Leon Srabian Herald (born Leon Der Srabian; 15 May 1896 – 7 September 1976) was an Armenian-American poet who wrote the first English-language by an Armenian author on the subject of the

Armenian genocide The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was ...

Biography

Background

Herald was born in Put-Aringe, near

Erzincan Erzincan (; ku, Erzîngan), historically Yerznka ( hy, Երզնկա), is the capital of Erzincan Province in Eastern Turkey. Nearby cities include Erzurum, Sivas, Tunceli, Bingöl, Elazığ, Malatya, Gümüşhane, Bayburt, and Giresun. The city is ...

in 1896. In 1912, he emigrated with his family to America. He worked briefly in car factories in Detroit. Then, in the early 1920s, he attended the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where he befriended

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

Marianne Moore Marianne Craig Moore (November 15, 1887 – February 5, 1972) was an American modernist poet, critic, translator, and editor. Her poetry is noted for formal innovation, precise diction, irony, and wit. Early life Moore was born in Kirkwood, ...

, fellow poet and editor of ''

The Dial ''The Dial'' was an American magazine published intermittently from 1840 to 1929. In its first form, from 1840 to 1844, it served as the chief publication of the Transcendentalists. From the 1880s to 1919 it was revived as a political review and ...

'' literary magazine. He wrote poems and reviews for the ''

Wisconsin State Journal The ''Wisconsin State Journal'' is a daily newspaper published in Madison, Wisconsin by Lee Enterprises. The newspaper, the second largest in Wisconsin, is primarily distributed in a 19 county region in south-central Wisconsin. As of September ...

''. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1923.

Career

In 1925, Herald published a first book of poems, ''This Waking Hour''. ''The Dial'' serialized his memoirs monthly from December 1926 to June 1927, which describe his home village, education in Cairo, and travel to the States. Later that year he moved to New York, where he lived almost all his life. In 1925, he attended the

MacDowell Colony MacDowell is an artist's residency program in Peterborough, New Hampshire, United States, founded in 1907 by composer Edward MacDowell and his wife, pianist and philanthropist Marian MacDowell. Prior to July 2020, it was known as the MacDowell ...

in Peterborough, New Hampshire. In 1928, he attended the Yaddo Colony in Saratoga Springs, New York. In 1927, he worked in the New York Public Library with

Whittaker Chambers Whittaker Chambers (born Jay Vivian Chambers; April 1, 1901 – July 9, 1961) was an American writer-editor, who, after early years as a Communist Party member (1925) and Soviet spy (1932–1938), defected from the Soviet underground (1938), ...

. During the 1920s and 1930s, he published in ''

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 ...

'', ''

The New Republic ''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hum ...

'', ''

Commonweal Commonweal or common weal may refer to: * Common good, what is shared and beneficial for members of a given community * Common Weal, a Scottish think tank and advocacy group * Commonweal (magazine), ''Commonweal'' (magazine), an American lay-Cath ...

'', ''

Poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

'', and ''Ararat'' (Armenian quarterly). His story "Power of Horizon" appeared in Edward J. O'Brien's collections of ''Best Short Stories of 1929''. Work also appeared in ''Armenian-American Poets: A Bilingual Anthology'' and in William S. Braithwaite's ''Anthology of Magazine Verse''. In 1935, he helped form 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 ...

. At some time, he served as editor of two Armenian-American publications: ''Youth'' (weekly) and ''Learning'm (journal).

Communism

Herald was "always an advocate of the working class." In the late 1920s, he joined the

John Reed Club The John Reed Clubs (1929–1935), often referred to as John Reed Club (JRC), were an American federation of local organizations targeted towards Marxist writers, artists, and intellectuals, named after the American journalist and activist John ...

. He was a delegate to Club's 1932 national convention (and claimed to have traveled with

, which

Allen Weinstein Allen Weinstein (September 1, 1937 – June 18, 2015) was an American historian, educator, and federal official who served in several different offices. He was, under the Reagan administration, cofounder of the National Endowment for Democracy in ...

claimed was not possible). He was a member of the

CPUSA 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 ...

-led

League of American Writers The League of American Writers was an association of American novelists, playwrights, poets, journalists, and literary critics launched by the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) in 1935. The group included Communist Party members, and so-called " fell ...

(1935-1943). In the 1960s, Herald later provided this information to

Meyer Zeligs ''Friendship and Fratricide, an Analysis of Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss'' is a 1967 book by psychoanalyst Meyer A. Zeligs. In his work, Zelig argued that Whittaker Chambers was a psychopathic personality who had framed Alger Hiss. Backgrou ...

, a psychoanalyst who wrote a pscyho-biography called ''Friendship and Fratricide'' about Whittaker Chambers. Herald told Zeligs that Chambers had tried to sleep with him in 1932, demonstrating homosexuality. Zeligs claimed he had not hidden his identity – but in fact had written his name as "Leon S. Herald" whereas the poet was well known under his full name in America as "Leon Srabian Herald."

Personal and death

In 1915, Herald lost his family in Armenia during the

. In 1938, he married Betty Forster. In 1939 they had a son, John Whittier Herald, known professionally as folk bard

John Herald John Herald (September 6, 1939 – July 18, 2005) was an American folk music, folk and Bluegrass music, bluegrass songwriter, solo and studio musician and one-time member of The Greenbriar Boys trio. Biography Herald was born in Manhattan in 193 ...

. In 1942, his wife died of cancer. In 1946, he had a

nervous breakdown A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitti ...

. He suffered thereafter for the rest of his life from insomnia. He died in 1976.

Works

Herald dedicated his only book of poetry "To Those Disinherited of Life in 1915," making him "the very first work in English by an Armenian author, encompassing the subject" of the

. Books: * ''This Waking Hour'' (1915) Poems, Stories: * "The Watermelon and the Saint" in ''The Dial'' (August 1928) * "Power of Horizon," short story in ''The Dial'' (April 1929), reprinted in ''The Best Short Stories of 1929 and the Yearbook of the American Short Story'', ed. Edward J. O’Brien (New York: Dodd Mead, 1929) * "Four Poems" (New York: New American Caravan, 1929), pages 340-342 * "Job" in ''

New Masses ''New Masses'' (1926–1948) was an American Marxist magazine closely associated with the Communist Party USA. It succeeded both ''The Masses'' (1912–1917) and ''The Liberator''. ''New Masses'' was later merged into '' Masses & Mainstream'' (19 ...

'' (1930) Correspondence: *

Sherwood Anderson Sherwood Anderson (September 13, 1876 – March 8, 1941) was an American novelist and short story writer, known for subjective and self-revealing works. Self-educated, he rose to become a successful copywriter and business owner in Cleveland and ...

Horace Gregory Horace Gregory (April 10, 1898 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin – March 11, 1982 in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts) was a prize-winning American poet, translator of classic poetry, literary critic and college professor. He was awarded the Bollingen P ...

Granville Hicks Granville Hicks (September 9, 1901 – June 18, 1982) was an American Marxist and, later, anti-Marxist novelist, literary critic, educator, and editor. Early life Granville Hicks was born September 9, 1901, in Exeter, New Hampshire, to Frank Stev ...

Sidney Hook Sidney Hook (December 20, 1902 – July 12, 1989) was an American philosopher of pragmatism known for his contributions to the philosophy of history, the philosophy of education, political theory, and ethics. After embracing communism in his youth ...

References

External sources

Herald, Leon Srabian
- 1929-1931, Letters {{DEFAULTSORT:Herald, Leon Srabian 20th-century American poets American male poets American writers of Armenian descent 1896 births 1976 deaths Armenians from the Ottoman Empire American male short story writers 20th-century American short story writers 20th-century American male writers MacDowell Colony fellows People from Erzincan Emigrants from the Ottoman Empire to the United States Place of death missing Federal Writers' Project people

Biography

Background

Career

Communism

Personal and death

Works

See also

References

External sources