Worker-writer in America
Subtitle: Jack Conroy and the tradition of midwestern literary radicalism, 1898-1990
By: Douglas Wixson.
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Published: 1994
Place of publication: Urbana
Language: eng
Number of pages: 678
Subjects: Conroy, Jack, 1898-1990; Working class writings, American -- History and criticism; Radicalism -- Middle West -- History -- 20th century; Working class authors -- United States -- Biography; Working class -- Middle West -- Intellectual life; Authors, American -- 20th century -- Biography; Radicals -- Middle West -- Biography; Middle West in literature; Radicalism in literature
Genres: Biography.
Description: Conroy, a coal miner's son who apprenticed at age thirteen in a railroad shop, later migrated to factory cities and experienced the privation and labor struggles of the 1930s. As worker and writer he composed The Disinherited, one of the most important working-class novels of the thirties. As editor of a radical literary journal, The Anvil, he nurtured the early careers of Richard Wright, Nelson Algren, and Meridel LeSueur before his own literary work was eclipsed in the cold war years.

Douglas Wixson draws upon a wealth of letters and manuscripts made available to him as Conroy's literary executor, as well as numerous interviews with Conroy and his former contributors and colleagues. Wixson explores the origins and development of worker-writing and the numerous "little magazines" it generated.

He examines the differences between the midwestern and East Coast literary worlds and the milieu in which Conroy and others like him worked - the Depression, job layoffs, factory closings, homelessness, and migration.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [587]-636) and index.