Henry Garfield Alsberg (September 21, 1881November 1, 1970) was an American journalist and writer who served as the founding director of the
Federal Writers' Project
The Federal Writers' Project (FWP) was a federal government project in the United States created to provide jobs for out-of-work writers during the Great Depression. It was part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a New Deal program. It ...
.
A lawyer by training, he was a foreign correspondent during the
Russian Revolution
The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and ad ...
, secretary to the
U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, and an influential volunteer for refugee aid efforts. Alsberg was a producer at the
Provincetown Playhouse
The Provincetown Playhouse is a historic theatre at 133 MacDougal Street between 3rd Street (Manhattan), West 3rd and 4th Street (Manhattan), West 4th Streets in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It is named for the P ...
. He spent years traveling through war-torn Europe on behalf of the
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, also known as Joint or JDC, is a Jewish relief organization based in New York City. Since 1914 the organisation has supported Jewish people living in Israel and throughout the world. The organization i ...
. After publishing several magazines for the
Federal Emergency Relief Administration
The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) was a program established by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1933, building on the Hoover administration's Emergency Relief and Construction Act. It was replaced in 1935 by the Works Progress Adm ...
, he was appointed to head the Federal Writers' Project. Fired from the project shortly after testifying before the
House Un-American Activities Committee
The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloy ...
, he worked for a short time for the
Office of War Information
The United States Office of War Information (OWI) was a United States government agency created during World War II. The OWI operated from June 1942 until September 1945. Through radio broadcasts, newspapers, posters, photographs, films and other ...
, then joined Hastings House Publishers as an editor.
Early life and education
Alsberg was born September 21, 1881, in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
to Meinhard and Bertha Alsberg. Meinhard was born in
Arolsen
Bad Arolsen (, until 1997 Arolsen, ''Bad'' being the German name for ''Spa'') is a small town in northern Hesse, Germany, in Waldeck-Frankenberg district. From 1655 until 1918 it served as the residence town of the Princes of Waldeck-Pyrmont and t ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
and immigrated to the United States in 1865 where he married Bertha (born in New York City) and was naturalized in 1876. Henry was the youngest of their four children.
Alsberg's parents were secular Jews, his mother being indifferent to religion and his father described as "aggressive in his agnosticism".
Alsberg had neither a
bris
The ''brit milah'' ( he, בְּרִית מִילָה ''bərīṯ mīlā'', ; Ashkenazi pronunciation: , "covenant of circumcision"; Yiddish pronunciation: ''bris'' ) is the ceremony of circumcision in Judaism. According to the Book of Genesis, ...
nor a
Bar Mitzvah, and only attended a
shul
A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of worshi ...
once as a child when his grandmother took him to
Temple Emanu-El which infuriated his father.
Initially home-schooled, Alsberg was fluent in German and French, and spoke some Yiddish and Russian. For his secondary education, he attended Mount Morris Latin School.
Alsberg suffered from lifelong digestive problems possibly related to an incident in his teens when his appendix ruptured in the middle of the night. Alsberg waited till morning to tell his family rather than wake them up, and had emergency abdominal surgery.
Alsberg, called Hank by friends and family, entered
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
at age 15 in 1896,
the youngest member of the class of 1900 who called themselves the "Naughty-Naughtians". Alsberg was an editor of the literary magazine ''The Morningside'', and also contributed poems and short stories. He belonged to the Société Française and the Philharmonic Society (cellist), and participated in baseball, wrestling, and fencing. After graduation, Alsberg enrolled in
Columbia Law School
Columbia Law School (Columbia Law or CLS) is the law school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university in New York City. Columbia Law is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world and has always ranked i ...
, graduating in 1903. Alsberg played two seasons on both the college and varsity football teams as guard and tackle.
After practicing law for three years,
Alsberg entered
Harvard
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
's Graduate School of Arts and Science for a year to study comparative literature.
Journalism, theater, and international activity
Early years in journalism
Uninterested in finishing his graduate studies at Harvard or practicing law, Alsberg moved back to New York City to write. He sent an early play to
Paul Kester
Paul Kester (November 2, 1870 – June 21, 1933) was an American playwright and novelist. He was the younger brother of journalist Vaughan Kester and a cousin of the literary editor and critic William Dean Howells.
Life and career
Kester was born ...
which Kester recommended to
Bertha Galland
Bertha Galland (November 15, 1876 – November 20, 1932) was an American dramatic stage actress remembered for her romantic roles.
Early life
Bertha Galland was the daughter of Berthold Galland and Anna Miller Hawley. According to her obituary i ...
. He sold a short story, "Soirée Kokimono", to ''
The Forum'' in 1912; the story was selected for the following year's ''Forum Stories'' compilation.
Abram Isaac Elkus
Abram Isaac Elkus (August 6, 1867 – October 15, 1947), an American ambassador, judge, and public official, was one of the most prominent Jews in American government.
Biography
Elkus was born in New York City on August 6, 1867, the son of Isaac ...
, a friend of Alsberg's brother
Carl Carl may refer to:
*Carl, Georgia, city in USA
*Carl, West Virginia, an unincorporated community
* Carl (name), includes info about the name, variations of the name, and a list of people with the name
*Carl², a TV series
* "Carl", an episode of te ...
and a strategist for
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...
's presidential campaign, sent Alsberg went to London to investigate claims that American-made goods were cheaper abroad than in the U.S. due to Republican-imposed tariffs. Alsberg wrote up the results of his investigation in an article in the ''New York Sunday World'', which the Wilson campaign used to buttress their platform's call to reduce tariffs.
Alsberg began writing for the ''
New York Evening Post
The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com.
It was established i ...
'' in 1913,
as well as its sister publication ''The Nation''. His 1914 article for ''
The Masses
''The Masses'' was a graphically innovative magazine of socialist politics published monthly in the United States from 1911 until 1917, when federal prosecutors brought charges against its editors for conspiring to obstruct conscription. It was s ...
'' criticized the churches that turned away homeless during the brutal blizzard that hit New York on March 1.
Alsberg went to
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
where he began working as a roving foreign correspondent 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 tha ...
'', ''
New York World
The ''New York World'' was a newspaper published in New York City from 1860 until 1931. The paper played a major role in the history of American newspapers. It was a leading national voice of the Democratic Party. From 1883 to 1911 under publi ...
'', and London's ''
Daily Herald
Daily or The Daily may refer to:
Journalism
* Daily newspaper, newspaper issued on five to seven day of most weeks
* ''The Daily'' (podcast), a podcast by ''The New York Times''
* ''The Daily'' (News Corporation), a defunct US-based iPad new ...
''.
In August 1916, Alsberg was appointed personal secretary and press attaché to Elkus, who had been appointed
U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire; they traveled on the ''Oscar II'' to
Constantinople
la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه
, alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...
via
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
. Alsberg took charge of the embassy's efforts to aid Armenians and Jews, which put him in contact with the
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, also known as Joint or JDC, is a Jewish relief organization based in New York City. Since 1914 the organisation has supported Jewish people living in Israel and throughout the world. The organization i ...
(JDC). When the U.S. declared war on Germany in April 1917, Turkey broke off diplomatic relations and the American embassy officials left. On his return to the states, Alsberg met with Secretary of State
Robert Lansing
Robert Lansing (; October 17, 1864 – October 30, 1928) was an American lawyer and diplomat who served as Counselor to the State Department at the outbreak of World War I, and then as United States Secretary of State under President Woodrow Wils ...
to brief him on conditions in Constantinople and offered a plan for separating the Ottoman Empire from the German Alliance, which Lansing passed on to
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...
. The next day, former Ambassador
Henry Morgenthau Henry Morgenthau may refer to:
* Henry Morgenthau Sr. (1856–1946), United States diplomat
* Henry Morgenthau Jr. (1891–1967), United States Secretary of the Treasury
* Henry Morgenthau III (1917–2018), author and television producer of ''Screa ...
suggested a similar plan to Lansing. A mission to Turkey consisted of Morgenthau and
Felix Frankfurter
Felix Frankfurter (November 15, 1882 – February 22, 1965) was an Austrian-American jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1939 until 1962, during which period he was a noted advocate of judicia ...
(then an assistant to the Secretary of War), with Alsberg advising them on conditions and issues.
In 1917, Alsberg taught a course on the socialist-inspired cooperative movement at the
Rand School of Social Science
The Rand School of Social Science was formed in 1906 in New York City by adherents of the Socialist Party of America. The school aimed to provide a broad education to workers, imparting a politicizing class-consciousness, and additionally served a ...
while again writing for ''Evening Post'' and ''The Nation''. In the ''Evening Post'', Alsberg disputed the authenticity of the
Sisson Documents The Sisson Documents () are a set of 68 Russian-language documents obtained in 1918 by Edgar Sisson, the Petrograd representative of the United States Committee on Public Information. Published as ''The German-Bolshevik Conspiracy'', they purported ...
, claiming that they were forgeries, which was later confirmed by historians. In Jan 1919, Alsberg was secretary of the Palestine Restoration Fund Campaign's National Finance Commission, and wrote for ''The Maccabaean'', the official organ of the
Zionist Organization of America
The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) () is an American non-profit pro-Israel organization. Founded in 1897, as the Federation of American Zionists, it was the first official Zionist organization in the United States. Early in the 20th centur ...
. Later in 1919, Alsberg returned to Europe as a foreign correspondent for ''The Nation''.
He attended the
Peace Conference
A peace conference is a diplomatic meeting where representatives of certain states, armies, or other warring parties converge to end hostilities and sign a peace treaty.
Significant international peace conferences in the past include the follo ...
in Paris as attaché to the Zionist delegation. While there, Alsberg reconnected with the JDC which needed volunteers to assess and provide relief to destitute Jews in Central and Eastern Europe.
Work with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
While volunteering with the JDC, Alsberg's passport listed his occupation as "food relief" for the
American Relief Administration
American Relief Administration (ARA) was an American relief mission to Europe and later post-revolutionary Russia after World War I. Herbert Hoover, future president of the United States, was the program director.
The ARA's immediate predeces ...
. Alsberg described the period after the Russian Revolution and World War I as "the emergence of many minor nationalities, all imbued with grand imperialistic passions, fighting for their independence in a condition of economic wretchedness and moral degradation". He spent four years in various countries, including the "bandit-ridden Ukraine". His first stop was the new country of
Czechoslovakia
, rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי,
, common_name = Czechoslovakia
, life_span = 1918–19391945–1992
, p1 = Austria-Hungary
, image_p1 ...
where he set up programs in
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
to help refugees. Alsberg also continued his reporting for ''The Nation'', the ''London Herald'', and the ''New York World'', bringing the anti-Semitism he was observing to international attention. Some of his articles were noticed by American authorities for their sympathy to Bolshevik, anarchist, and radical ideas, and he was observed for some time by Allied military intelligence.
In April 1919, the JDC transferred him to Poland, though he went reluctantly, concerned about abandoning his work in Prague. In June, he returned briefly to Prague, then went on to Paris where he witnessed the signing of the
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June ...
. For the rest of the year, Alsberg traveled throughout eastern Europe, reporting on Hungary, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Romania, and the Balkans. His experiences and observations made him abhor violence.
Travels in Russia
In September 1919, Alsberg arrived at
Kamianets-Podilskyi
Kamianets-Podilskyi ( uk, Ка́м'яне́ць-Поді́льський, russian: Каменец-Подольский, Kamenets-Podolskiy, pl, Kamieniec Podolski, ro, Camenița, yi, קאַמענעץ־פּאָדאָלסק / קאַמעניץ, ...
which was being fought over by the
Bolsheviks
The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...
, the
White Army
The White Army (russian: Белая армия, Belaya armiya) or White Guard (russian: Бѣлая гвардія/Белая гвардия, Belaya gvardiya, label=none), also referred to as the Whites or White Guardsmen (russian: Бѣлогв ...
, and the Ukrainian Independence Movement. He then went to
Odessa
Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...
and on to
Kiev
Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...
with Allied military officers, where he reported on the pogroms, the terrorism by the Cossacks, and the atrocities of the Bolsheviks.
![Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/Emma_Goldman_and_Alexander_Berkman.jpg)
In January 1920, Alsberg traveled north, intending to make his way to Moscow; "a believer in the utopia promised by a classless society,
ewanted to witness and write about those ideals made manifest". After weeks trying to get into Soviet Russia, he finally succeeded in May. In August, he accompanied
Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman (June 27, 1869 – May 14, 1940) was a Russian-born anarchist political activist and writer. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of the ...
and
Alexander Berkman
Alexander Berkman (November 21, 1870June 28, 1936) was a Russian-American anarchist and author. He was a leading member of the anarchist movement in the early 20th century, famous for both his political activism and his writing.
B ...
(both of whom had been deported to Russia from America the previous year) on a six-week expedition to collect historic materials for the Museum of the Revolution. Their accommodations and treatment by the Soviets were luxurious and opulent, but Alsberg was able to get away from the controlled tours to see the disparity between what they were being told and the actual conditions of the general public. He conceded that "Russia has not now a democratic form of government in any sense of the word", but was still swayed by the framework of the "necessity of extreme measures in order to save the revolution", comparing it to U.S. actions during war when the government found "habeas corpus, free speech, and such-like refinements...superfluous".
In
Poltava
Poltava (, ; uk, Полтава ) is a city located on the Vorskla River in central Ukraine. It is the capital city of the Poltava Oblast (province) and of the surrounding Poltava Raion (district) of the oblast. Poltava is administratively ...
,
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
,
Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman (June 27, 1869 – May 14, 1940) was a Russian-born anarchist political activist and writer. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of the ...
acted as interpreter for Alsberg while he interviewed local Soviet officials.
In Goldman's autobiography, she noted that Alsberg was particularly affected by the stories that the townspeople in
Fastov told them of the
pogrom
A pogrom () is a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe 19th- and 20th-century attacks on Jews in the Russia ...
s.
For his travels with Goldman and Berkman, Alsberg had obtained written permission from the Foreign Office's
Cheka
The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission ( rus, Всероссийская чрезвычайная комиссия, r=Vserossiyskaya chrezvychaynaya komissiya, p=fsʲɪrɐˈsʲijskəjə tɕrʲɪzvɨˈtɕæjnəjə kɐˈmʲisʲɪjə), abbreviated ...
and from a high-ranking Soviet official to travel on the expedition, but did not get a special visa from the local Moscow Cheka. The Foreign Office assured him the Moscow Cheka visa was not needed.
During their travels, orders were sent out to arrest Alsberg for travelling in Russia without having obtained permission from the Moscow Cheka and he was taken into custody in
Zhmerynka
Zhmerynka ( uk, Жмеринка ) is a city in Vinnytsia Oblast (Oblast, province) of central Ukraine. Serving as the Capital city, administrative center of the Zhmerynka Raion (Raion, district), the town itself is not a part of the district and ...
.
Alsberg managed to get the police agent who escorted him to Moscow drunk on the trip. Arriving at the police station in Moscow carrying the agent, Alsberg set the unconscious body on the desk and said, "Here is the man you sent out to find me."
The following year, Alsberg accompanied the Bolshevik delegation to the Russo-Polish peace talks in
Riga
Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...
, and he wrote about the signing of the armistice.
J. Edgar Hoover
John Edgar Hoover (January 1, 1895 – May 2, 1972) was an American law enforcement administrator who served as the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He was appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation ...
received voluminous reports on Alsberg due to his involvement with the Bolsheviks, his friendship with Goldman and Berkman, and because he was a Jew. Alsberg continued his association with and work for the JDC, working in Italy with refugees.
In Feb 1921, Alsberg returned to Russia. He was in Moscow during the
Kronstadt Rebellion
The Kronstadt rebellion ( rus, Кронштадтское восстание, Kronshtadtskoye vosstaniye) was a 1921 insurrection of Soviet sailors and civilians against the Bolshevik government in the Russian SFSR port city of Kronstadt. Locat ...
, an event which brought him to condemn the Bolshevik regime in the article "Russia: Smoked Glass vs. Rose-Tint" in ''The Nation'';
Max Eastman
Max Forrester Eastman (January 4, 1883 – March 25, 1969) was an American writer on literature, philosophy and society, a poet and a prominent political activist. Moving to New York City for graduate school, Eastman became involved with radical ...
responded in ''
The Liberator
Liberator or The Liberators or ''variation'', may refer to:
Literature
* ''Liberators'' (novel), a 2009 novel by James Wesley Rawles
* ''The Liberators'' (Suvorov book), a 1981 book by Victor Suvorov
* ''The Liberators'' (comic book), a Britis ...
'', calling it "journalistic emotionalizing" and declaring Alsberg was "a petit-bourgeois liberal". Alsberg's article was reprinted in ''New York Call'' and reported on the front page of the ''New York Tribune''.
In all, Alsberg made six trips to Russia, carrying some $10,000 in cash to distribute to Jews in need. In one village, when they heard that soldiers were approaching, village elders dressed Alsberg in an old coat and skullcap as a disguise and he escaped on a ferry to
Rumania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and t ...
while the soldiers' bullets missed their target.
![American Relief Administration in Russia in 1922](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e6/American_Relief_Administration_in_Russia_in_1922.jpg)
Alsberg left Russia for Germany in May 1921,
then in September went to Mexico to observe and write about the presidency of
Álvaro Obregón
Álvaro Obregón Salido (; 17 February 1880 – 17 July 1928) better known as Álvaro Obregón was a Sonoran-born general in the Mexican Revolution. A pragmatic centrist, natural soldier, and able politician, he became the 46th President of Me ...
following the
Mexican Revolution
The Mexican Revolution ( es, Revolución Mexicana) was an extended sequence of armed regional conflicts in Mexico from approximately 1910 to 1920. It has been called "the defining event of modern Mexican history". It resulted in the destruction ...
. His articles accused the U.S. State Department of "putting into effect a private and unofficial imperialism of its own in Latin America" — accusations which were debated in major newspapers across the U.S. After the famine of 1921, the JDC sent Alsberg back to Russia to help set up trade schools and agricultural colonies for Jewish families.
JDC history and theater work
The JDC hired Alsberg to write a history of their organization in 1923, Alsberg's first paid work for JDC. Alsberg submitted a draft in the summer of 1927. Never published, "it still remains as perhaps the most exhaustive account of pre-World War II Central and Eastern European Jewry ever written."
![Provincetown Playhouse Open Door](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/Provincetown_Playhouse_Open_Door.jpg)
Alsberg became involved in the theater during the early 1920s. In 1924, Alsberg obtained the English translation rights to
S. Ansky
Shloyme Zanvl Rappoport (1863 – November 8, 1920), known by his pseudonym S. Ansky (or An-sky), was a Jewish author, playwright, researcher of Jewish folklore, polemicist, and cultural and political activist. He is best known for his play ' ...
's ''
The Dybbuk
''The Dybbuk'', or ''Between Two Worlds'' (russian: Меж двух миров ибук}, trans. ''Mezh dvukh mirov ibuk'; yi, צווישן צוויי וועלטן - דער דִבּוּק, ''Tsvishn Tsvey Veltn – der Dibuk'') is a play by ...
'', and his adaptation ran at the off-Broadway
Neighborhood Playhouse
A neighbourhood (British English, Irish English, Australian English and Canadian English) or neighborhood (American English; see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town, suburb or rural area, ...
.
The ''New York Times'' called his adaptation "a triumph", naming it one of the ten best plays of the 1925–1926 season.
Alsberg would continue to earn from productions of his adaptation of ''The Dybbuk'' throughout his life.
Alsberg was a director of the
Provincetown Playhouse
The Provincetown Playhouse is a historic theatre at 133 MacDougal Street between 3rd Street (Manhattan), West 3rd and 4th Street (Manhattan), West 4th Streets in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It is named for the P ...
company for the 1925–1926 season, during which he translated and adapted ''
Turandot
''Turandot'' (; see below) is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, posthumously completed by Franco Alfano in 1926, and set to a libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni. ''Turandot'' best-known aria is "Nessun dorma", whi ...
'' with
Isaac Don Levine
Isaac Don Levine (January 19, 1892 – February 15, 1981) was a 20th-century Russian-born American journalist and anticommunist writer, who is known as a specialist on the Soviet Union.
He worked with Soviet ex-spy Walter Krivitsky in a 1939 exp ...
. He was associate director of ''
Abraham's Bosom
"Bosom of Abraham" refers to the place of comfort in the biblical Sheol (or Hades in the Greek Septuagint version of the Hebrew scriptures from around 200 BC, and therefore so described in the New Testament) where the righteous dead abided prio ...
'', which would go on to win
Paul Green a
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...
, and producer of ''
Him'' by
e.e. cummings
Edward Estlin Cummings, who was also known as E. E. Cummings, e. e. cummings and e e cummings (October 14, 1894 - September 3, 1962), was an American poet, painter, essayist, author and playwright. He wrote approximately 2,900 poems, two autobi ...
.
George Gershwin
George Gershwin (; born Jacob Gershwine; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned popular, jazz and classical genres. Among his best-known works are the orchestral compositions ' ...
asked Alsberg to act as librettist on an opera of ''The Dybbuk'' to open at the Metropolitan Opera, but was unable to obtain the musical rights.
International Committee for Political Prisoners
![Letters from Russian Prisons](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/Letters_from_Russian_Prisons.jpg)
Alsberg was particularly concerned about the conditions of political prisoners in Russia.
He tried to involve the
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...
(ACLU) in his cause, but their charter limited them to domestic issues, so ACLU co-founder
Roger Baldwin and Alsberg formed the International Committee for Political Prisoners (ICPP), enlisting people such as Frankfurter,
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (August 7, 1890 – September 5, 1964) was a labor leader, activist, and feminist who played a leading role in the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Flynn was a founding member of the American Civil Liberties Union ...
,
W.E.B. Dubois
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois ( ; February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American-Ghanaian sociologist, socialist, historian, and Pan-Africanist civil rights activist. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois grew up in ...
, and
Carlo Tresca
Carlo Tresca (March 9, 1879 – January 11, 1943) was an Italian-American newspaper editor, orator, and labor organizer who was a leader of the Industrial Workers of the World during the 1910s. He is remembered as a leading public opponent of fas ...
. (Baldwin later described the ICPP as similar to Amnesty International.) Alsberg contributed many documents to and edited ''
Letters from Russian Prisons'', and insisted that the title page list all committee members without singling out any individual contributors. The book was intended to bring to international attention the mistreatment that political prisoners in Russia suffered. Some committee members resigned, feeling that the book was too anti-Soviet. Alsberg later gathered material for and edited ''Political Persecution Today'' (Poland) and ''The Fascist Dictatorship'' (Italy) for the ICPP. Alsberg left the committee by 1928.
Alsberg spent several years traveling in Europe and working on his own writing,
including his autobiography which he never finished. In March 1934, he joined the publications division of the
Federal Emergency Relief Administration
The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) was a program established by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1933, building on the Hoover administration's Emergency Relief and Construction Act. It was replaced in 1935 by the Works Progress Adm ...
(FERA) where his first assignment was editing ''America Fights the Depression'', a book about the
Civil Works Administration
The Civil Works Administration (CWA) was a short-lived job creation program established by the New Deal during the Great Depression in the United States to rapidly create mostly manual-labor jobs for millions of unemployed workers. The jobs were ...
's accomplishments.
He then took on editing two magazines for the agency.
Federal Writers' Project
The Federal Writers' Project (FWP) was part of
Federal One
Federal Project Number One, also referred to as Federal One, is the collective name for a group of projects under the Works Progress Administration, a New Deal program in the United States. Of the $4.88 billion allocated by the Emergency Relief ...
, one of the
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Cons ...
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...
programs created to provide jobs during the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
. Jacob Baker, chief architect of Federal One, appointed Alsberg as head of the FWP in July 1935. At the time, Alsberg dubbed himself a "philosophical anarchist" although others labelled him a "tired radical of the 20s".
On Alsberg's appointment, friends privately questioned the choice as Alsberg was considered to be reluctant to make decisions and often left projects unfinished.
Alsberg was not selected as director of the Writers' Project because of any administrative or managerial skill, but rather because of his understanding of the project's purpose and his insistence on high editorial standards for the project's products.
Novelist
Vincent McHugh
Vincent McHugh (died 1977) was an Irish Fine Gael politician. He was a member of Seanad Éireann on three separate occasions; from 1951 to 1954, 1965 to 1969 and 1976 to 1977. He was elected to the 7th Seanad in 1951 by the Labour Panel, but lost ...
classified Alsberg in an elite group: "men with a ''public'' sense, a feeling for broad human movements and how people are caught up in them." Baker described Alsberg to an associate as "An anarchistic sort of a fellow incapable of administration but one with a great deal of creative talent".
Project leadership
Alsberg came to the Writers' Project with a "visionary sense of its potential to join social reform with the democratic renaissance of American letters".
His original vision for the project was to produce a guide for each major region of the country, but changed the plans to a guide for each state due to political pressure.
Alsberg insisted that the American Guide Series be much more than an American
Baedeker
Verlag Karl Baedeker, founded by Karl Baedeker on July 1, 1827, is a German publisher and pioneer in the business of worldwide travel guides. The guides, often referred to simply as " Baedekers" (a term sometimes used to refer to similar works fro ...
; the guides needed to capture the whole of American civilization and culture and celebrate the diversity of the nation. He required that each state project include ethnography with particular attention to Native Americans and African Americans,
and that the front third of every guide contain essays on local culture, history, economics, etc.
Alsberg appointed fourteen women as state directors of the project,
and 40% of FWP employees were women. First Lady
Eleanor Roosevelt
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt () (October 11, 1884November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the first lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four ...
was an enthusiastic supporter of the FWP.
Two of the writers Alsberg personally recruited to the Writers' Project were
John Cheever
John William Cheever (May 27, 1912 – June 18, 1982) was an American short story writer and novelist. He is sometimes called "the Chekhov of the suburbs". His fiction is mostly set in the Upper East Side of Manhattan; the Westchester suburbs; ...
and
Conrad Aiken
Conrad Potter Aiken (August 5, 1889 – August 17, 1973) was an American writer and poet, honored with a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award, and was United States Poet Laureate from 1950 to 1952. His published works include poetry, short st ...
.
Alsberg struggled with the project's tension between providing jobs (relief) and creative works.
Alsberg felt the American Guide Series needed to be supplemented with books about the people of the country. With this in mind, the project published ethnic studies such as ''The Italians of New York'' (in both English and Italian), ''Jewish Landsmanschaften of New York'' (in Yiddish), ''The Armenians of Massachusetts'', and ''The Swedes and Finns of New Jersey''. One of Alsberg's letters describes the approach that he wanted the ethnic studies writers to take:
Reception
Although the first books in the
American Guide Series
The American Guide Series includes books and pamphlets published from 1937 to 1941 under the auspices of the Federal Writers' Project (FWP), a Depression-era program that was part of the larger Works Progress Administration in the United States. T ...
published under the auspices of the project—''Idaho'', ''Washington: City and Capital'', and ''Cape Cod Pilot''—were met with praise, the furor that accompanied the release of ''Massachusetts'' damaged the reputations of the project and Alsberg. A reporter published a story decrying the Massachusetts guide because it spent forty-one lines discussing the
Sacco-Vanzetti
Nicola Sacco (; April 22, 1891 – August 23, 1927) and Bartolomeo Vanzetti (; June 11, 1888 – August 23, 1927) were Italian immigrant anarchists who were controversially accused of murdering Alessandro Berardelli and Frederick Parmenter, a ...
case, while only giving nine lines to the
Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was an American political and mercantile protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 16, 1773. The target was the Tea Act of May 10, 1773, which allowed the British East India Company to sell tea ...
and five to the
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre (known in Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain as the Incident on King Street) was a confrontation in Boston on March 5, 1770, in which a group of nine British soldiers shot five people out of a crowd of three or four hu ...
. Other newspapers jumped on the bandwagon to smear the Writers' Project (and the
Roosevelt administration by association). Senators demanded investigations. More scrutiny found that the guide had a number of passages that appeared to be pro-labor, and the book was banned by several Massachusetts mayors.
Ralph M. Easley, representing a group called the National Civic Federation, complained in a letter to President Roosevelt that the Writer's Project was "dominated by Communist sympathizers whose principal interest was political agitation".
After these complaints, WPA administrators placed a worker in the Writers' Project central office to censor "subversive" material.
When Alsberg threw a cocktail party to celebrate the publication of the Washington guide, Alsberg and the Writers' Project were attacked on the Senate floor by Mississippi's
Senator Bilbo in a tirade because a woman from his own state had been invited to a party that had both white and black guests. Bilbo later had his comments expunged from the ''Congressional Record''.
![American guide week, Nov](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/American_guide_week%2C_Nov._10-16_LCCN92500637.jpg)
The American Guide Series was a necessary product to justify the project's existence, but Alsberg sympathized with the many writers who chafed at being confined to writing guidebooks and secretly allowed some project writers to focus on their own creative writing. One of those writers,
Richard Wright, used the time to work on his first novel, ''
Native Son
''Native Son'' (1940) is a novel written by the American author Richard Wright. It tells the story of 20-year-old Bigger Thomas, a black youth living in utter poverty in a poor area on Chicago's South Side in the 1930s.
While not apologizing ...
'', which would become a bestseller when published in 1940. Alsberg also quietly attempted to put out a literary magazine, but the single issue was subject to bickering and resistance from the Writers Union (
Stalinists
Stalinism is the means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the theory ...
, who insisted that the magazine's editors were
Trotskyites
Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a rev ...
). Knowing the Writers' Project was a target of the
Dies Committee
The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloy ...
, Alsberg abandoned the magazine effort and also ended the creative writing program.
Dies Committee
The Dies Committee was a special investigation committee established by the House Committee on Un-American Activities and chaired by
Martin Dies Jr
Martin Dies Jr. (November 5, 1900 – November 14, 1972), also known as Martin Dies Sr., was a Texas politician and a Democratic Party (United States), Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives. He was elected as a Democrat ...
. Aiming to discredit the
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Cons ...
by attacking individual projects, Dies claimed that one-third of the Writers' Project's members were Communists. Despite inaccuracies in statements from the committee being widely reported in the press, Alsberg's superiors refused him permission to issue any statements refuting the charges. Alsberg was called to testify before the committee December 6, 1938, after months of requesting a hearing.
In Alsberg's testimony, he emphasized his anti-Communist views and stated that he had to "clean up" the Writer's Project, going so far as to threaten to shut it down at the mention of strikes. Unfortunately, these statements reinforced the committee's suspicions that many Communists were part of the project.
Within the project, liberals felt Alsberg had been too deferential toward the committee, while conservatives felt the committee had gone too easy on Alsberg.
Numerous co-workers said his testimony was brilliant, but Alsberg wanted to resign afterward.
Despite Dies's compliments to Alsberg on his testimony, the committee condemned the Writers' Project.
In 1939, Congress cut the WPA budget, and 6,000 were laid off from Federal One. The FWP was then investigated by
Clifton Woodrum
Clifton Alexander Woodrum (April 27, 1887 – October 6, 1950) was a Virginia pharmacist, lawyer and U.S. Representative from Roanoke who was considered a Progressive Democrat for his support of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Early and family ...
's House subcommittee on appropriations, which attacked a letter to the editor Alsberg had written ten years previously about conditions in prisons. The Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1939 cut funding and required the FWP, now renamed the Writers' Program, to obtain state sponsorship for its projects. The new head of the WPA,
Francis C. Harrington, demanded Alsberg's resignation. Alsberg refused to resign immediately, continuing to work on state sponsorships and works in progress. When Alsberg continued working past the 1 August deadline that Harrington set, he was fired.
The liberal press was indignant, with ''
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 tha ...
'' writing "The dismissal looks too much like a living sacrifice on the altar of Messrs. Dies and Woodrum and the Red-baiting they represent".
Under Alsberg's leadership, the Writer's Project had produced over 200 books of more than 20 million words.
Lewis Mumford
Lewis Mumford (October 19, 1895 – January 26, 1990) was an American historian, sociologist, philosopher of technology, and literary critic. Particularly noted for his study of cities and urban architecture, he had a broad career as a wr ...
praised the guidebooks as "the finest contribution to American patriotism that has been made in our generation".
Later life
After leaving the Writers' Project, Alsberg went on a speaking tour for the American Association of Colleges, presenting "Adventures in Journalism and Literature". He continued with his political writing, including a piece calling for "an all-out effort to defeat the Axis", and worked on a book that would never be published.
In 1942, Alsberg was hired to work at the
Office of War Information
The United States Office of War Information (OWI) was a United States government agency created during World War II. The OWI operated from June 1942 until September 1945. Through radio broadcasts, newspapers, posters, photographs, films and other ...
. Soon after, the Civil Service Commission investigated a claim that Alsberg and a former colleague were involved in an "immoral relationship", which Alsberg denied. In 1943, Dies made a speech in the House of Representatives demanding forty "subversive" employees be fired, naming Alsberg in particular. The Civil Service Commission held a hearing and Alsberg resigned.
Alsberg began work on his book, ''Let's Talk About the Peace'', which would be published after the war in 1945. The book was praised by the ''Chicago Daily Tribune'' and ''The Nation'', however the ''Saturday Review'' noted that the book "does not suffer from intellectual modesty or any moral humility." He also worked with
Eugene O'Neill, Jr.
Eugene Gladstone O'Neill Jr. (May 5, 1910 – September 25, 1950) was an American professor of Greek literature and the only child of Nobel Prize-winning playwright Eugene O'Neill and his first wife, Kathleen Jenkins.
Early life
O'Neill Jr.'s par ...
to establish a
Readers Theater
Readers theater is a style of theater in which the actors present dramatic readings of narrative material without costumes, props, scenery, or special lighting. Actors use only scripts and vocal expression to help the audience understand the story. ...
group.
Alsberg took on a project for Hastings House Publishers as editor-in-chief for a one-volume version of the American Guide Series.
Alsberg's condensed American Guide series was published in 1949 as ''The American Guide'', and was featured in the
Book of the Month Club
Book of the Month (founded 1926) is a United States subscription-based e-commerce service that offers a selection of five to seven new hardcover books each month to its members. Books are selected and endorsed by a panel of judges, and members c ...
.
''The American Guide'' made the ''New York Times'' best-seller list on Oct 2, 1949. Alsberg continued as an editor at Hastings House for more than a decade.
Alsberg translated and edited ''
Stefan and Friderike Zweig : their correspondence, 1912-1942'' in 1954. In 1956, he moved to Mexico, with occasional visits to Palo Alto, and continued to edit for Hastings House. During this period, he worked on his "Mexican stories" (never published) in which he imagined a social climate that accepted homosexuality.
During the last years of his life, Alsberg, who never married, lived in Palo Alto, California, with his sister Elsa. Alsberg died November 1, 1970, after a short illness.
Some of Alsberg's papers are archived at the libraries at the
University of Oregon
The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution is well known for its strong ties to the sports apparel and marketing firm Nike, Inc, and its co-founder, billion ...
.
Notes
References
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External links
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Henry G. Alsberg and Dora Thea Hettwer Collection, Bienes Museum of the Modern Book, Broward County Library.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alsberg, Henry G
1881 births
1970 deaths
20th-century American journalists
American male journalists
American people of German-Jewish descent
Columbia University alumni
American Jews
People from Manhattan
People of the United States Office of War Information