Floyd James Dell (June 28, 1887 – July 23, 1969) was an American newspaper and magazine editor,

literary critic Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. ...

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire ...

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

, and

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or w ...

. Dell has been called "one of the most flamboyant, versatile and influential American Men of Letters of the first third of the 20th Century." In

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

, he was editor of the nationally syndicated ''Friday Literary Review''. As editor and critic, Dell's influence is seen in the work of many major American writers from the first half of the 20th century. A lifelong poet, he was also a best-selling author, as well as a playwright whose hit Broadway comedy, '' Little Accident'' (1928), was made into a Hollywood movie. Dell wrote extensively on controversial social issues of the early 20th century, and played a major part in the political and social movements originating in New York City's

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 ...

during the 1910s & 1920s. As editor of left-wing magazine ''

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 ...

'', Dell was twice put on trial for publishing subversive literature.

Biography

Early life and career

Dell was born in

Barry, Illinois Barry (formerly Worcester) is a city in Pike County, Illinois, United States. The population was 1,318 at the 2010 census, down from 1,368 in 2000. Geography Barry is located at (39.694756, -91.040957). According to the 2010 census, Barry has ...

, on June 28, 1887 to Anthony Dell, a Civil War veteran and unsuccessful butcher, and Kate Crone, a home maker. Dell spent his childhood in poverty, with his family moving often. He lived in

Quincy, Illinois Quincy ( ), known as Illinois's "Gem City", is a city in and the county seat of Adams County, Illinois, United States, located on the Mississippi River. The 2020 census counted a population of 39,463 in the city itself, down from 40,633 in 2010. ...

, for a large portion of his childhood. Encouraged by his mother, a former school teacher, Dell became a voracious reader, spending much of his time at Quincy's local library. In 1903 Dell moved with his family to

Davenport, Iowa Davenport is a city in and the county seat of Scott County, Iowa, United States. Located along the Mississippi River on the eastern border of the state, it is the largest of the Quad Cities, a metropolitan area with a population of 384,324 and ...

, which was then a liberal and cosmopolitan port city and center of trade with a thriving literary and intellectual scene. Initially attending Davenport High School, Dell did not return to school after the summer of 1904, instead becoming a reporter at a local paper. Dell also became an active

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

and associated with other local writers to form what would be called the 'Davenport group'. While in Davenport, Dell also began publishing poetry, first in local papers, then in national periodicals. By the time Dell left Davenport for Chicago in 1908, he had escaped blue-collar life to emerge as a promising young professional writer and intellectual. It was also in Davenport that Dell met

Marilla Waite Freeman Marilla Waite Freeman (February 21, 1871 – October 29, 1961) was a prominent librarian known for her innovative ideas in library service. At the time of her retirement from the Cleveland Public Library in 1940, she was "one of the best known an ...

, the director of the library. Dell is quoted as saying that he "caught a glimpse of mountaintops" through Freeman's inspiration, and he dedicated a number of poems and novels to her. Freeman also served as the model for the librarian character, Helen Raymond, in ''Moon-Calf''. Angel Intrudes

In Chicago Dell became editor and book reviewer for of the Chicago Evening Post's nationally distributed ''Friday Literary Review'', the "leading organ of

literary modernism Literary modernism, or modernist literature, originated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and is characterized by a self-conscious break with traditional ways of writing, in both poetry and prose fiction writing. Modernism experimented ...

in America at the time." Dell used his position as editor to introduce many Americans to modernist literature and promote the work of many Chicago writers, including

Theodore Dreiser Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser (; August 27, 1871 – December 28, 1945) was an American novelist and journalist of the naturalist school. His novels often featured main characters who succeeded at their objectives despite a lack of a firm mora ...

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 ...

, and

Carl Sandburg Carl August Sandburg (January 6, 1878 – July 22, 1967) was an American poet, biographer, journalist, and editor. He won three Pulitzer Prizes: two for his poetry and one for his biography of Abraham Lincoln. During his lifetime, Sandburg ...

. Dell's further influence as a critic can be seen in the work of many major American writers from the first half of the 20th century.

Greenwich Village

Relocating to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 1913, Dell became a leader of the pre-war bohemian community in

and managing editor of

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 ...

's radical magazine ''

''. His housemate, the poet

Orrick Johns Orrick Glenday Johns (June 2, 1887 – July 8, 1946) was an American poet and playwright. He was one of the earliest modernist free-verse poets in Greenwich Village in 1913-1915 and associated with the artist's colony at Grantwood, New Jerse ...

, said of him during this period, "...he was working like a dock laborer. I think he must have spent twenty hours a day writing, for his typewriter could always be heard." Following the passing of the

Espionage Act of 1917 The Espionage Act of 1917 is a United States federal law enacted on June 15, 1917, shortly after the United States entered World War I. It has been amended numerous times over the years. It was originally found in Title 50 of the U.S. Code (War ...

, the government officially labeled ''The Masses'' "treasonable material" in August of that year and issued charges against its staff for "unlawfully and willfully… obstruct ngthe recruiting and enlistment of the United States" military. The "conspirators" faced fines up to 10,000 dollars and twenty years imprisonment. After deliberating for three days, the jury was unable to come to a unanimous decision. The jurors seeking to convict the defendants blamed one juror for being unable to conform to the majority opinion, as he was also a socialist. Not only did the other eleven jurors demand that the prosecutor levy charges against the lone juror, they attempted to drag the socialist supporter out into the street and lynch him. The Judge, given the uproar, declared a mistrial. A second trial also resulted in a deadlocked jury. In 1918 Dell joined Crystal and Max Eastman co-editing ''The Masses successor, '' The Liberator''. Dell joined fellow Davenporters

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 know ...

and George Cram Cook as a member of the Provincetown Players and his play '' King Arthur's Socks'' was the first performed by that historic theater group.

Later life & career

Following the war, Dell turned to fiction and his first novel, the

bildungsroman In literary criticism, a ''Bildungsroman'' (, plural ''Bildungsromane'', ) is a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from childhood to adulthood (coming of age), in which character change is import ...

(or coming-of-age) '' Moon-Calf'', became a best seller. It was an early book for the publisher

Alfred A. Knopf Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. () is an American publishing house that was founded by Alfred A. Knopf Sr. and Blanche Knopf in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers i ...

and published at a time when many mid-western writers were writing about small-town life; Sinclair Lewis's book Main Street was published within days of Moon-Calf. By 1920 Moon-Calf had sold 38,500 copies and went through eleven printings. This was followed by several other novels with limited success. His autobiographical memoir, Homecoming, is a striking eyewitness view of the social and artistic-bohemian history of the midwest. Dell continued to publish both fiction and non-fiction until the end of his life. Dell joined the WPA and U.S. Information Service in 1935 from which he retired following World War II. He married Beatrice Marie, and had two sons. One son, Christopher Dell, became a writer as well. He married and had two daughters: Jerri Dell who is the current literary executor and archivist of the Dell Collection, and Kathryn Dell Kaufman; then he divorced and remarried Kate Kane. With Kate he had a daughter, Mia Dell, who is married and has three children. Floyd Dell died in

Bethesda, Maryland Bethesda () is an unincorporated, census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland. It is located just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House (1820, rebuilt 1849), which ...

, near Washington, D.C., on July 23, 1969. In 2015, he was inducted into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame.

Partial bibliography

Novels *(1920) ''Moon-Calf'' *(1921) ''The Briary-Bush'' *(1923) ''Janet March'' *(1925) This Mad Ideal *(1925) ''Runaway'' *(1926) ''Love in Greenwich Village'' *(1926) ''An Old Man's Folly'' *(1927) ''An Unmarried Father'' *(1929) Souvenir *(1931) Love Without Money *(1932) Diana Stair *(1934) The Golden Spike Non-fiction *(1913) Women as World Builders *(1919) Were You Ever a Child? *(1924) ''Looking at Life''; essays *(1926) ''Intellectual Vagabondage''; essays *(1926) The Outline of Marriage *(1927) Upton Sinclair: A Study in Social Protest *(1930) ''Homecoming''; autobiography *(1930) ''Love in the Machine Age'' *(1947) Government Aid During the Depression to Professional, Technical and Other Service Workers (Washington: Government Printing Office) *(1947) Final Report on the WPA Program, 1935-43 (Washington: Government Printing Office) Essays *(1914) ''Feminism for Men'' *(1914) ''Mona Lisa and the Wheelbarrow'' *(1915) ''The Censor's Triumph'' *(1915) ''Enter the Woman'' Plays *(1913) ''Human Nature: A Very Short Morality Play'' *(1914) ''Chaste Adventures Of Joseph: A Comedy'' *(1914) ''Ibsen Revisited: A Piece Of Foolishness'' *(1915) ''Enigma: A Domestic Conversation'' *(1915) ''Rim Of The World: A Fantasy'' *(1915) ''Legend: A Romance'' *(1916) ''King Arthur's Socks: A Comedy'' *(1917) ''Long Time Ago: A Tragic Fantasy'' *(1917) ''Angel Intrudes: A Comedy'' *(1918) ''Sweet-And-Twenty: A Comedy'' *(1920) ''Poor Harold: A Comedy'' *(1928) ''Little Accident''

References

External links

Encyclopædia Britannica: Floyd Dell

Backwards Glance: Feminism for Men in 1914
* * *
Floyd Dell Papers
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Miriam Gurko-Floyd Dell Papers
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the Newberry Library The Newberry Library is an independent research library, specializing in the humanities and located on Washington Square in Chicago, Illinois. It has been free and open to the public since 1887. Its collections encompass a variety of topics rela ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dell, Floyd 1887 births 1969 deaths 20th-century American novelists American communists American conscientious objectors American editors American feminist writers American literary critics American male novelists American socialists People from Barry, Illinois People acquitted under the Espionage Act of 1917 Writers from Davenport, Iowa 20th-century American poets 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights American male poets American male dramatists and playwrights Novelists from Iowa Illinois socialists Iowa socialists American male non-fiction writers 20th-century American male writers