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Late Last Night Books

because so much reading, writing, and living happens after-hours

Late Last
Night Books
because so much reading, writing, and living happens after-hours
Since 2013
Gary Garth McCann, founder and managing editor
an ad-free magazine about fiction by authors Terra Ziporyn * Sally Whitney * Eileen Haavik McIntire * Gary Garth McCann * Peter G. Pollak * Garry Craig Powell * Jenny Yacovissi * Lily Iona MacKenzie * Todd S. Garth * Daniel Oliver
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← Summer and Fall Reading Round-Up: History, Both Fiction and Non, Plus Hard-Boiled Crime
Why Fiction Writers Should Read (and maybe Write) Poetry →

Revolutionary Jack Reed’s Story Worth Knowing

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PETER POLLAK

Author of Missing (2019);  Inauguration Day (2017);  The Expendable Man (2011); Making the Grade (2012); Last Stop on Desolation Ridge (2012); In the Game (2014); & House Divided (2015)

23 NOVEMBER 2020 Revolutionary Jack Reed’s Story Worth Knowing

Alan Cheuse’s 1982 lyrical biography of John Reed is mistitled. While the title refers to Reed’s fellow travelers of the cultural and political upheaval that took place during the first decades of the 20th century, it is Reed’s life story that Cheuse has told no doubt because Reed in many respects was one of the main players in that era’s story.

Reed is best known for his Ten Days That Shook the World, the story of the Communist takeover of the Russian Revolution. Before travelling to Russia where he passed away in October 1920 from typhus, however, he had chronicled for alternative magazines like The Masses, the labor movement wars in the U.S. and the rise of the socialist movement in the U.S. He also wrote about and campaigned vigorously against U.S. involvement in World War I.

Cheuse’ fictionalized version relies heavily on Reed’s poetic output as well as the poetry and writings of his contemporaries. Doing so enables him to capture the essence of the time and of the man. I should note that Cheuse doesn’t sugarcoat Reed’s relationships with women––in particular with the wife with whom he had a tumultuous marriage, but in 1982 we weren’t yet judging the past solely by contemporary values. To obtain a clear picture of a complex man in an important period in America’s past, The Bohemians is a worthwhile read.

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Peter Pollak

Author of 7 novels, Peter began writing seriously after retiring from careers as a journalist, educator and entrepreneur. Learn more at petergpollak.com.

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← Summer and Fall Reading Round-Up: History, Both Fiction and Non, Plus Hard-Boiled Crime
Why Fiction Writers Should Read (and maybe Write) Poetry →
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