwell" by Paul Berman, and this story "has the sweep of a Steinbeck novel and all its open faced idealism that eventually gives way to a cranky pragmatism. Young Communist. Worker on a communal farm. Hobo riding the rails. Spanish Civil War enlistee. Union organizer for black sharecroppers in Georgia. Outspoken critic of the Communist Party. Novelist beginning in middle age"-Paul Grondahl.