Talk:League of American Writers

Naming names in the lead

I've moved mention of John Steinbeck from the lead to the body. The League of American Writers, quite simply, included a TON of "big names" of the literary world, Steinbeck being just one. There's no good rationale for singling him out, in my opinion, since he was not an officer of the organization. Nor should we clutter the lead with a laundry list of members — although there does need to be a list added below. Other views? Carrite (talk) 17:08, 27 August 2010 (UTC)

I just thought the general reader would be more interested in reading the article if they saw it had famous writers in its credentials. Of course, that is just a personal view, I dont mind much. ValenShephard (talk) 20:55, 27 August 2010 (UTC)

People are going to get to this page by searching the organization name and are probably going to have a pretty good grasp who was associated with the group coming in. There's no real mission to catch random readers with the most interesting factoids patched into the lead. Hemingway was far tighter with the group than Steinbeck, for example, having addressed one of its conventions. Carrite (talk) 22:36, 27 August 2010 (UTC)

Agree with you, Carrite Aboudaqn (talk) 01:07, 1 March 2023 (UTC)

On "Communist Tone"

Per the section on "communist tone" that you pulled down, here's the full passage from Harvey Klehr's book:

"By the time the Second American Writers' Congress met in June 1937, the openly pro-Communist tone of the 1935 meeting had disappeared." (Klehr, Heyday of American Communism, pg. 354).

It's pretty much a Wikipedia party foul to pull down properly-sourced material on a whim. Obviously, sometimes people accidentally mischaracterize a source or use a source tendentiously, but be really sure of stuff like that before you yank it. Carrite (talk) 22:34, 27 August 2010 (UTC)

I see, well that makes sense. Are you sure their communist overtone disappeared in just the meeting after 1935, or indefinately? ValenShephard (talk) 22:36, 27 August 2010 (UTC)

My impression is they consciously toned it down, although Earl Browder also seems to have addressed the 2nd Congress, so it wasn't like the Communists all started wearing silly mustaches and pretending they were someone else. Now that I've got the dates of the Congresses isolated, I can track down reports in The Nation and so forth to get an outsider view... I'm checking out Daily Worker coverage right now... Carrite (talk) 00:03, 28 August 2010 (UTC)

Sounds good. I just would find it strange if an openly communist organisation toned down its own rhetoric permanently. Thanks. ValenShephard (talk) 00:36, 28 August 2010 (UTC)

The sands shifted in the 1930s… Aboudaqn (talk) 01:09, 1 March 2023 (UTC)

Dissolution

Do you have any information as to why the organisation was dissolved? I think its important to note. ValenShephard (talk) 00:47, 28 August 2010 (UTC)

Bomb throwing radical

The photograph of Waldo Frank is disgusting, both here and on his own Wikipedia entry. Where is his photograph from Yale Univeristy graduation, 1911, or his intellectual visage as captured by Steiglitz? Can permission be sought for that one? --Edward Chilton. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.82.66.88 (talk) 15:52, 25 February 2014 (UTC)

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