Abstract
Allegations that Seldes was a communist emerged in the early 1940s and largely grew out of his uncritical attitude to the Soviets as a part of his campaign against fascism. His pro-labour, pro-Popular Front position and the fact that unbeknownst to him his newsletter was funded by the Communist Party in the first year of its operation amplified these accusations. Seldes and his subscribers came under the surveillance of the FBI and he was eventually called to appear before Senator Joseph McCarthy’s Congressional investigation into the United States Library Service in 1953. This committee’s interrogation of his beliefs affirmed for him his worst fears about the impact of reactionary forces on public debate, freedom and civil rights, and demonstrated how his battle for a free press was recast as a threat to national security in Cold War America where he was unable to convince others that the real threat to freedom was a corrupted press.
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Notes
- 1.
Guenter, Lewy. 1990. The Cause that Failed: Communism in American Political Life. New York. Oxford University Press, USA; 81.
- 2.
Raimondo, J. 2009. Seeing Reds. American Conservative 8, 43–46. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.library.uwa.edu.au/docview/274787229?accountid=14681
- 3.
Helen Jean Williams concluded in her 1947 MA thesis “An Evaluation of the Criticisms of the Daily Press in George Seldes’ In Fact” that Seldes was “nothing more than a propaganda organ disguised as a legitimate vehicle for criticism” University of Minnesota; 135.
- 4.
This committee has a long history and has had several names. Most recently in 2004 this committee became known as the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs.
- 5.
MacPherson, Myra. 2006. All Governments Lie: the Life and Times of Rebel Journalist I.F. Stone. New York: A Lisa Drew Book, Scribner; 246.
- 6.
Storrs, L. 2013. The Second Red Scare and the Unmaking of the New Deal Left. Princeton: Princeton University Press; 1–2.
- 7.
While there was hysteria and suspicion around communism in which thousands of left-wing progressives and idealists were implicated, according to Haynes, Klehr and Vassiliev (2009) the Soviets did seek to infiltrate the US government during the 1930s. Haynes, John Earl, Klehr, Harvey and Vassiliev, Alexander. 2009. Spies: the Rise and Fall of the KGB in America. New Haven: Yale University Press.
- 8.
Fariello, Griffin. 1995. Red Scare: Memories of the American Inquisition. New York: Norton; 41.
- 9.
This was evident in the case of New York Times editor Robert Shelton, who was called to appear before the committee, and after invoking the Fifth Amendment was jailed for four months (MacPherson 2006, 343).
- 10.
MacPherson reports that this was borne out when private documents became public and showed that McCarthy carefully screened who would appear before him to “weed out witnesses who might be tough adversaries” (2006, 345).
- 11.
Bayley, E. 1981. Joe McCarthy and the Press. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press; 3.
- 12.
Letter to Max Lerner from George Seldes 1946 March 12, Beinecke Archives, Yale University.
- 13.
Guenter, 1990; 76.
- 14.
In Fact, January 23, 1950.
- 15.
In Fact, June 30, 1947.
- 16.
In Fact, August 9, 1948.
- 17.
Seldes was on a long list of writers who had an FBI file including Truman Cope, Willa Cather, e.e. cummings, John Dos Passos, Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Mencken Dorothy Parker, John Steinbeck and Ring Lardner (MacPherson 2006; 289).
- 18.
Executive Sessions of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Government Operations, Vol 2, Eighty-Third Congress, First Session, 1953, US Government Printing Office, Washington, 2003; 1190.
- 19.
Robbins, Louise S. The overseas libraries controversy and the freedom to read: U.S. librarians and publishers confront Joseph McCarthy. Libraries & Culture, Vol. 36, No. 1, (Winter, 2001), pp. 27–39. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25548889. Accessed: 11-14-2016 04:41 UTC; 28: p. 29.
- 20.
Robbins, 2001; 28.
- 21.
Congressional Record, 1953; 1210.
- 22.
George Seldes to Francis Knight of the Passports Office (month and day missing, 1955). Part of the letter reads thus: “Helen L. Seldes appeared before the Jenner Committee and swore that she had been a member of the Communist Party for a short time in the early 1940s and had definitely quit by 1944 and was definitely anti-communist.” Seldes Collection. This allegation was also repeated in the House Congressional Record on January 13, 1948 when it was noted by Representative Clare Hoffman that “Helen Larkin Wiesman was recorded as a paying membership dues in 1944 to the Nowalk-Westport, Conn., branch of the Communist Party.” (127)
- 23.
Copy of testitmonial made by Richard Bransten on 15 September 1953, Seldes Collection.
- 24.
Congressional Record, 1953; 1211.
- 25.
MacPherson, 2006; 246–247.
Bibliography
Executive Sessions of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Government Operations, Vol 2, Eighty-Third Congress, First Session, 1953, US Government Printing Office, Washington, 2003.
Guenter, Lewy. 1990. The Cause That Failed: Communism in American Political Life. New York: Oxford University Press, USA.
MacPherson, Myra. 2006. All Governments Lie: The Life and Times of Rebel Journalist I.F. Stone. A Lisa Drew Book, Scribner, New York.
Robbins, Louise S. 2001. The Overseas Libraries Controversy and the Freedom to Read: U.S. Librarians and Publishers Confront Joseph McCarthy. Libraries & Culture, Vol. 36, No. 1, Winter: 27–39. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25548889
Seldes, George. 1938. Lords of the Press. New York: Julian Messner, Inc.
Seldes, George. 1987. Witness to a Century. New York: Ballantine Books.
Seldes, George. 1935. Freedom of the Press. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company.
Seldes, George. 1943. Facts and Fascism New York: In Fact Inc.
Seldes, George. 1949. The People Don’t Know. New York: Gaer Associates.
Storrs, L. 2013. The second Red Scare and the unmaking of the New Deal left. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
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Fordham, H. (2019). Subversive. In: George Seldes’ War for the Public Good. Palgrave Studies in the History of the Media. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30877-3_1
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