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Edgar Parks Snow (19 July 1905 – 15 February 1972) was an American
journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...
known for his books and articles on
Communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...
in
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
and the
Chinese Communist revolution The Chinese Communist Revolution, officially known as the Chinese People's War of Liberation in the People's Republic of China (PRC) and also known as the National Protection War against the Communist Rebellion in the Republic of China (RO ...
. He was the first Western journalist to give an account of the history of the
Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Ci ...
following the
Long March The Long March (, lit. ''Long Expedition'') was a military retreat undertaken by the Red Army of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the forerunner of the People's Liberation Army, to evade the pursuit of the National Army of the Chinese ...
, and he was also the first Western journalist to interview many of its leaders, including
Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also Romanization of Chinese, romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the List of national founde ...
. He is best known for his book, '' Red Star Over China'' (1937), an account of the Chinese Communist movement from its foundation until the late 1930s.


Background

Edgar Parks Snow was born on July 19, 1905, in
Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City (abbreviated KC or KCMO) is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 508,090 in 2020, making it the List of United States cities by populat ...
. Before settling in Missouri, his ancestors had moved to the state from
North Carolina North Carolina () is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 28th largest and List of states and territories of the United ...
,
Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...
, and
Kansas Kansas () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its Capital city, capital is Topeka, Kansas, Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita, Kansas, Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebras ...
.Fairbank, John D. "Introduction". In Snow, Edgar
''Red Star Over China: The Classic Account of the Birth of Chinese Communism''
New York, NY: Edgar Snow. 1968. . p.11
He briefly studied journalism at the
University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus University of Missouri System. MU was founded in ...
,Curators of the University of Missouri
Edgar Parks Snow Papers
. ''University Archives: University of Missouri-Kansas City''. July 08, 2010. Retrieved July 7, 2014.
and joined the Zeta Phi chapter of the
Beta Theta Pi Beta Theta Pi (), commonly known as Beta, is a North American social fraternity that was founded in 1839 at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. One of North America's oldest fraternities, as of 2022 it consists of 144 active chapters in the Uni ...
fraternity.


Career

Instead, Snow moved to
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
to pursue a career in advertising before graduating. He made a little money in the stock market shortly before the
Wall Street Crash of 1929 The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in the autumn of 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange coll ...
. In 1928 he used the money to travel around the world, intending to write about his travels.


China

Snow arrived in Shanghai that summer and stayed in China for thirteen years. He quickly found work with the '' China Weekly Review'', edited by J.B. Powell, a graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism. He became friends with prominent writers and intellectuals, including
Soong Ching-ling Rosamond Soong Ch'ing-ling (27 January 189329 May 1981) was a Chinese political figure. As the third wife of Sun Yat-sen, then Premier of the Kuomintang and President of the Republic of China, she was often referred to as Madame Sun Yat-sen. ...
, the widow of
Sun Yat-sen Sun Yat-sen (; also known by several other names; 12 November 1866 – 12 March 1925)Singtao daily. Saturday edition. 23 October 2010. section A18. Sun Yat-sen Xinhai revolution 100th anniversary edition . was a Chinese politician who serve ...
and an advocate of reform. During his early years in China, he supported
Chiang Kai-shek Chiang Kai-shek (31 October 1887 – 5 April 1975), also known as Chiang Chung-cheng and Jiang Jieshi, was a Chinese Nationalist politician, revolutionary, and military leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China (ROC) from 1928 ...
, noting that Chiang had more Harvard graduates in his cabinet than there were in
Franklin Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
's. He arrived in India in 1931 with an introduction letter to
Nehru Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (; ; ; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat— * * * * and author who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20t ...
from Agnes Smedley, an American left-wing journalist living in China. He delivered it in
Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the secon ...
and Sarojini Naidu introduced him to her Communist sister Suhasini, who took him around to see mill workers. He met
Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...
in Simla, but was not impressed. He covered the Meerut conspiracy case trial in which three British communists were involved, and wrote three articles about India. He began to make an international name for himself when he became correspondent for the ''
Saturday Evening Post ''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine, currently published six times a year. It was issued weekly under this title from 1897 until 1963, then every two weeks until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely ...
'' and widely traveled throughout China, often on assignment for the Chinese Railway Ministry. He toured famine districts in Northwest China, visited what would later become the
Burma Road The Burma Road () was a road linking Burma (now known as Myanmar) with southwest China. Its terminals were Kunming, Yunnan, and Lashio, Burma. It was built while Burma was a British colony to convey supplies to China during the Second S ...
, and reported on the
Japanese invasion of Manchuria The Empire of Japan's Kwantung Army invaded Manchuria on 18 September 1931, immediately following the Mukden Incident. At the war's end in February 1932, the Japanese established the puppet state of Manchukuo. Their occupation lasted until the ...
. In 1932 he married Helen Foster, who was working in the American Consulate until she could begin her own career in journalism. She and Snow hit upon the pen-name "Nym Wales" for her professional work. In 1933, after a honeymoon in Japan, Snow and his wife moved to
Beiping "Beijing" is from pinyin ''Běijīng,'' which is romanized from , the Chinese name for this city. The pinyin system of transliteration was approved by the Chinese government in 1958, but little used until 1979. It was gradually adopted by various ...
, as Beijing was called at that time. They taught journalism part-time at
Yenching University Yenching University (), was a university in Beijing, China, that was formed out of the merger of four Christian colleges between the years 1915 and 1920. The term "Yenching" comes from an alternative name for old Beijing, derived from its statu ...
, the leading university, and studied Chinese, becoming modestly fluent. In addition to writing a book on Japanese aggression in China, ''Far Eastern Front'', he also edited a collection of modern Chinese short stories (translated into English), ''Living China''.Fairbank, John D. "Introduction". In Snow, Edgar
''Red Star Over China: The Classic Account of the Birth of Chinese Communism''
New York, NY: Edgar Snow. 1968. . pp.11-12
They borrowed works on current affairs from the Yenching library and read the principal texts of
Marxism Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
. The couple became acquainted with student leaders of the anti-Japanese December 9th Movement. It was through their contacts in the underground communist network that Snow was invited to visit
Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also Romanization of Chinese, romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the List of national founde ...
's headquarters.Thomas, ''Season of High Adventure'', 107-125.


''Red Star Over China''

In June 1936, Snow left home with a letter of introduction from
Soong Ching-ling Rosamond Soong Ch'ing-ling (27 January 189329 May 1981) was a Chinese political figure. As the third wife of Sun Yat-sen, then Premier of the Kuomintang and President of the Republic of China, she was often referred to as Madame Sun Yat-sen. ...
(who was a politically important supporter of the Communists) and arrived at
Xi'an Xi'an ( , ; ; Chinese: ), frequently spelled as Xian and also known by other names, is the capital of Shaanxi Province. A sub-provincial city on the Guanzhong Plain, the city is the third most populous city in Western China, after Chongqi ...
. The Communist-held areas were blockaded by
Zhang Xueliang Chang Hsüeh-liang (, June 3, 1901 – October 15, 2001), also romanized as Zhang Xueliang, nicknamed the "Young Marshal" (少帥), known in his later life as Peter H. L. Chang, was the effective ruler of Northeast China and much of northern ...
's army, which had been forced out of his Manchurian base when the Japanese invaded in 1931, Zhang and his followers wanted to work with the Communists in order to oppose the Japanese and allowed Snow to enter. Snow was accompanied by
George Hatem Ma Haide (; September 26, 1910 – October 3, 1988), born Shafick George Hatem ( ar, جورج شفيق حاتم), was an American doctor who practiced medicine in China. Family and early life Shafick George Hatem was born into a Lebanese-Ame ...
, who had worked with the Party, whose presence on the trip Snow did not mention for many years. Snow had been preparing to write a book about the Communist movement in China, and had even signed a contract at one point. However, his most important contribution was the interviews that he had conducted with the top leaders of the party. When Snow wrote, there were no reliable reports reaching the West about the Communist-controlled areas. Other writers, such as
Agnes Smedley Agnes Smedley (February 23, 1892 – May 6, 1950) was an American journalist, writer, and activist who supported the Indian Independence Movement and the Chinese Communist Revolution. Raised in a poverty-stricken miner's family in Missouri and Co ...
, had written in some detail about the Chinese Communists before the Long March, but none of these writers had visited them or even conducted interviews with the leadership which had emerged during the
Long March The Long March (, lit. ''Long Expedition'') was a military retreat undertaken by the Red Army of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the forerunner of the People's Liberation Army, to evade the pursuit of the National Army of the Chinese ...
. Snow was taken through the military quarantine lines to the Communist headquarters at Bao'an, where he spent four months (until October 1936) interviewing Mao and other Communist leaders. He was greeted by crowds of cadets and troops who shouted slogans of welcome, and Snow later recalled "the effect pronounced upon me was highly emotional." Over a period spanning ten days,
Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also Romanization of Chinese, romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the List of national founde ...
met with Snow and narrated his autobiography. Although Snow did not know it at the time, party leadership carefully prepared Mao for these interviews and edited Snow's drafts. Snow claimed that he had been under no constraint, but made revisions in the book at the request of Mao,
Zhou Enlai Zhou Enlai (; 5 March 1898 – 8 January 1976) was a Chinese statesman and military officer who served as the first premier of the People's Republic of China from 1 October 1949 until his death on 8 January 1976. Zhou served under Chairman M ...
, and perhaps American communists who worried that Mao was creating splits in the International movement. After he returned to Beijing in the fall, Snow wrote frantically. First he published a short account in ''China Weekly Review'', then a series quickly translated into Chinese. ''Red Star Over China'', published first in London in 1937, was an immediate best-seller. The book is given credit for introducing both Chinese and foreign readers not so much to the Communist Party, which was reasonably well known, but to Mao Zedong. Mao was not, as had been reported, dead. Snow reported that Mao was a sincere communist, a patriot committed to resisting the Japanese invasion and world-wide fascism, and a political reformer, not the purely military or radical revolutionary that he had been during the 1920s. In the first four weeks after its publication, ''Red Star over China'' sold over 12,000 copies, and it effectively made Snow world-famous. The book quickly became a "standard" introduction to the early Communist movement in China.


China during World War II

After the
Japanese invasion of China The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific The ...
in 1937, the Snows became founding members of the Chinese Industrial Cooperative Association (Indusco). The goal of Indusco was to establish workers' cooperatives in areas which were not controlled by the Japanese, through which Chinese workers would be provided with steady employment, education, consumer and industrial goods, and the opportunity to manage their own farms and factories. Snow's work in Indusco mainly involved his chairmanship of the Membership and Propaganda Committee, which managed public and financial support. Indusco was eventually successful in creating 1,850 workers' cooperatives.Hamilton, John Maxwell. ''Edgar Snow: A Biography''. United States of America: John Maxwell Hamilton. 1988. . p.2 Retrieved July 7, 2014. Snow again visited Mao in
Yan'an Yan'an (; ), alternatively spelled as Yenan is a prefecture-level city in the Shaanbei region of Shaanxi province, China, bordering Shanxi to the east and Gansu to the west. It administers several counties, including Zhidan (formerly Bao'an) ...
in 1939. Snow reported on the
Nanking Massacre The Nanjing Massacre (, ja, 南京大虐殺, Nankin Daigyakusatsu) or the Rape of Nanjing (formerly romanized as ''Nanking'') was the mass murder of Chinese civilians in Nanjing, the capital of the Republic of China, immediately after the ...
(December 1937 to February 1938), and he even reported on Japanese reactions to it, stating:
In Shanghai a few Japanese deeply felt the shame and the humiliation. I remember, for example, talking one evening to a Japanese friend, a liberal-minded newspaper man who survived by keeping his views to himself, and whose name I withhold for his own protection. "Yes, they are all true," he unexpectedly admitted when I asked him about some atrocity reports, "only the facts are actually worse than any story yet published." There were tears in his eyes and I took his sorrow to be genuine.
His report on the Nanking Massacre appeared in his 1941 book ''Scorched Earth''. Snow met Wataru Kaji, and his wife, Yuki Ikeda. Both Kaji and Ikeda survived a Japanese bombing attack on
Wuchang Wuchang forms part of the urban core of and is one of 13 urban districts of the prefecture-level city of Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province, China. It is the oldest of the three cities that merged into modern-day Wuhan, and stood on the ri ...
and met him at the
Hankow Hankou, alternately romanized as Hankow (), was one of the three towns (the other two were Wuchang and Hanyang) merged to become modern-day Wuhan city, the capital of the Hubei province, China. It stands north of the Han and Yangtze Rivers whe ...
Navy YMCA. Snow met them again a year later in
Chongqing Chongqing ( or ; ; Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Chungking (), is a municipality in Southwest China. The official abbreviation of the city, "" (), was approved by the State Co ...
and he was reminded that:
Japan was full of decent people like them who, if they had not had their craniums stuffed full of Sun goddess myths and other imperialist filth, and been forbidden access to 'dangerous thoughts,' and been armed by American and British hypocrites, could easily live in a civilized co-operative world if any of us could provide one.


Later journalism

Shortly before the United States entered World War II, in 1941, Snow toured Japanese-occupied areas of Asia and wrote his second major book, ''Battle for Asia'', about his observations. After writing the book, Snow and his wife returned to the United States, where they separated. In April 1942, the ''Saturday Evening Post'' sent him abroad as a war correspondent. Snow traveled to India, China, and Russia to report on
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
from the perspectives of those countries. In Russia he shared his observations of the
Battle of Stalingrad The Battle of Stalingrad (23 August 19422 February 1943) was a major battle on the Eastern Front of World War II where Nazi Germany and its allies unsuccessfully fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad (later r ...
with the American Embassy. At times, Snow's defenses of various undemocratic Allied governments were denounced as blatant war propaganda, not neutral journalistic observation, but Snow defended his reporting, stating:
In this international cataclysm brought on by
fascists Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy and the ...
it is no more possible for any people to remain neutral than it is for a man surrounded by
bubonic plague Bubonic plague is one of three types of plague caused by the plague bacterium ('' Yersinia pestis''). One to seven days after exposure to the bacteria, flu-like symptoms develop. These symptoms include fever, headaches, and vomiting, as wel ...
to remain 'neutral' toward the rat population. Whether you like it or not, your life as a force is bound either to help the rats or hinder them. Nobody can be immunized against the germs of history.
By 1944, Snow was wavering on the question of whether Mao and the Chinese Communists were actually "agrarian democrats," rather than dedicated
communists Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
who were bent on
totalitarian Totalitarianism is a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual and group opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high if not complete degree of control and reg ...
rule.Hamilton, John M., ''Edgar Snow: A Biography'', LSU Press, (2003) , , p. 167; Shewmaker, Kenneth E., ''Americans and Chinese Communists, 1927-1945: A Persuading Encounter'', Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press (1971) His 1944 book, ''People On Our Side'', emphasized their role in the fight against fascism. In a speech, he described Mao and the Communist Chinese as a progressive force which desired a democratic, free China. Writing for ''
The Nation ''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper t ...
'', Snow stated that the Chinese Communists "happen to have renounced, years ago now, any intention of establishing
communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...
n Chinain the near future." After the war, Snow retreated from the view that the Chinese communists were a democratic movement. While working as a correspondent in Russia, he wrote three short books about Russia's role both in World War II and world affairs: ''People on Our Side'' (1944); ''The Pattern of Soviet Power'' (1945); and, ''Stalin Must Have Peace'' (1947). In 1949 Snow divorced Helen Foster and married his second wife, Lois Wheeler. They had a son, Christopher (born 1949) who died of
cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...
in October 2008,Sian Snow in her comment, August 29, 2012 to: ''"A compelling, historical and bittersweet film" by local filmmaker on Edgar Snow, U.S Journalist'', an article b
Catherine
in Living in Nyon, April 20, 2012
and a daughter, Sian (born 1950), named after the Chinese city Sian (now Xi'an),''Ailleurs, ma maison ( A Home Far Away)'', documentary by Peter Entell, 100 min., Show and Tell Films, ARTE G.E.I.E.,
Radio Télévision Suisse Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30  hertz (Hz) and 300  gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a tr ...
,
SRG SSR The Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (german: Schweizerische Radio- und Fernsehgesellschaft; french: Société suisse de radiodiffusion et télévision; it, Società svizzera di radiotelevisione; rm, Societad Svizra da Radio e Televisiun; SRG ...
, 2012
who lives and works as a translator and editor in the
Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Situa ...
region, not far from where her mother lived for many years prior to her death in 2018.


McCarthyism, exile

Because of his relationships with communists and because of his highly favorable treatment of them when he was a war correspondent, Snow became an object of suspicion after
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
. During the
McCarthy period McCarthyism is the practice of making false or unfounded accusations of subversion and treason, especially when related to anarchism, communism and socialism, and especially when done in a public and attention-grabbing manner. The term orig ...
, he was questioned by the FBI and he was also asked to disclose the extent of his relationship with the
Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of '' The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engel ...
. In published articles, Snow lamented about what he saw as the one-sided,
conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
, and
anti-communist Anti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, when the United States and the ...
mood in the United States. Later in the 1950s, he published two more books about China: ''Random Notes on Red China'' (1957), a collection of previously unused China material which was of interest to China scholars; and ''Journey to the Beginning'' (1958), an autobiographical account of his experiences in China before 1949. During the 1950s, Snow found it difficult to make a living through his writing, and he decided to leave the United States. He and his wife moved to
Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
in 1959, but he remained an American citizen.


Visits to China

He returned to China in 1960 and 1964, interviewed
Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also Romanization of Chinese, romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the List of national founde ...
and
Zhou Enlai Zhou Enlai (; 5 March 1898 – 8 January 1976) was a Chinese statesman and military officer who served as the first premier of the People's Republic of China from 1 October 1949 until his death on 8 January 1976. Zhou served under Chairman M ...
, traveled extensively, and talked to many people. His 1963 book, ''The Other Side of the River'', details his experience, including his reasons for denying that China's 1959-1961
Great Leap Forward The Great Leap Forward (Second Five Year Plan) of the People's Republic of China (PRC) was an economic and social campaign led by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1958 to 1962. CCP Chairman Mao Zedong launched the campaign to reconstr ...
was a
famine A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including war, natural disasters, crop failure, population imbalance, widespread poverty, an economic catastrophe or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accompan ...
. In 1970, he – this time with his wife, Lois Wheeler Snow – made a final trip to China. On October 1, he stood next to Mao during the National Day parade in Beijing, the first time an American was given that honor. In December 1970, Mao Zedong called Snow to his office one morning before dawn for an informal talk lasting over five hours, during which Mao told Snow that he would welcome
Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...
to China either as a tourist or in his official capacity as President of the United States.
Edgar Snow: Citizen of the World
', University of Missouri – Kansas City Archives (UMKC) and Lois Wheeler Snow, The Edgar Snow Project (http://edgarsnowproject.org edgarsnowproject.org)
Snow reached an agreement with
Time magazine ''Time'' (stylized in all caps) is an American news magazine based in New York City. For nearly a century, it was published weekly, but starting in March 2020 it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York City on Ma ...
to publish his final interview with Mao, including the Nixon invitation, provided the earlier interview with Zhou Enlai was also published. The
White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...
followed this visit with interest but distrusted Snow and his pro-communist reputation. When Snow came down with
pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer arises when cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a mass. These cancerous cells have the ability to invade other parts of the body. A number of types of pancr ...
and returned home after a surgery, Zhou Enlai dispatched a team of Chinese doctors to Switzerland, including
George Hatem Ma Haide (; September 26, 1910 – October 3, 1988), born Shafick George Hatem ( ar, جورج شفيق حاتم), was an American doctor who practiced medicine in China. Family and early life Shafick George Hatem was born into a Lebanese-Ame ...
.


Death

Snow died on February 15, 1972, the week President Nixon was traveling to China, before he could see the normalization of relations. He died of
cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...
, at the age of 66, at his home in Eysins near
Nyon Nyon (; outdated German: or ; outdated Italian: , ) is a municipality in Nyon District in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. It is located some 25 kilometers north east of Geneva's city centre, and since the 1970s it has become part of the Ge ...
,
Vaud Vaud ( ; french: (Canton de) Vaud, ; german: (Kanton) Waadt, or ), more formally the canton of Vaud, is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of ten districts and its capital city is Lausanne. Its coat of arms ...
, Switzerland. After his death, his ashes were divided into two parts at his request. One half was buried at Sneden's Landing, near the
Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between Ne ...
. The other half was buried on the grounds of
Peking University Peking University (PKU; ) is a public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education. Peking University was established as the Imperial University of Peking in 1898 when it received its royal charte ...
, which had taken over the campus of Yenching University, where he had taught in the 1930s. His final book, ''The Long Revolution'', was published posthumously by Lois Wheeler Snow. In 1973 Lois Wheeler Snow went to China to bury half of her husband's ashes in the garden of
Peking University Peking University (PKU; ) is a public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education. Peking University was established as the Imperial University of Peking in 1898 when it received its royal charte ...
. In 2000 – together with her son Chris – she traveled to Beijing in support of women who lost their children in the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989. One of these mothers was under house arrest and refused visits by others, while another was arrested after receiving financial assistance from Wheeler Snow. Wheeler Snow issued statements of protest to the international press and threatened to remove her husband's remains from Chinese soil. In her letter to the Chinese ambassador in Geneva, Wheeler Snow expressed her wish that the people of China be liberated from oppression, corruption and misuse of power – just as she and her husband had expressed in 1949.


Evaluation by China scholars

Snow's reporting from China in the 1930s has been both praised as prescient and blamed for the rise of Mao's communism. Some China historians have judged Snow's writing very positively. John K. Fairbank praised Snow's reporting for giving the West the first articulate account of the Chinese Communist Party and its leadership, which he called "disastrously prophetic." Writing thirty years after the first publication of ''Red Star Over China'', Fairbank stated that the book had "stood the test of time... both as a historical record and as an indication of a trend." Fairbank agrees that Snow was used by Mao, but defended Snow against the allegation that he was blinded by Chinese hospitality and charm, insisting that "Snow did what he could as a professional journalist." Other historians have been more critical of Snow. Jung Chang and Jon Halliday's anti-communist biography, '' Mao: The Unknown Story'', describes Snow as a Mao spokesman and accuses him of supplying myths, asserting that he lost his objectivity to such an extent that he presented a romanticized view of communist China. Jonathan Mirsky, a critical voice, stated that what Snow did in the 1930s was "to describe the Chinese Communists before anyone else, and thus score a world-class scoop." Of his reporting in 1960, however, he says that Snow "went much further than those who reckoned that Mao and his comrades would take power." He contented himself with assurances from Zhou Enlai and Mao Zedong that while there was a food problem, it was being dealt with successfully," which "was not true", and "had Snow still been the reporter he had been in the 1930s he would have discovered it." In '' Mao: A Reinterpretation'', a work sympathetic to Mao, Lee Feigon criticizes Snow's account for its inaccuracies, but praises ''Red Star'' for being " heseminal portrait of Mao" and relies on Snow's work as a critical reference throughout the book.Feigon, Lee, ''Mao: A Reinterpretation'', Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2002,


Works

*''Far Eastern Front''. H. Smith & R. Haas, New York, 1933. * Harrap, London, 1936. *'' Red Star Over China'' (various editions, London, New York, 1937–1944). Reprinted Read Books, 2006, ; Hesperides Press, 2008, . *''Scorched Earth''. Gollancz, London, 1941. Published in the USA as Random House, 1941. * Random House, 1944. * Random House, 1945. *' Random House, 1947. *''Journey to the Beginning''. Random House, 1958. * Marzani & Munsell, New York, 1962. * Gollancz, London, 1963. New edition, Penguin Books, 1970. . *
Random Notes on Red China 1936-1945
'. East Asian Research Center, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1968. *''The Long Revolution.'' Random House, 1972 * University of Missouri Press, Columbia, Missouri, 1991


References


References and further reading

*Hamilton, John M. (2009
''Journalism's Roving Eye: A History of American Foreign Reporting''
Louisiana State University Press. * Dimond, E. Grey. ''Ed Snow Before Paoan: The Shanghai Years.'' Diastole Hospital Hill, Inc., University of Missouri-Kansas City, 1985. * Farnsworth, Robert. ''Edgar Snow's Journey South of the Clouds.'' Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1991. * Farnsworth, Robert. ''From Vagabond to Journalist: Edgar Snow in Asia 1928-1941''. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1996. * French, Paul. ''Through the Looking Glass: Foreign Journalists in China, from the Opium Wars to Mao''. Hong Kong University Press, 2009. * * Mirsky, Jonathan. "Message from Mao", ''New York Review'' (February 16, 1985): 15-17. Review. * Shewmaker, Kenneth E., ''Americans and Chinese Communists, 1927-1945: A Persuading Encounter'', Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press (1971) * Snow, Edgar. ''Journey to the Beginning''. New York: Random House, 1958. Memoir. * Snow, Lois Wheeler. ''Edgar Snow's China - A personal account of the Chinese Revolution compiled from the writings of Edgar Snow''. Random House, New York, 1981. * *


External links

*
Edgar Snow Memorial Foundation websiteEdgar Snow Archives at the University of Missouri in Kansas City
{{DEFAULTSORT:Snow, Edgar American reporters and correspondents American political writers American male non-fiction writers Writers about China American expatriates in China University of Missouri alumni Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism alumni Writers about communism Writers from Missouri 1905 births 1972 deaths Yenching University faculty 20th-century American non-fiction writers Burials in Beijing 20th-century American male writers China Hands