Louise Bryant (December 5, 1885 – January 6, 1936) was an American feminist, political activist, and journalist best known for her sympathetic coverage of Russia and 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 ...
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 ...
of November 1917.
Born Anna Louise Mohan, she began as a young girl to use the last name of her stepfather, Sheridan Bryant, in preference to that of her father. She grew up in rural
Nevada
Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...
and attended the
University of Nevada in
Reno
Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is the c ...
and 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 ...
in
Eugene, graduating with a degree in history in 1909. Pursuing a career in journalism, she became
society editor of the ''Spectator'' and
freelanced for ''
The Oregonian
''The Oregonian'' is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 185 ...
,'' newspapers in
Portland, Oregon
Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...
. During her years in that city (1909–1915), she became active in the
women's suffrage
Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...
movement. Leaving her first husband in 1915 to follow fellow journalist
John Reed (whom she married in 1916) to
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...
, she formed friendships with leading feminists of the day, some of whom she met through Reed's associates at publications such as ''The Masses''; at meetings of a women's group,
Heterodoxy; and through work with the
Provincetown Players
The Provincetown Players was a collective of artists, writers, intellectuals, and amateur theater enthusiasts. Under the leadership of the husband and wife team of George Cram Cook, George Cram “Jig” Cook and Susan Glaspell from Iowa, the Play ...
. During a
National Woman's Party
The National Woman's Party (NWP) was an American women's political organization formed in 1916 to fight for women's suffrage. After achieving this goal with the 1920 adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, the NW ...
suffrage-rally in
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
in 1919 she was arrested and spent three days in jail. Both she and Reed took lovers outside their marriage; during her Greenwich Village years (1916–1920), these included the playwright
Eugene O'Neill
Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of realism, earlier ...
and the painter
Andrew Dasburg
Andrew Michael Dasburg (4 May 1887 – 13 August 1979) was an American modernist painter and "one of America's leading early exponents of cubism".
Biography
Dasburg was born in 1887 in Paris. He emigrated from Germany to New York City with ...
.
In her 1917 coverage of the Russian Revolution, Bryant wrote about Russian leaders such as
Katherine Breshkovsky,
Maria Spiridonova
Maria Alexandrovna Spiridonova (russian: Мари́я Алекса́ндровна Спиридо́нова; 16 October 1884 – 11 September 1941) was a Narodnik-inspired Russian revolutionary. In 1906, as a novice member of a local combat group ...
,
Alexander Kerensky
Alexander Fyodorovich Kerensky, ; Reforms of Russian orthography, original spelling: ( – 11 June 1970) was a Russian lawyer and revolutionary who led the Russian Provisional Government and the short-lived Russian Republic for three months ...
,
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 19 ...
, and
Leon Trotsky
Lev Davidovich Bronstein. ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky; uk, link= no, Лев Давидович Троцький; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trotskij'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky''. (), was a Russian ...
. Her news stories, distributed by
Hearst during and after her trips to
Petrograd
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
and
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
, appeared in newspapers across the United States and Canada in the years immediately following World War I. A collection of articles from her first trip was published in 1918 as ''
Six Red Months in Russia
6 is a number, numeral, and glyph.
6 or six may also refer to:
* AD 6, the sixth year of the AD era
* 6 BC, the sixth year before the AD era
* The month of June
Science
* Carbon, the element with atomic number 6
* 6 Hebe, an asteroid
Peop ...
.'' Over the next year, she defended the revolution in testimony before the
Overman Committee
The Overman Committee was a special subcommittee of the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary chaired by North Carolina Democrat Lee Slater Overman. Between September 1918 and June 1919, it investigated German and Bolshevik elements in ...
, a
Senate subcommittee established in September 1918 to investigate foreign influence in the United States. Later in 1919, she undertook a nationwide speaking tour to encourage public support for the Bolsheviks and to denounce
armed U.S. intervention in Russia.
After Reed's death from
typhus
Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposure.
...
in 1920, Bryant continued to write for Hearst about Russia, as well as Turkey, Hungary, Greece, Italy, and other countries in Europe and the Middle East. Some articles from this period were collected in 1923 under the title ''Mirrors of Moscow.'' Later that year, she married
William C. Bullitt, Jr., with whom she had her only child,
Anne
Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female given name Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie.
Anne is sometimes used as a male name in the ...
, the following year. Suffering in her later years from the rare and painful disorder
adiposis dolorosa
Adiposis dolorosa is an outdated term for many years used synonymously as Dercum's disease, lipedema
Lipedema is a condition that is almost exclusively found in women and results in enlargement of both legs due to deposits of fat under the skin. ...
, Bryant did little writing or publishing in her last decade, and drank heavily. Bullitt, winning sole custody of Anne, divorced Bryant in 1930. Bryant died in Paris in 1936 and was buried in
Versailles. In 1998, a group from Portland restored her grave, which had become neglected.
Early life
Anna Louise Mohan was born in 1885 in San Francisco, California. Her father, Hugh Mohan, born in
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
, became a journalist and
stump speaker involved in labor issues and
Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to:
*Democratic Party (United States)
Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to:
Active parties Africa
*Botswana Democratic Party
*Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea
*Gabonese Democratic Party
*Demo ...
politics. Moving to San Francisco, he continued to write for newspapers, and in 1880 he married Louisa Flick, who grew up on the ranch of her stepfather, James Say, near
Humboldt Lake
Lake Humboldt or Humboldt Lake is an endorheic basin lake in northern Churchill County and southern Pershing County in the state of Nevada in the United States. The lake has the name of Alexander von Humboldt, a German natural scientist.
The la ...
in Nevada. The Mohans had two children, Barbara (1880) and Louis (1882), before the birth of Anna Louise. Later in 1885, the family moved to
Reno
Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is the c ...
, where Mohan continued his journalistic career but drank heavily. One day he departed and never returned to his wife and children. Louise's mother divorced him in 1889 and married Sheridan Bryant, a freight conductor on the
Southern Pacific
The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the ...
railway. The couple had two children, Floyd (1894) and William (1896). Although the family lived in
Wadsworth, Nevada
Wadsworth is a census-designated place (CDP) in Washoe County, Nevada. The population was 834 at the time of the 2010 census. It is part of the Reno– Sparks Metropolitan Statistical Area and located entirely within the Pyramid Lake Indian R ...
, Louise accepted an invitation from James Say to live at his ranch. She remained there for three or four years, returning to Wadsworth at her mother's insistence at the age of 12. Bryant adopted her stepfather's last name, but never changed it legally from Mohan.
![Louise Bryant sorority sister](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/Louise_Bryant_sorority_sister.jpg)
Attending high school in Wadsworth and Reno and college at
Nevada State University
The University of Nevada, Reno (Nevada, the University of Nevada, or UNR) is a public land-grant research university in Reno, Nevada. It is the state's flagship public university and primary land grant institution. It was founded on October 12, ...
(now known as the University of Nevada, Reno), Bryant developed interests in journalism, debate, illustration, social life, dancing, and basketball. She edited the "Young Ladies Edition" of the ''Student Record'' in 1905, wrote a short story, "The Way of a Flirt", for a literary magazine, ''Chuckwalla'', and contributed sketches to it and another publication, ''Artemisia''. Depressed after the death of her step-grandfather in 1906, Bryant left school for a job in
Jolon, California
Jolon (; Spanish: ''Jolón''; Salinan: ''Xolon'') is small unincorporated village in southern Monterey County, California. Jolon is located in the San Antonio River Valley, west of Salinas Valley.
The origins of Jolon date to 1771, when the S ...
, where for a few months she boarded at a cattle ranch and taught children, mostly young Mexicans. That summer she moved to
Eugene, Oregon
Eugene ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is located at the southern end of the Willamette Valley, near the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast.
As of the 2020 United States Census, Eu ...
, where her brother Louis worked for the
Southern Pacific
The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the ...
.
After learning that she could transfer her college credits from Nevada, she enrolled 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 ...
, in Eugene. Popular at the school, which then had a total student enrollment of less than 500, she helped start a small
sorority
Fraternities and sororities are social organizations at colleges and universities in North America.
Generally, membership in a fraternity or sorority is obtained as an undergraduate student, but continues thereafter for life. Some accept gradua ...
, Zeta Iota Phi (a chapter of
Chi Omega
Chi Omega (, also known as ChiO) is a women's fraternity and a member of the National Panhellenic Conference, the umbrella organization of 26 women's fraternities.
Chi Omega has 181 active collegiate chapters and approximately 240 alumnae chapte ...
), and served as its first president. During her time in Eugene, she produced poems and pen-and-ink sketches for the ''Oregon Monthly''. In a small city steeped in "puritan moralism", she was the first to wear
rouge
Rouge is the French word for "red" and may refer to:
Compounds
* Rouge (cosmetics), a cosmetic used to color the cheeks and emphasize the cheekbones
* Jeweler's rouge or iron(III) oxide
* Rouging, a form of corrosion applicable to stainless ...
on campus; she had multiple boyfriends, and she wore clothes that
Miriam Van Waters
Miriam Van Waters (October 4, 1887 – January 17, 1974) was an American prison reformer of the early to mid-20th century whose methods owed much to her upbringing as an Episcopal Church (USA), Episcopalian involved in the Social Gospel movement. ...
, the editor of the ''Oregon Monthly'', and
Luella Clay Carson
Luella Clay Carson (1856-1938) was an educator and university president in the U.S. states of Oregon and California.
Carson was born in Portland, Oregon to pioneer parents. She taught at Pacific University prior to becoming the first chair of the ...
, the
dean of women The dean of women at a college or university in the United States is the dean with responsibility for student affairs for female students. In early years, the position was also known by other names, including preceptress, lady principal, and adviser ...
, considered improper. Taking off the spring semester of 1908 to teach in a one-room schoolhouse on
Stuart Island, one of the
San Juan Islands
The San Juan Islands are an archipelago in the Pacific Northwest of the United States between the U.S. state of Washington and Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. The San Juan Islands are part of Washington state, and form the core of ...
near the U.S. border with Canada, she returned to Eugene to finish her bachelor's degree in history, graduating in early 1909. Her senior thesis was on the
Modoc Indian Wars.
Portland
In the spring of 1909, Bryant moved to Portland, first sharing a downtown apartment with one of her college friends, Clara Wold, then renting her own apartment in the same building. Among her jobs, she designed a stained-glass window for the
Povey Brothers, worked as a freelance reporter for ''
The Oregonian
''The Oregonian'' is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 185 ...
'',
and became an illustrator and society editor for the ''Portland Spectator'', a weekly news magazine. Meanwhile, she formed friendships with people—such as Cas Baer, drama editor for ''The Oregonian''—who were interested in journalism and the arts. In late 1909, she met and married Paul Trullinger, a dentist who lived on a houseboat on the
Willamette River
The Willamette River ( ) is a major tributary of the Columbia River, accounting for 12 to 15 percent of the Columbia's flow. The Willamette's main stem is long, lying entirely in northwestern Oregon in the United States. Flowing northward b ...
, collected art, and liked drinking parties that sometimes included invitations to his office to inhale
ether
In organic chemistry, ethers are a class of compounds that contain an ether group—an oxygen atom connected to two alkyl or aryl groups. They have the general formula , where R and R′ represent the alkyl or aryl groups. Ethers can again be c ...
.
Bryant, who retained her maiden name and her downtown apartment after her marriage to Trullinger, bridled at doing housework and yearned for professional advancement. Drawn toward politics and the
women's suffrage movement
Women's suffrage is the women's rights, right of women to Suffrage, vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to gran ...
by her friend
Sara Bard Field
Sara Bard Field (September 1, 1882 – June 15, 1974) was an American poet, suffragist, free love advocate, Georgist, and Christian socialist. She worked on successful campaigns for women's suffrage in Oregon and Nevada. Working with Alice Paul ...
, she joined the Oregon branch of the
College Equal Suffrage League The College Equal Suffrage League (CESL) was an American woman suffrage organization founded in 1900 by Maud Wood Park and Inez Haynes Irwin (''nee'' Gillmore), as a way to attract younger Americans to the women's rights movement. The League spurred ...
in 1912. She and Field gave pro-suffrage speeches in smaller Oregon cities, and Bryant rode on the suffrage float in Portland's annual
Flag Day parade. Led by
Abigail Scott Duniway, women achieved suffrage in Oregon later that year.
Bryant became familiar with the socialist journal ''
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 ...
'' through Portland resident and lawyer
C. E. S. Wood, who eventually married Field and who often contributed to the magazine. Enthusiastic about its contents, particularly articles by Portland native
John Reed, Bryant began raising subscriptions for it.
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 ...
, a well-known
anarchist
Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not neces ...
whom Wood had defended in court, gave a speech in Reed's honor at the
Industrial Workers of the World
The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), members of which are commonly termed "Wobblies", is an international labor union that was founded in Chicago in 1905. The origin of the nickname "Wobblies" is uncertain. IWW ideology combines genera ...
(IWW) hall in Portland. She and other political activists, such as
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 ...
, were among guests entertained by Bryant and her husband.
In 1914, Reed, a
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 ...
graduate and established writer who by then lived in
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...
, came home for a visit, during which he spoke at the
University Club of Portland against the
class system
A social class is a grouping of people into a set of hierarchical social categories, the most common being the upper, middle and lower classes. Membership in a social class can for example be dependent on education, wealth, occupation, incom ...
. Exactly how or when or how often Bryant and Reed met is uncertain, but they probably met each other on December 15, 1915, before they were introduced by mutual friends Carl and Helen Walters. Near Christmas 1915 when Reed again came home to visit his widowed mother, the young couple announced their love at a dinner party. Reed returned to Greenwich Village on December 28, and Bryant, abandoning her marriage, followed him three days later.
Trullinger filed for divorce, which was granted in July 1916, on grounds of desertion.
Greenwich Village and Cape Cod
![John Reed journalist](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/John_Reed_journalist.jpg)
Reed had rented a room for Bryant near his apartment at 43 Washington Square. Their unmarried co-habitation caused little curiosity among Reed's friends in the Village, many of whom rejected marriage and other middle-class norms. Unified by an "air of intellectual freedom, moral laissez-faire and camaraderie", most were involved in literary, artistic, or political pursuits in a
Bohemian
Bohemian or Bohemians may refer to:
*Anything of or relating to Bohemia
Beer
* National Bohemian, a brand brewed by Pabst
* Bohemian, a brand of beer brewed by Molson Coors
Culture and arts
* Bohemianism, an unconventional lifestyle, origin ...
neighborhood that in some ways resembled the
Left Bank
In geography, a bank is the land alongside a body of water. Different structures are referred to as ''banks'' in different fields of geography, as follows.
In limnology (the study of inland waters), a stream bank or river bank is the terrai ...
of Paris. While visiting New York, Field took Bryant to a meeting of
Heterodoxy
In religion, heterodoxy (from Ancient Greek: , "other, another, different" + , "popular belief") means "any opinions or doctrines at variance with an official or orthodox position". Under this definition, heterodoxy is similar to unorthodoxy, wh ...
, a women's group that included
feminist
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Charlotte Perkins Gilman (; née Perkins; July 3, 1860 – August 17, 1935), also known by her first married name Charlotte Perkins Stetson, was an American humanist, novelist, writer, lecturer, advocate for social reform, and eugenicist. She wa ...
, journalist
Mary Heaton Vorse
Mary Heaton Vorse (October 11, 1874 – June 14, 1966) was an American journalist and novelist. She established her reputation as a journalist reporting the labor protests of a largely female and immigrant workforce in the east-coast textile indus ...
,
political activist
A political movement is a collective attempt by a group of people to change government policy or social values. Political movements are usually in opposition to an element of the status quo, and are often associated with a certain ideology. Some t ...
Crystal Eastman
Crystal Catherine Eastman (June 25, 1881 – July 28, 1928)
was an American lawyer, antimilitarist, feminist, socialist, and journalist. She is best remembered as a leader in the fight for women's suffrage, as a co-founder and co-editor with ...
, actress
Ida Rauh
Ida Rauh (March 7, 1877 – February 28, 1970) was an American suffragist, actress, sculptor, and poet who helped found the Provincetown Players in 1915. The players, including Susan Glaspell, George Cram Cook, John Reed, Hutchins Hapgood, E ...
, writers
Zona Gale
Zona Gale, also known by her married name, Zona Gale Breese (August 26, 1874 – December 27, 1938), was an American novelist, short story writer, and playwright. She became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1921. The close r ...
and
Mary Austin, and many others. Among Bryant's new friends were feminists
Inez Milholland
Inez Milholland Boissevain (August 6, 1886 – November 25, 1916) was a leading American suffragist, lawyer, and peace activist.
From her college days at Vassar, she campaigned aggressively for women’s rights as the principal issue of a wide ...
,
Inez Gillmore, and
Doris Stevens
Doris Stevens (born Dora Caroline Stevens, October 26, 1888 – March 22, 1963) was an American suffragist, woman's legal rights advocate and author. She was the first female member of the American Institute of International Law and first chai ...
. Other notables circulating in the Village included Emma Goldman, playwright
Eugene O'Neill
Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of realism, earlier ...
, and one of Reed's former lovers, arts patron
Mabel Dodge
Mabel Evans Dodge Sterne Luhan (pronounced ''LOO-hahn''; née Ganson; February 26, 1879 – August 13, 1962) was a wealthy American patron of the arts, who was particularly associated with the Taos art colony.
Early life
Mabel Ganson was the heir ...
.
At Number 43, Bryant and Reed pursued their journalistic endeavors in separate work rooms. Four months after leaving Oregon, Bryant broke into print in New York with an article about two Portland judges, one of whom had dismissed a case brought against Goldman for distributing
birth-control information. It was published as "Two Judges" in the April 1916 issue of ''The Masses'', edited by
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 ...
, Crystal Eastman's brother.
Meanwhile, Reed, who had reported on the
1913 Paterson silk strike
The 1913 Paterson silk strike was a work stoppage involving silk mill workers in Paterson, New Jersey. The strike involved demands for establishment of an eight-hour day and improved working conditions. The strike began in February 1913, and ende ...
,
in 1913–14, and the ongoing war (World War I) in Europe, went on assignment for ''
Collier's
''Collier's'' was an American general interest magazine founded in 1888 by Peter Fenelon Collier. It was launched as ''Collier's Once a Week'', then renamed in 1895 as ''Collier's Weekly: An Illustrated Journal'', shortened in 1905 to ''Collie ...
'' to interview
William Jennings Bryan
William Jennings Bryan (March 19, 1860 – July 26, 1925) was an American lawyer, orator and politician. Beginning in 1896, he emerged as a dominant force in the History of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, running ...
in Florida.
![Freethinker Louise Bryant, sunbathing, in Provincetown, in 1916](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/58/Freethinker_Louise_Bryant%2C_sunbathing%2C_in_Provincetown%2C_in_1916.jpg)
Later that spring Bryant and Reed heeded Vorse's call to spend the warm season in
Provincetown, Massachusetts
Provincetown is a New England town located at the extreme tip of Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, in the United States. A small coastal resort town with a year-round population of 3,664 as of the 2020 United States Census, Provincet ...
, at the tip of
Cape Cod
Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of mainland Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer mont ...
, and to take part in the communal theater productions of the
Provincetown Players
The Provincetown Players was a collective of artists, writers, intellectuals, and amateur theater enthusiasts. Under the leadership of the husband and wife team of George Cram Cook, George Cram “Jig” Cook and Susan Glaspell from Iowa, the Play ...
. Others from the Village went as well and joined the group, organized in 1915 by
George Cram Cook
George Cram Cook or Jig Cook (October 7, 1873 – January 14, 1924) was an American theatre producer, director, playwright, novelist, poet, and university professor. Believing it was his personal mission to inspire others, Cook led the fou ...
and his wife,
Susan Glaspell
Susan Keating Glaspell (July 1, 1876 – July 28, 1948) was an American playwright, novelist, journalist and actress. With her husband George Cram Cook, she founded the Provincetown Players, the first modern American theatre company.
First known ...
, who hoped to produce plays that were both political and artistic. Among the works the group staged in 1916 were Bryant's ''The Game'', in which characters named Life and Death play dice for the lives of Youth (a poet) and Girl (a dancer). It appeared on the same bill as ''Not Smart'' by
Wilbur Steele and ''Bound East for Cardiff'' by O'Neill.
During the summer, Reed left Cape Cod to cover the
Progressive Party Progressive Party may refer to:
Active parties
* Progressive Party, Brazil
* Progressive Party (Chile)
* Progressive Party of Working People, Cyprus
* Dominica Progressive Party
* Progressive Party (Iceland)
* Progressive Party (Sardinia), Ita ...
convention in Chicago, and at other times he retreated from the players to work on articles for ''Collier's'' and ''
Metropolitan Magazine''. During these absences, Bryant and O'Neill became lovers, not surprising in a group that professed and practiced
free love
Free love is a social movement that accepts all forms of love. The movement's initial goal was to separate the state from sexual and romantic matters such as marriage, birth control, and adultery. It stated that such issues were the concern ...
. Reed, made aware of this new development, responded by inviting O'Neill to begin taking his meals with them. In a note to Field, Bryant said that her relationship with Reed was "so beautiful and so free! ... We don't ''interfere'' with each other at all ... we feel like children who will never grow up."
Croton-on-Hudson
![Europe Boardman Robinson](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/22/Europe_Boardman_Robinson.jpg)
After spending the month of September 1916 in a cottage they bought in
Truro
Truro (; kw, Truru) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Cornwall, England. It is Cornwall's county town, sole city and centre for administration, leisure and retail trading. Its ...
, Bryant and Reed returned to Greenwich Village, where the Provincetown Players planned to establish an alternative to
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
theater. On weekends, they sojourned at
Croton-on-Hudson
Croton-on-Hudson is a administrative divisions of New York#Village, village in Westchester County, New York, Westchester County, New York (state), New York, United States. The population was 8,327 at the 2020 United States census over 8,070 at the ...
, upriver from New York City, where Villagers including Eastman, Dodge, and illustrator
Boardman Robinson
Boardman Michael Robinson (1876–1952) was a Canadian-American painter, illustrator and cartoonist.
Biography
Early years
Boardman Robinson was born September 6, 1876 in Nova Scotia. He spent his childhood in England and Canada, before mov ...
and his wife had cottages. In October, Bryant and Reed bought their own place in Croton-on-Hudson. Meanwhile, Reed, who had suffered from kidney ailments since childhood, was told by his doctors that he would need to have a kidney removed. The surgery, considered "gravely serious", was scheduled for mid-November. Reed wanted to protect Bryant by making her his legal heir, and they married on November 9 at the county clerk's office in
Peekskill
Peekskill is a city in northwestern Westchester County, New York, United States, from New York City. Established as a village in 1816, it was incorporated as a city in 1940. It lies on a bay along the east side of the Hudson River, across fr ...
before Reed left on November 12 for surgery at
Johns Hopkins Hospital
The Johns Hopkins Hospital (JHH) is the teaching hospital and biomedical research facility of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, located in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. It was founded in 1889 using money from a bequest of over $7 million (1873 mo ...
in Baltimore.
Compounding their difficulties were Bryant's ongoing relationship with O'Neill and gynecological problems she was treated for while Reed was in the hospital. When he returned from Baltimore in mid-December, Reed and Bryant retreated full-time to Croton-on-Hudson to recuperate and to focus on writing. They made plans to travel to China in 1917 to cover events for American publications, but in January the plans fell through when U.S. entry into
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
against Germany became highly likely. (The U.S. entered the war on April 6.) To boost their finances, they sold the cottage in Truro to
Margaret Sanger
Margaret Higgins Sanger (born Margaret Louise Higgins; September 14, 1879September 6, 1966), also known as Margaret Sanger Slee, was an American birth control activist, sex educator, writer, and nurse. Sanger popularized the term "birth control ...
, and Reed pawned his father's gold watch. At the same time, his strong anti-war positions, enunciated in ''The Masses'' and elsewhere, alienated most of his employers, further reducing his income. Adding to these stresses was Reed's confession to Bryant that he had had multiple love affairs, and the subsequent unhappiness between Bryant and Reed led to a temporary separation. When she expressed a desire to go to Europe, he helped her convince
John N. Wheeler, who had recently formed the
Bell Syndicate
The Bell Syndicate, launched in 1916 by editor-publisher John Neville Wheeler, was an American syndicate that distributed columns, fiction, feature articles and comic strips to newspapers for decades. It was located in New York City at 247 West 4 ...
, to issue her a
press pass
A press pass (alternatively referred to as a press card or a journalist pass) grants some type of special privilege to journalists. Some cards have recognized legal status; others merely indicate that the bearer is a practicing journalist. The na ...
. Reed paid for her passage, and Bryant set sail in June to cover the war in France. Regrets quickly followed. According to Bryant biographer Virginia Gardner:
No sooner had they parted on board the ship than both Reed and Bryant were assailed by misgivings. An outpouring of letters from either side of the Atlantic followed. Both were suffering, both were confused, lonely, and miserable ... he letters wereproof of the basically strong bond that held the two, the poet-reporter and social critic and the erratic, appealing woman he had rescued from the banality of middle-class existence in Portland.
On the voyage across the Atlantic, Bryant interviewed ambulance-service troops and others on board the ''Espagne'' and wrote news stories about them and about the threat of
torpedo
A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, and with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, su ...
attacks. When she arrived in Paris, Bryant tried for several weeks to obtain permission from French authorities to visit the
Western Front, but could not do so because of her limited journalistic experience and her sex. She ended up collecting information about the war from as many sources as she could meet in Paris, and sent her news stories to Reed, who edited them and forwarded them to Wheeler.
Petrograd
![Breshkovskaya](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/Breshkovskaya.jpg)
In mid-August, when Bryant returned from France, Reed met her at the dock and told her to prepare to go to
Petrograd
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
four days later to cover 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 ...
. Eastman of ''The Masses'' had raised funds to pay Reed's travel expenses, and the Bell Syndicate assigned Bryant to report on the war "from a woman's point of view". Leaving New York on August 17, they arrived in Petrograd, which was then the capital of Russia, about six months after the forced abdication of the last Russian
czar
Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East and South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word '' caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" in the European medieval sense of the t ...
,
Nicholas II
Nicholas II or Nikolai II Alexandrovich Romanov; spelled in pre-revolutionary script. ( 186817 July 1918), known in the Russian Orthodox Church as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer,. was the last Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Pola ...
. Headed by
Alexander Kerensky
Alexander Fyodorovich Kerensky, ; Reforms of Russian orthography, original spelling: ( – 11 June 1970) was a Russian lawyer and revolutionary who led the Russian Provisional Government and the short-lived Russian Republic for three months ...
, the provisional government that had succeeded the czar had already survived an attempted
putsch by Major General
Lavr Kornilov
Lavr Georgiyevich Kornilov (russian: Лавр Гео́ргиевич Корни́лов, ; – 13 April 1918) was a Russian military intelligence officer, explorer, and general in the Imperial Russian Army during World War I and the ensuing Russ ...
. Bryant and Reed entered the city after the
Kornilov Affair and before 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 ...
overthrew the Kerensky government in the
October Revolution
The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key moment ...
.
Reconciled as a couple, and working from their room at the
Angleterre Hotel, Bryant and Reed attended gatherings at the
Smolny Institute
The Smolny Institute (russian: Смольный институт, ''Smol'niy institut'') is a Palladian edifice in Saint Petersburg that has played a major part in the history of Russia.
History
The building was commissioned from Giacomo Quar ...
and elsewhere in Petrograd and interviewed many leading political figures, including
Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 19 ...
,
Trotsky
Lev Davidovich Bronstein. ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky; uk, link= no, Лев Давидович Троцький; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trotskij'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky''. (), was a Russian M ...
, and Kerensky, and both eventually compiled books—''
Six Red Months in Russia
6 is a number, numeral, and glyph.
6 or six may also refer to:
* AD 6, the sixth year of the AD era
* 6 BC, the sixth year before the AD era
* The month of June
Science
* Carbon, the element with atomic number 6
* 6 Hebe, an asteroid
Peop ...
'' by Bryant and Reed's ''
Ten Days That Shook the World
''Ten Days That Shook the World'' (1919) is a book by the American journalist and socialist John Reed. Here, Reed presented a firsthand account of the 1917 Russian October Revolution. Reed followed many of the most prominent Bolsheviks closely ...
''—from their articles. Bryant circulated widely, covering
Duma
A duma (russian: дума) is a Russian assembly with advisory or legislative functions.
The term ''boyar duma'' is used to refer to advisory councils in Russia from the 10th to 17th centuries. Starting in the 18th century, city dumas were for ...
meetings, dining in public mess halls with soldiers and workers, and interviewing women revolutionaries. Among those were
Katherine Breshkovsky, known as the "grandmother of the revolution",
Maria Spiridonova
Maria Alexandrovna Spiridonova (russian: Мари́я Алекса́ндровна Спиридо́нова; 16 October 1884 – 11 September 1941) was a Narodnik-inspired Russian revolutionary. In 1906, as a novice member of a local combat group ...
, whom Bryant considered the most powerful woman in Russia, and
Aleksandra Kollontai, who became People's Commissar of Social Welfare and the only woman in the Bolshevik cabinet. In the process, Bryant, who had often been overshadowed by her more famous husband, gained confidence in her professional reporting skills. By the time she returned to New York, her work was being read across North America. Gardner says:
hespringtime of 1918 in the United States was a time of heightened contradictions. Openmindedness about the new Russian experiment in cities and the hinterland coexisted with the intensified patriotism of wartime ... No matter what appeared in their editorial pages, newspaper editors knew that feature stories with first-hand knowledge of the Revolution sold papers. The conservative and Republican Philadelphia ''Public Ledger'' syndicate bought Bryant's thirty-two stories and sold them to Hearst's ''New York American'' and to more than one hundred newspapers over the United States and Canada.
New York
Leaving Russia before Reed, who wanted to report on the Bolshevik debate about Russian participation in the war with Germany, Bryant returned to New York, arriving on February 18, 1918. She found Greenwich Village much changed by the war: old friends had moved, rents had gone up, and tourists were replacing bohemians. Under government pressure, ''The Masses'' had shut down. Working out of a room at the Brevoort Hotel, Bryant wrote articles about the October Revolution and speeches or cables urging support of the workers' government in Russia.
Meanwhile, Reed, who was trying to get home, was unable to get State Department clearance for a visa and was detained in
Oslo
Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...
(then called ''Christiania''), Norway, for more than a month. His letters were censored, and Bryant did not hear from him directly until April. On orders from
Edgar Sisson of the U.S. Commission on Public Information, all of Reed's papers were confiscated when he arrived in New York on April 28. Unable to write about the October Revolution without his notes, Reed instead gave speeches advocating U.S. recognition of the new Russian government. That summer, the couple retreated to Croton-on-Hudson.
In August, during a long weekend in the arts colony at
Woodstock
Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held during August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, United States, southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York, Woodstock. ...
, Bryant began what was to be a long-term, intermittent love affair with painter
Andrew Dasburg
Andrew Michael Dasburg (4 May 1887 – 13 August 1979) was an American modernist painter and "one of America's leading early exponents of cubism".
Biography
Dasburg was born in 1887 in Paris. He emigrated from Germany to New York City with ...
, with whom she had been close for a couple of years. Returning to the Village in September, Bryant and Reed rented a small house at 1
Patchin Place
Patchin Place is a gated cul-de-sac located off of 10th Street between Greenwich Avenue and the Avenue of the Americas (Sixth Avenue) in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. Its ten 3-storyNew York City Landmarks Pr ...
. Later in the month, Reed was arrested for giving a speech in which he denounced the
use of Allied troops in Russia; the specific charge against him was that he had used "disloyal, scurrilous and abusive language about the Military and Naval Forces of the United States". He was released on $5,000
bail
Bail is a set of pre-trial restrictions that are imposed on a suspect to ensure that they will not hamper the judicial process. Bail is the conditional release of a defendant with the promise to appear in court when required.
In some countries ...
. In separate cases that year, Reed stood trial with Eastman,
Floyd Dell
Floyd James Dell (June 28, 1887 – July 23, 1969) was an American newspaper and magazine editor, literary critic, novelist, playwright, and poet. Dell has been called "one of the most flamboyant, versatile and influential American Men of Letters ...
, and others from the former staff of ''The Masses'' for conspiracy to obstruct
the draft
Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day un ...
of men to fight in World War I and for other alleged offenses related to published articles and cartoons; Reed's alleged crime in the latter case was that he had written a headline, "Knit a Strait-Jacket for Your Soldier Boy", for an article about mental illness among the U.S. troops. Bryant was questioned in ''The Masses'' cases but not charged. Both trials involving ''The Masses'' ended in
hung juries
A hung jury, also called a deadlocked jury, is a judicial jury that cannot agree upon a verdict after extended deliberation and is unable to reach the required unanimity or supermajority. Hung jury usually results in the case being tried again.
...
, and the defendants were set free. In October, Bryant's first book, ''Six Red Months in Russia'', was published to "mostly favorable reviews," and Reed resumed work on ''Ten Days That Shook the World'' after the government returned his notes. It would not be published until April 1919.
![Anna Louise Strong 1918](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e8/Anna_Louise_Strong_1918.jpg)
In February 1919, while still based in New York, Bryant went to Washington, D.C., to speak, along with
Albert Rhys Williams, about the situation in Russia. She stayed in Washington long enough to participate in a
National Woman's Party
The National Woman's Party (NWP) was an American women's political organization formed in 1916 to fight for women's suffrage. After achieving this goal with the 1920 adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, the NW ...
suffrage rally, during which she was arrested,
arraigned
Arraignment is a formal reading of a criminal charging document in the presence of the defendant, to inform them of the charges against them. In response to arraignment, the accused is expected to enter a plea. Acceptable pleas vary among jurisdi ...
, and sentenced to five days in jail. The specific charges against her and others, who had burned President
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 ...
in
effigy
An effigy is an often life-size sculptural representation of a specific person, or a prototypical figure. The term is mostly used for the makeshift dummies used for symbolic punishment in political protests and for the figures burned in certai ...
on 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 1800. ...
lawn, were "building fires on government property, standing on the coping around the White House, or attempting to make disorderly speeches." Among a group of women who refused
bail
Bail is a set of pre-trial restrictions that are imposed on a suspect to ensure that they will not hamper the judicial process. Bail is the conditional release of a defendant with the promise to appear in court when required.
In some countries ...
, she spent at least three days in jail, during which she took part in a
hunger strike
A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke a feeling of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most ...
. Upon her release, she insisted on testifying as an unfriendly witness before the
Overman Committee
The Overman Committee was a special subcommittee of the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary chaired by North Carolina Democrat Lee Slater Overman. Between September 1918 and June 1919, it investigated German and Bolshevik elements in ...
, which had been set up to investigate Bolshevik activity in the United States. Deflecting questions about her religious beliefs, marriages, and other personal matters during her two days of testimony, she tried to convince the subcommittee, led by Senator
Lee S. Overman
Lee Slater Overman (January 3, 1854December 12, 1930) was a Democratic U.S. senator from the state of North Carolina between 1903 and 1930. He was the first US Senator to be elected by popular vote in the state, as the legislature had appointed ...
, that Russia had a right to self-determination. Soon thereafter, she began a cross-country speaking tour, "The Truth About Russia", arranged by
Anna Louise Strong
Anna Louise Strong (November 24, 1885 – March 29, 1970) was an American journalist and activist, best known for her reporting on and support for communist movements in the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China.Archives West,Anna Loui ...
, during which she addressed large audiences in Detroit, Chicago, Spokane, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and other American cities. According to Gardner, Bryant was the first woman to defend Lenin and Trotsky at political gatherings across the United States. Gardner writes, "Her message was simple, 'Hands off Russia!' 'Bring the boys home!'"
After Bryant returned from her lecture tour in May, she and Reed spent the next few months mainly in Croton-on-Hudson writing, gardening, and in Reed's case, recuperating from
influenza
Influenza, commonly known as "the flu", is an infectious disease caused by influenza viruses. Symptoms range from mild to severe and often include fever, runny nose, sore throat, muscle pain, headache, coughing, and fatigue. These symptoms ...
. In late August, Reed, who had joined the
Socialist Party of America
The Socialist Party of America (SPA) was a socialist political party in the United States formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party of Ameri ...
, was chosen by one of its factions, the
Communist Labor Party of America
The Communist Labor Party of America (CLPA) was one of the organizational predecessors of the Communist Party USA.
The group was established at the end of August 1919 following a three-way split of the Socialist Party of America. Although a legal ...
(CLP), to visit Moscow to seek recognition for the CLP as the sole representative of the
Communist International
The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to "struggle by a ...
(Comintern) in the United States. Unlike Reed, Bryant avoided party membership. The U.S. government quickly outlawed the CLP and its competitor, the
American Communist Party
The Communist Party USA, officially the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), is a communist party in the United States which was established in 1919 after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Revo ...
, headed by
Louis Fraina
Louis C. Fraina (October 7, 1892 – September 15, 1953) was a founding member of the Communist Party USA in 1919. After running afoul of the Communist International in 1921 over the alleged misappropriation of funds, Fraina left the organized rad ...
. In danger of being arrested and unable to get a passport to go to Russia, Reed, disguised as a
stoker, left the United States in late September 1919 on a Scandinavian ship headed for Europe. During the
Palmer Raids
The Palmer Raids were a series of raids conducted in November 1919 and January 1920 by the United States Department of Justice under the administration of President Woodrow Wilson to capture and arrest suspected socialists, especially anarchists ...
and
Red Scare
A Red Scare is the promotion of a widespread fear of a potential rise of communism, anarchism or other leftist ideologies by a society or state. The term is most often used to refer to two periods in the history of the United States which ar ...
days beginning in November 1919, he was charged with conspiring to overthrow the government by force. In March 1920, after visiting Moscow, he was arrested and incarcerated in Finland on his way home. Three months later, he was returned to Moscow in a prisoner exchange between the White (anti-Bolshevik) Finns of the
Finnish Civil War
The Finnish Civil War; . Other designations: Brethren War, Citizen War, Class War, Freedom War, Red Rebellion and Revolution, . According to 1,005 interviews done by the newspaper ''Aamulehti'', the most popular names were as follows: Civil W ...
and the Bolsheviks. From
Reval
Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju ''m ...
(Tallinn), Estonia, he cabled Bryant, "Passport home refused. Temporarily returning headquarters. Come if possible."
Reuniting with Reed in Moscow
Traveling without passport, Bryant, disguised as the wife of a Swedish businessman, arrived in Petrograd in late August 1920. When Bryant reached Petrograd, Reed was in
Baku
Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world a ...
, attending the "first congress of peoples of the east" (Oriental Congress) with the Comintern executive committee. He had left a letter for her with several possibilities for lodging, one of which was a room he had arranged for her at the Dielovoy Hotel in Moscow. This is where, on September 15, they finally reconnected, spending the next few days together and visiting Lenin, Trotsky, Hungarian revolutionary
Béla Kun
Béla Kun (born Béla Kohn; 20 February 1886 – 29 August 1938) was a Hungarian communist revolutionary and politician who governed the Hungarian Soviet Republic in 1919. After attending Franz Joseph University at Kolozsvár (today Cluj-Napoc ...
, and
Enver Pasha
İsmail Enver, better known as Enver Pasha ( ota, اسماعیل انور پاشا; tr, İsmail Enver Paşa; 22 November 1881 – 4 August 1922) was an Ottoman military officer, revolutionary, and convicted war criminal who formed one-third ...
, a former minister of war in the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
. Bryant began filing Moscow news stories with the
International News Service
The International News Service (INS) was a U.S.-based news agency (newswire) founded by newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst in 1909. , which had hired her before she left New York.
In a letter dated November 14, 1920, she explained her trip and reunion with Reed:
Reed's death
A week after Reed's return from Baku, he began to experience dizziness and headaches, thought at first to be symptoms of influenza. Five days later, when he became delirious, doctors diagnosed
typhus
Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposure.
...
and sent him to the hospital. There, with Bryant by his side, he died on October 17, 1920, a few days shy of his 33rd birthday.
On the day of Reed's funeral, in keeping with Russian custom, Bryant walked alone behind the hearse, at the head of the funeral procession. She collapsed during the burial from a heart attack.
She awoke in her hotel room. Among those at her bedside were Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman, who had been arrested in the United States and deported to Russia in late 1919.
Further reporting
After Reed's death, Bryant obtained Lenin's approval for a trip to the southern Russian border and neighboring countries. She went by train over the
Kazakh Steppe, through areas hard hit by famine, to
Tashkent
Tashkent (, uz, Toshkent, Тошкент/, ) (from russian: Ташкент), or Toshkent (; ), also historically known as Chach is the capital and largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of ...
and
Bukhara
Bukhara (Uzbek language, Uzbek: /, ; tg, Бухоро, ) is the List of cities in Uzbekistan, seventh-largest city in Uzbekistan, with a population of 280,187 , and the capital of Bukhara Region.
People have inhabited the region around Bukhara ...
and to the borders of
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
and
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
, interviewing and taking notes.
![William C](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/42/William_C._Bullitt_cph.3b11701.jpg)
She returned to the U.S. in mid-summer 1921, and stayed for about a year, during which she first met
William Christian Bullitt, Jr.
William Christian Bullitt Jr. (January 25, 1891 – February 15, 1967) was an American diplomat, journalist, and novelist. He is known for his special mission to negotiate with Lenin on behalf of the Paris Peace Conference, 1919, Paris Peace Confe ...
, then managing editor of film stories at
Paramount
Paramount (from the word ''paramount'' meaning "above all others") may refer to:
Entertainment and music companies
* Paramount Global, also known simply as Paramount, an American mass media company formerly known as ViacomCBS. The following busin ...
, to try to persuade him to make ''
Ten Days That Shook the World
''Ten Days That Shook the World'' (1919) is a book by the American journalist and socialist John Reed. Here, Reed presented a firsthand account of the 1917 Russian October Revolution. Reed followed many of the most prominent Bolsheviks closely ...
'' into a film. Bullitt, a
Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
graduate from a
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
family of great wealth, had worked as a journalist specializing in foreign affairs, then as a diplomat in the
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other n ...
before retiring temporarily from politics and taking the Paramount job. He later returned to politics and became the first U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union.
Bryant and Bullitt had in common their interests in Russia, journalism, and Jack Reed, whom Bullitt greatly admired. Although Paramount did not pursue the ''Ten Days'' project, Bullitt was charmed by Bryant and began the amorous pursuit of her that two years later ended in marriage. In August, the ''New York American'', a
Hearst newspaper, began publishing a series of 16 of Bryant's articles describing famine in Russia, Lenin's
New Economic Policy
The New Economic Policy (NEP) () was an economic policy of the Soviet Union proposed by Vladimir Lenin in 1921 as a temporary expedient. Lenin characterized the NEP in 1922 as an economic system that would include "a free market and capitalism, ...
, the end of the
Russian Civil War
, date = October Revolution, 7 November 1917 – Yakut revolt, 16 June 1923{{Efn, The main phase ended on 25 October 1922. Revolt against the Bolsheviks continued Basmachi movement, in Central Asia and Tungus Republic, the Far East th ...
, and related topics. In general, the tone of these articles was "sober and at times unsparing, in contrast to her often rapturous reporting in her 1918 stories."
In October, she was the main speaker at a memorial for Reed in New York City, and she spent some of her time collecting Reed's papers for possible publication. She also arranged with
King Features Syndicate
King Features Syndicate, Inc. is a American content distribution and animation studio, consumer product licensing and print syndication company owned by Hearst Communications that distributes about 150 comic strips, newspaper columns, editoria ...
, another Hearst agency, to return to Russia to write portraits of Russians. The first of these appeared in print in June 1922, and led to her second book, ''Mirrors of Moscow'', in 1923. Bryant's travels in Europe this time included Moscow, Berlin, London, Paris, and other cities. By late October, she was in Rome, accompanied by Bullitt. Here in late 1922, she wrote about
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 194 ...
, the Fascist leader who had just come to power and with whom she had obtained an interview. Gathering material from a variety of sources, including Madame
Rachele Mussolini
Rachele Guidi (11 April 1890 – 30 October 1979), also known (particularly in Italy) as Donna Rachele (Italian for "Lady Rachael") and incorrectly as Rachele Mussolini in the English-speaking world, was the second wife of Italian dictator and ...
, Bryant wrote a feature article, "Mussolini Relies Upon Efficiency to Restore Italy", published in the ''New York American'' in early 1923. She described the future dictator this way:
Leaving Rome to cover the
Turkish War of Independence
The Turkish War of Independence "War of Liberation", also known figuratively as ''İstiklâl Harbi'' "Independence War" or ''Millî Mücadele'' "National Struggle" (19 May 1919 – 24 July 1923) was a series of military campaigns waged by th ...
for the International News Service, Bryant lived with Bullitt in a villa in
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 (" ...
in early 1923. While Bullitt worked on a novel, ''It's Not Done'', published in 1926 and dedicated to Bryant, she covered events related to the rise of
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, or Mustafa Kemal Pasha until 1921, and Ghazi Mustafa Kemal from 1921 Surname Law (Turkey), until 1934 ( 1881 – 10 November 1938) was a Turkish Mareşal (Turkey), field marshal, Turkish National Movement, re ...
, the first president of the
Republic of Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
. From her base in Turkey, she ventured to
Palermo
Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan ...
to interview the deposed king of Greece,
Constantine I
Constantine I ( , ; la, Flavius Valerius Constantinus, ; ; 27 February 22 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337, the first one to Constantine the Great and Christianity, convert to Christiani ...
, and to Athens to interview his son,
George II George II or 2 may refer to:
People
* George II of Antioch (seventh century AD)
* George II of Armenia (late ninth century)
* George II of Abkhazia (916–960)
* Patriarch George II of Alexandria (1021–1051)
* George II of Georgia (1072–1089)
* ...
. Shortly thereafter, Bryant suspended her journalistic career to focus on family matters.
Paris
Later in 1923, Bryant and Bullitt moved to Paris, where they married in December. Two months later, Bryant gave birth to her only child,
Anne Moen Bullitt
Anne Moen Bullitt (February 24, 1924 – August 18, 2007) was an American socialite, philanthropist, and horsebreeder. In her youth she was regarded as a great beauty, and was known for assembling a wardrobe of rare and valuable classic haute ...
(1924–2007).
In 1925 she and Bullitt added to their family an 8-year-old boy, Refik Ismaili Bey, whom they had met in Turkey. As the wife of a rich man, Bryant had duties related to the running of an upper-class household: "... the management of servants, the ordering of food and planning of menus, house decoration, flower arrangement, keeping a social calendar." She told one visitor to her home that she considered her new life "useless", and the Bryant–Bullitt marriage began to unravel. In "Louise Bryant Grows Old", historian
Christine Stansell examines the great changes in Bryant's life after her marriage to Bullitt:
The entrance of William Bullitt into Louise Bryant's life confounds the intertwined stories of the grief-stricken war widow, the radical heroine, and the champion of the oppressed. The marriage is a puzzle, both biographically and historically. Biographically, it proved to be a disaster, in contrast to Bryant's earlier romantic choices, which had been smart and fulfilling.
Although Bryant continued to write, little of her work toward the end of her life was published.
Her last piece of journalism, "A Turkish Divorce", about Atatürk's treatment of women, appeared in ''The Nation'' in August 1925.
By 1926, Bryant, who had generally abstained from alcohol earlier in life, was suffering from painful and incurable
adiposis dolorosa
Adiposis dolorosa is an outdated term for many years used synonymously as Dercum's disease, lipedema
Lipedema is a condition that is almost exclusively found in women and results in enlargement of both legs due to deposits of fat under the skin. ...
(
Dercum's disease
Dercum's disease is a rare condition characterized by multiple painful fatty tumors, called lipomas, that can grow anywhere in subcutaneous fat from scalp to plantar surface of the foot. Sometimes referred as adiposis dolorosa in medical literatur ...
) and was drinking heavily. Bullitt, citing his wife's drinking and alleging that she was involved in a lesbian relationship with English painter and sculptor
Gwen Le Gallienne
Gwen Le Gallienne (born Gwendolyn Hinton Perry; c. 1898–1966) was a French-born, American-raised, England-based painter and sculptor. She was the first woman allowed to sketch battlefield scenes by the British War Office.
Life
Gwendolyn was ...
, a stepdaughter of writer
Richard Le Gallienne
Richard Le Gallienne (20 January 1866 – 15 September 1947) was an English author and poet. The British-American actress Eva Le Gallienne (1899–1991) was his daughter by his second marriage to Danish journalist Julie Nørregaard (1863–1942) ...
, divorced Bryant in 1930 and won sole custody of Anne. Bryant remained in Paris, occasionally advising writer
Claude McKay
Festus Claudius "Claude" McKay OJ (September 15, 1890See Wayne F. Cooper, ''Claude McKay, Rebel Sojourner In The Harlem Renaissance (New York, Schocken, 1987) p. 377 n. 19. As Cooper's authoritative biography explains, McKay's family predated ...
, and briefly assisting researchers from Harvard University in preserving Reed's papers.
Death and legacy
Bryant died on January 6, 1936, of a
brain hemorrhage
Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as cerebral bleed, intraparenchymal bleed, and hemorrhagic stroke, or haemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain, into its ventricles, or into both. It is one kind of bleed ...
in
Sèvres
Sèvres (, ) is a commune in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris, in the Hauts-de-Seine department, Île-de-France region. The commune, which had a population of 23,251 as of 2018, is known for i ...
, in the suburbs of Paris, and is buried in
Cimetière des Gonards
The Cimetière des Gonards is the largest cemetery in Versailles on the outskirts of Paris. It began operations in 1879. The cemetery covers an area of and contains more than 12,000 graves.
Description
This is a rurally landscaped cemetery, the ...
in
Versailles
The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, u ...
.
In 1998, three volunteers from the
Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission
The Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission (OCHC) is a non-profit organization based in the U.S. state of Oregon. The commission was formed in 1988 in order to discover and commemorate important literary and cultural contributions to Oregon's histor ...
went to Paris to find the grave, which they discovered was crumbling, undated, and scheduled for removal. Through the commission's efforts as well as donations, including some from relatives of Bryant and Bullitt, the grave was restored.
The Bryant–Reed story is told in the 1981 film ''
Reds
Reds may refer to:
General
* Red (political adjective), supporters of Communism or socialism
* Reds (January Uprising), a faction of the Polish insurrectionists during the January Uprising in 1863
* USSR (or, to a lesser extent, China) during th ...
'', starring
Diane Keaton
Diane Keaton ('' née'' Hall, born January 5, 1946) is an American actress and director. She has received various accolades throughout her career spanning over six decades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, two Golden Gl ...
as Bryant and
Warren Beatty
Henry Warren Beatty (né Beaty; born March 30, 1937) is an American actor and filmmaker, whose career spans over six decades. He was nominated for 15 Academy Awards, including four for Best Actor, four for Best Picture, two for Best Director, ...
as Reed. Supporting actors include
Jack Nicholson
John Joseph Nicholson (born April 22, 1937) is an American retired actor and filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest actors of all time. In many of his films, he played rebels against the social structure. He received numerous ...
as Eugene O'Neill,
Maureen Stapleton
Lois Maureen Stapleton (June 21, 1925 – March 13, 2006) was an American actress. She received numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and two Tony Awards, in addition to ...
as
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 ...
,
Jerzy Kosiński as
Grigory Zinoviev
Grigory Yevseyevich Zinoviev, . Transliterated ''Grigorii Evseevich Zinov'ev'' according to the Library of Congress system. (born Hirsch Apfelbaum, – 25 August 1936), known also under the name Ovsei-Gershon Aronovich Radomyslsky (russian: Ов ...
(one of the Bolshevik leaders), and
Edward Herrmann
Edward Kirk Herrmann (July 21, 1943 – December 31, 2014) was an American actor, director, and writer. He was perhaps best known for his portrayals of Franklin D. Roosevelt in both the miniseries '' Eleanor and Franklin'' (1976) and 1982 film ...
as Max Eastman.
Bibliography
![Sterling Memorial Library 4, September 1, 2008](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/Sterling_Memorial_Library_4%2C_September_1%2C_2008.jpg)
Bryant's personal papers were transferred to Bullitt, with whom they remained until their daughter, Anne, donated the collection to Yale University in 2004. They exist as separate collections, the Louise Bryant Papers (MS 1840) and the William C. Bullitt Papers (MS 112) in the
Sterling Memorial Library
Sterling Memorial Library (SML) is the main library building of the Yale University Library system in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Opened in 1931, the library was designed by James Gamble Rogers as the centerpiece of Yale's Gothic Revi ...
at Yale. The Louise Bryant Papers consists of about 19 linear feet (5.8 m) of letters, texts, photographs, art, and other materials that she created or collected between 1916 and 1936.
Bryant's early journalistic work appeared in college publications and in newspapers—''The Spectator'', where Bryant was society editor, and ''The Oregonian'', for whom she freelanced—in Portland.
Later work appeared in independent magazines, including ''The Masses'',
and ''The Liberator'', Some, written for the ''
New York American
:''Includes coverage of New York Journal-American and its predecessors New York Journal, The Journal, New York American and New York Evening Journal''
The ''New York Journal-American'' was a daily newspaper published in New York City from 1937 t ...
'' and other
Hearst publications, were
syndicated to newspapers across North America. Collections of her articles appeared in book form in 1918 and 1923. Below is a partial list of her published work.
Books
* ''School Feeding: Its History and Practice at Home and Abroad''
* ''Six Red Months in Russia''
* ''Mirrors of Moscow''
Plays
* ''The Game: A Morality Play in One Act''
Articles
* "Art for American Children"
* "Fables for Proletarian Children"
* "The Last Days with John Reed: A Letter from Louise Bryant"
* "Two Judges"
Notes
References
Sources
*
*
*
External links
Louise Bryant papers(MS 1840). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library.
at
marxists.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bryant, Louise
1885 births
1936 deaths
20th-century American journalists
20th-century American women writers
20th-century American writers
American feminist writers
American Marxists
American suffragists
American women journalists
American women's rights activists
Bryant
College Equal Suffrage League
Journalists from Oregon
Marxist feminists
People from Croton-on-Hudson, New York
People from Provincetown, Massachusetts
American socialist feminists
University of Oregon alumni
Writers about the Soviet Union
Burials at the Cimetière des Gonards