Abstract
This chapter considers how the Spanish Civil War radicalized Seldes and how as a member of the Popular Front he came to adopt a non-critical attitude to communism because he believed the Soviets were the only ones defending the fledgling Spanish democratic Republic. Seldes documented the brutality and excesses of the conflict and he came to see the war as not just a struggle between the democratic Republicans and fascist Nationalists but an assault on civilization and democracy. He was so deeply moved by the thousands of young people who flooded the country to fight for what they thought was democratic freedom that his faith in humankind was restored. The ability of the public to see the truth even when fed lies by the daily press was to provide the impetus for his work with Ken magazine and his social activism.
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Notes
- 1.
Eldridge, David. 2008. American Culture in the 1930s. Edinburgh University Press, 2008: 7. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy.library.uwa.edu.au/lib/uwa/detail.action?docID=380394
- 2.
Eugene Lyons, Red Mouthpiece, Plain Talk, November 1946.
- 3.
Williams. Helen Jean. 1947. An evaluation of criticisms of the Daily Press in George Seldes’ In Fact. (MA Thesis, University of Minnesota.): 27.
- 4.
Seldes, George. 1953. Tell the Truth and Run. New York: Greenberg; 228.
- 5.
J. David Stern was publisher of the New York Post, Philadelphia Record, Camden Courier and Camden Post.
- 6.
Seldes to Kyle and May Crichton January 18, 1937. New York Public Library.
- 7.
A friend of Seldes, and a journalist for the Guardian and Republican Minister of Foreign Affairs.
- 8.
George Seldes. Manuscript Draft. Seldes Collection.
- 9.
There are several different sources for the length of time the Seldes spent in Spain. According to the correspondence with the Crichtons, the Seldes were away from America for five months and had spent one month in Spain. However, according to Williams (1947), Seldes spent five months in Spain. Seldes himself wrote that he and Helen had spent 18 months between 1936 and 1937 in Spain for the New York Post. Witness to a Century; 346.
- 10.
The first year of the war was certainly a local conflict but from late 1937 communist forces were found in Spain. Deacon, David. 2008. Elective and Experiential Affinities: British and American foreign correspondents and the Spanish Civil War. Journalism Studies, Vol. 9 (3): 392–408.
- 11.
Seldes, George. 1943. Facts and Fascism; 61.
- 12.
According to Seldes the Catholic Church supported the Nationalists in Spain because Mussolini had reached an agreement with the Pope in Rome, which exchanged fascist support for the protection of papal lands and property. Moreover, many of the clergy in Spain were drawn from the aristocracy and this ensured their support for the Nationalists.
- 13.
Guttenplan, D.D. 2009. American Radical: The Life and Times of I.F. Stone. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux; 133.
- 14.
Seldes, Witness to a Century; 308.
- 15.
Preston, Paul. 2012. The Spanish Holocaust: Inquisition and Extermination in Twentieth-Century Spain. London: Harper Collins.
- 16.
Seldes, Tell the Truth and Run; 241.
- 17.
George Seldes. “A Time of Decision” draft chapter, Seldes Collection.
- 18.
Christian Science Monitor, St Louis Post Dispatch, Witness to a Century, 1987; 327.
- 19.
On his way home from Spain Seldes had stopped in Paris and met with the former American ambassador to Russia, Bill Bullitt, and briefed him on the events in Spain. During this meeting Seldes recalled that he had reiterated that there was no organized communist presence in Spain, an observation that Bullitt strongly disputed.
- 20.
Tell the Truth and Run; 241.
- 21.
According to Seldes’ FBI file, these organizations included League of American Writers, The American Civil Liberties Union, the National Committee for the Defence of Political Prisoners, the American Peace Mobilization, New York Peace Association, American League for Peace and Democracy and Citizen’s Defence Committee. Seldes also signed A Statement by American Progressives on the Moscow Trials and in 1938 signed a letter along with 36 other writers demanding that America terminate trade with Nazi Germany. He also signed a Defence of a Bill of Rights and was a sponsor of the Fourth Annual Conference of the Committee for the Protection of the Foreign Born and supported a conference on Constitutional Liberties in America. He joined the Writers Emergency Committee to Save the New Masses, the National Committee for Peoples’ Rights and the National Committee for the American boycott against aggressor nations and the Defence Committee for George Roth, a young American arrested by the Gestapo. Seldes was a member of the Films for Democracy Committee and the North American Committee to Aid Spanish Democracy. He was also a member of the Marcus Graham Freedom of the Press Committee and the Friends of Abraham Lincoln Brigade Committee to Aid Excluded Loyalist Veterans. He was a member of American Investors Union (AIU), which was formed in 1939 to provide independent advice to small investors. Edited by I.F. Stone, the publication examined the financial reports of companies, analysed trends in the market and lobbied for legislation that would protect the small investors. The AIU was connected to the Consumer Union, which was considered a popular front organization. Seldes and New Republic editor John T. Flyn were both on the board of directors.
- 22.
Witness to a Century; 305.
- 23.
Eugene Lyons. 1947. Red Mouthpiece, Plain Talk.
- 24.
Seldes did not know the extent of the communist involvement in the Republic until the 1950s. He wrote in personal correspondence to a friend, Tim W., in December 1957 that “I was completely taken in by the Moscow program of complete disinterested, united front help for the republic.” Seldes Collection.
- 25.
Tell the Truth and Run; 234.
- 26.
Tell the Truth and Run; 228.
- 27.
Tell the Truth and Run; 254.
- 28.
You Can’t Print That; 238.
- 29.
Gingrich, Arnold. 1971. Nothing but the People: The Early Days at Esquire. A Personal History 1928–1958. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc.; 131.
- 30.
David Smart had noted in the conversations about Ken that most of the news made him want to throw up: “The whole damn world’s beginning to be a sort of wonderland where everybody’s going around pretending to believe what they know damn well isn’t so, as if it was some kind of game they were all playing.” Gingrich, 1971; 132.
- 31.
Gingrich, 1971; 138.
- 32.
Gingrich, 1971; 146.
- 33.
Gingrich appeared before the committee and claimed the magazine was against both fascism and communism and sought to defend American democracy https://archive.org/stream/investigationofu193802unit#page/1236/mode/2up
- 34.
- 35.
Gingrich, 1971. Nothing but the People; 146.
- 36.
A review of some of the articles contained in Ken includes articles about Hitler and Mussolini and interviews with American experts on farming and examinations of social issues like the Ku Klux Klan and prostitution. http://www.oldmagazinearticles.com/magazine_ken_magazine
- 37.
Seldes claimed that of the 500 interviewed 495 supported the Republic. Witness to a Century 1987; 346.
Bibliography
Gingrich, Arnold. 1971. Nothing But the People: The Early Days at Esquire A Personal History 1928–1958. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc.
Lyons, Eugene. 1947. The facts behind “In fact”, the red mouthpiece. Plain Talk. New York.
Seldes, George. 1953. Tell the Truth and Run. New York: Greenberg Publisher.
Seldes, George. 1987. Witness to a Century. New York: Ballantine Books.
Seldes, George. 1943. Facts and Fascism New York: In Fact Inc.
Williams, Helen Jean. 1947. An Evaluation of Criticisms of the Daily Press in George Seldes’ In Fact. (MA Thesis) University of Minnesota.
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Fordham, H. (2019). Activist. 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_6
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