Eastman, Max

Eastman, Max, 1883–1969, American author, b. Canandaigua, N.Y., grad. Williams, 1905. For many years a Communist and a leader of American liberal thought, he edited the left-wing periodicals The Masses (1913–17) and the Liberator (1918–23). His eventual disillusionment with Communism is reflected in such works as Marxism, Is It Science? (1940), Stalin's Russia (1940), and Reflections on the Failure of Socialism (1955). His other works include Enjoyment of Poetry (1913), his most popular work; Enjoyment of Laughter (1936); and Poems of Five Decades (1954). Among his autobiographical works is Love and Revolution (1965).

See biography by W. L. O'Neill (1978).

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