Irving Howe (; June 11, 1920 – May 5, 1993) was an American literary and social critic and a prominent figure of the

Democratic Socialists of America The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is a Left-wing politics, left-wing Democratic Socialists of America#Tendencies within the DSA, multi-tendency Socialism, socialist and Labour movement, labor-oriented political organization. Its roots ...

Early years

Howe was born as Irving Horenstein in

The Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. He was the son of Jewish immigrants from

Bessarabia Bessarabia (; Gagauz: ''Besarabiya''; Romanian: ''Basarabia''; Ukrainian: ''Бессара́бія'') is a historical region in Eastern Europe, bounded by the Dniester river on the east and the Prut river on the west. About two thirds o ...

, Nettie (née Goldman) and David Horenstein, who ran a small grocery store that went out of business during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

. His father became a peddler and eventually a presser in a dress factory. His mother was an operator in the dress trade. Howe attended

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...

and graduated in 1940, alongside

Daniel Bell Daniel Bell (May 10, 1919 – January 25, 2011) was an American sociologist, writer, editor, and professor at Harvard University, best known for his contributions to the study of post-industrialism. He has been described as "one of the leading A ...

and

Irving Kristol Irving Kristol (; January 22, 1920 – September 18, 2009) was an American journalist who was dubbed the "godfather of neoconservatism". As a founder, editor, and contributor to various magazines, he played an influential role in the intellectua ...

; by the summer of 1940, he had changed his name to Howe for political (as distinct from official) purposes. While at school, he was constantly debating socialism, Stalinism, fascism, and the meaning of Judaism. He served in the US Army during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. Upon his return, he began writing literary and cultural criticism for the CIA-backed ''

Partisan Review ''Partisan Review'' (''PR'') was a small-circulation quarterly "little magazine" dealing with literature, politics, and cultural commentary published in New York City. The magazine was launched in 1934 by the Communist Party USA–affiliated Joh ...

'' and became a frequent essayist for '' Commentary'', ''

politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...

'', ''

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 t ...

'', ''

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 hu ...

'', and ''

The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...

''. In 1954, Howe helped found the intellectual quarterly ''

Dissent Dissent is an opinion, philosophy or sentiment of non-agreement or opposition to a prevailing idea or policy enforced under the authority of a government, political party or other entity or individual. A dissenting person may be referred to as ...

'', which he edited until his death in 1993. In the 1950s Howe taught English and

Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ve ...

literature at

Brandeis University , mottoeng = "Truth even unto its innermost parts" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = NECHE , president = Ronald D. Liebowitz , p ...

Waltham, Massachusetts Waltham ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, and was an early center for the labor movement as well as a major contributor to the American Industrial Revolution. The original home of the Boston Manufacturing Company, ...

. He used the ''Howe and Greenberg Treasury of Yiddish Stories'' as the text for a course on the Yiddish story, when few were spreading knowledge or appreciation of the works in American colleges and universities.

Political career

Since his City College days, Howe was committed to

left-wing politics Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in ...

. He was a committed democratic socialist throughout his life. He was a member of the Young People's Socialist League, joining it in the 1930s when it was under the influence of the

Trotskyist Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a ...

Socialist Workers Party, remaining with YPSL when it became the youth organization of

Max Shachtman Max Shachtman (; September 10, 1904 – November 4, 1972) was an American Marxist theorist. He went from being an associate of Leon Trotsky to a social democrat and mentor of senior assistants to AFL–CIO President George Meany. Beginnings ...

's Workers Party in 1940, which he served in a leading capacity, for a time as the editor of its paper, ''Labor Action''; he continued his activism with this political trend when it morphed into the

Independent Socialist League The Workers Party (WP) was a Third Camp Trotskyist group in the United States. It was founded in April 1940 by members of the Socialist Workers Party who opposed the Soviet invasion of Finland and Leon Trotsky's belief that the USSR under ...

1949, but left this milieu later in the mid 1950s. At the request of his friend,

Michael Harrington Edward Michael Harrington Jr. (February 24, 1928 – July 31, 1989) was an American democratic socialist. As a writer, he was perhaps best known as the author of '' The Other America''. Harrington was also a political activist, theorist, profess ...

, he helped cofound the

Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee The Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC; ) was a democratic socialist organization in the United States. The DSOC was founded in 1973 by Michael Harrington, who had led a minority caucus in the Socialist Party of America and disagr ...

in the early 1970s. DSOC merged into the

in 1982, with Howe a vice-chair. He was a vociferous opponent of both Soviet

totalitarianism Totalitarianism is a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual and group opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high if not complete degree of control and regu ...

and

McCarthyism McCarthyism is the practice of making false or unfounded accusations of subversion and treason, especially when related to anarchism, communism and socialism, and especially when done in a public and attention-grabbing manner. The term origin ...

, called into question standard Marxist doctrine, and came into conflict with the

New Left The New Left was a broad political movement mainly in the 1960s and 1970s consisting of activists in the Western world who campaigned for a broad range of social issues such as civil and political rights, environmentalism, feminism, gay rights ...

after he criticized their unmitigated radicalism. Later in life, his politics gravitated toward more pragmatic

democratic socialism Democratic socialism is a left-wing political philosophy that supports political democracy and some form of a socially owned economy, with a particular emphasis on economic democracy, workplace democracy, and workers' self-management within ...

and

foreign policy A state's foreign policy or external policy (as opposed to internal or domestic policy) is its objectives and activities in relation to its interactions with other states, unions, and other political entities, whether bilaterally or through ...

, a position still represented in ''

''. He had a few famous run-ins with people. In the 1960s while at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...

, he was verbally attacked by a young radical socialist, who claimed Howe was no longer committed to the revolution and that he had become status quo. Howe turned to the student and said, "You know what you're going to be? You're going to be a dentist."

Writer

Known for

literary criticism 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. ...

as well as

social Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not. Etymology The word "social" derives from ...

and

political activism Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range ...

, Howe wrote critical biographies on

Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry of William Wor ...

William Faulkner William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where Faulkner spent most o ...

, and

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 ...

, a booklength examination of the relation of politics to fiction, and theoretical essays on Modernism, the nature of fiction, and

social Darwinism Social Darwinism refers to various theories and societal practices that purport to apply biological concepts of natural selection and survival of the fittest to sociology, economics and politics, and which were largely defined by scholars in We ...

. He was also among the first to re-examine the work of

Edwin Arlington Robinson Edwin Arlington Robinson (December 22, 1869 – April 6, 1935) was an American poet and playwright. Robinson won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry on three occasions and was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature four times. Early life Robi ...

and lead the way to establishing Robinson's reputation as one of the 20th century's great poets. His writing portrayed his dislike of capitalist America. He wrote many influential books throughout his career, such as ''Decline of the New'', ''World of our Fathers'', ''Politics and the Novel'' and his autobiography ''A Margin of Hope''. He also wrote a biography of

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 ...

, who was one of his childhood heroes. Howe's exhaustive multidisciplinary history of Eastern European Jews in America, ''World of Our Fathers'', is considered a classic of

social analysis Social theories are analytical frameworks, or paradigms, that are used to study and interpret social phenomena.Seidman, S., 2016. Contested knowledge: Social theory today. John Wiley & Sons. A tool used by social scientists, social theories re ...

and general scholarship. Howe explores the socialist Jewish New York from which he came. He examines the dynamic of

Eastern European Jews The expression 'Eastern European Jewry' has two meanings. Its first meaning refers to the current political spheres of the Eastern European countries and its second meaning refers to the Jewish communities in Russia and Poland. The phrase 'Easte ...

and the culture they created in America. ''World of our Fathers'' won the 1977

National Book Award The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The Nat ...

in History"National Book Awards – 1977"
National Book Foundation. Retrieved 2012-03-17. and the

National Jewish Book Award The Jewish Book Council (Hebrew: ), founded in 1944, is an organization encouraging and contributing to Jewish literature.Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ve ...

stories and commissioned the first English translation of

Isaac Bashevis Singer Isaac Bashevis Singer ( yi, יצחק באַשעװיס זינגער; November 11, 1903 – July 24, 1991) was a Polish-born American Jewish writer who wrote and published first in Yiddish and later translated himself into English with the help ...

for the ''

''. In that regard, he was critical of

Philip Roth Philip Milton Roth (March 19, 1933 – May 22, 2018) was an American novelist and short story writer. Roth's fiction—often set in his birthplace of Newark, New Jersey—is known for its intensely autobiographical character, for philosophicall ...

's early works, '' Goodbye Columbus'' and '' Portnoy's Complaint'', as philistine and vulgar caricatures of Jewish life that pandered to the worst

anti-semitic stereotypes Stereotypes of Jews are generalized representations of Jews, often caricatured and of a prejudiced and antisemitic nature. Common objects, phrases and traditions which are used to emphasize or ridicule Jewishness include bagels, the complainin ...

. In 1987, Howe was a recipient of a

MacArthur Fellowship The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to between 20 and 30 indi ...

Death

He died in New York of

cardiovascular disease Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a class of diseases that involve the heart or blood vessels. CVD includes coronary artery diseases (CAD) such as angina and myocardial infarction (commonly known as a heart attack). Other CVDs include stroke, hea ...

Legacy

He had strong political views that he would ferociously defend. Morris Dickstein, a professor at Queens College referred to Howe as a "counterpuncher who tended to dissent from the prevailing orthodoxy of the moment, whether left or right, though he himself was certainly a man of the left."

Leon Wieseltier Leon Wieseltier (; born June 14, 1952) is an American critic and magazine editor. From 1983 to 2014, he was the literary editor of ''The New Republic''. He was a contributing editor and critic at ''The Atlantic'' until October 27, 2017, when the ...

, who was the literary editor of ''The New Republic'', said of Howe: "He lived in three worlds, literary, political and Jewish, and he watched all of them change almost beyond recognition." And

Richard Rorty Richard McKay Rorty (October 4, 1931 – June 8, 2007) was an American philosopher. Educated at the University of Chicago and Yale University, he had strong interests and training in both the history of philosophy and in contemporary analytic ...

, American philosopher of note, dedicated his well-known work, ''

Achieving Our Country ''Achieving Our Country: Leftist Thought in Twentieth-Century America'' is a 1998 book by American philosopher Richard Rorty, in which the author differentiates between what he sees as the two sides of the left, a ''cultural left'' and a ''ref ...

'' (1999), to Howe's memory. He appeared as himself in

Woody Allen Heywood "Woody" Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American film director, writer, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades and multiple Academy Award-winning films. He began his career writing ...

mockumentary A mockumentary (a blend of ''mock'' and ''documentary''), fake documentary or docu-comedy is a type of film or television show depicting fictional events but presented as a documentary. These productions are often used to analyze or comment on c ...

Zelig ''Zelig'' is a 1983 American mockumentary film written, directed by and starring Woody Allen as Leonard Zelig, a nondescript enigma, who, apparently out of his desire to fit in and be liked, unwittingly takes on the characteristics of strong per ...

''. Howe had two children, Nina and

Nicholas Nicholas is a male given name and a surname. The Eastern Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Anglican Churches celebrate Saint Nicholas every year on December 6, which is the name day for "Nicholas". In Greece, the name and its ...

(1953-2006), with his second wife, Thalia Phillies, a classicist. He is survived by his third wife, Ilona Howe.

Works

Books

Authored
''Smash the Profiteers: Vote for Security and a Living Wage''
New York: Workers Party Campaign Committee, 1946.
''Don't Pay More Rent!''
Long Island City, NY: Workers Party Publications, 1947. Printed for the Workers Party of the United States.
''The UAW and Walter Reuther''
Co-authored with

B. J. Widick B. J. Widick (born Branko J. Widick in Okučani, present-day Croatia, October 25, 1910; died Ann Arbor, Michigan, June 28, 2008) was an American labor activist in the United Auto Workers union and socialist movements. Background An immigrant to ...

. New York:

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

, 1949.
''Sherwood Anderson''
New York: Sloane, 1951.
''William Faulkner: A Critical Study''
New York:

, 1952. *
The American Communist Party: A Critical History, 1919-1957
'. Co-authored with

Lewis Coser Lewis Alfred Coser (27 November 1913 in Berlin – 8 July 2003 in Cambridge, Massachusetts) was a German-American sociologist, serving as the 66th president of the American Sociological Association in 1975. Biography Born in Berlin as Ludwig Co ...

, with the assistance of

Julius Jacobson Julius Jacobson (1922 – March 8, 2003) was an American socialist writer and editor who edited ''Anvil,'' ''New International,'' and '' New Politics'', all publications in the Third Camp tradition of socialism, a democratic Marxist tradition s ...

. Boston:

Beacon Press Beacon Press is an American left-wing non-profit book publisher. Founded in 1854 by the American Unitarian Association, it is currently a department of the Unitarian Universalist Association. It is known for publishing authors such as James B ...

, 1957.
''Politics and the Novel''
New York: Horizon Press, 1957. *''The Jewish Labor Movement in America: Two Views''. Co-authored with Israel Knox. New York:

Jewish Labor Committee The Jewish Labor Committee (JLC) is an American secular Jewish organization dedicated to promoting labor union interests in Jewish communities, and Jewish interests within unions. The organization is headquartered in New York City, with local/re ...

, 1957.
''Edith Wharton: A Collection of Critical Essays''
Englewood Cliffs, NJ:

Prentice-Hall Prentice Hall was an American major educational publisher owned by Savvas Learning Company. Prentice Hall publishes print and digital content for the 6–12 and higher-education market, and distributes its technical titles through the Safari ...

, 1962. *''T.E. Lawrence: The Problem of Heroism''.

The Hudson Review ''The Hudson Review'' is a quarterly journal of literature and the arts. History It was founded in 1947 in New York, by William Arrowsmith, Joseph Deericks Bennett, and George Frederick Morgan. The first issue was introduced in the spring of 194 ...

, Vol. 15, No. 3, 1962.
''A World More Attractive: A View of Modern Literature and Politics''
New York: Horizon Press, 1963. *''Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio''. Washington, D.C.:

Voice of America Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is the State media, state-owned news network and International broadcasting, international radio broadcaster of the United States, United States of America. It is the largest and oldest U.S.-funded international br ...

, 1964. American Novel Series #14 *''New Styles in "Leftism."'' New York:

League for Industrial Democracy The League for Industrial Democracy (LID) was founded as a successor to the Intercollegiate Socialist Society in 1921. Members decided to change its name to reflect a more inclusive and more organizational perspective. Background Intercollegiate So ...

, 1965. *''On the Nature of Communism and Relations with Communists''. New York:

, 1966.
''Steady Work: Essays in the Politics of Democratic Radicalism, 1953-1966''
New York:

Harcourt, Brace & World Harcourt () was an American publishing firm with a long history of publishing fiction and nonfiction for adults and children. The company was last based in San Diego, California, with editorial/sales/marketing/rights offices in New York City an ...

, 1966.
''Thomas Hardy''
New York:

Macmillan MacMillan, Macmillan, McMillen or McMillan may refer to: People * McMillan (surname) * Clan MacMillan, a Highland Scottish clan * Harold Macmillan, British statesman and politician * James MacMillan, Scottish composer * William Duncan MacMillan ...

, 1967. *''The Idea of the Modern in Literature and the Arts''. New York: Horizon Press, 1967. *''Literary Modernism''. Greenwich, CT:

Fawcett Publications Fawcett Publications was an American publishing company founded in 1919 in Robbinsdale, Minnesota by Wilford Fawcett, Wilford Hamilton "Captain Billy" Fawcett (1885–1940). It kicked off with the publication of the bawdy humor magazine ''Captai ...

, 1967. *''Student Activism''. Indianapolis:

Bobbs-Merrill The Bobbs-Merrill Company was a book publisher located in Indianapolis, Indiana. Company history The company began in 1850 October 3 when Samuel Merrill bought an Indianapolis bookstore and entered the publishing business. After his death in 1 ...

, 1967.
''Decline of the New''
New York:

, 1970.
''The Literature of America''
Co-authored with

Mark Schorer Mark Schorer (May 17, 1908 – August 11, 1977) was an American writer, critic, and scholar born in Sauk City, Wisconsin. Biography Schorer earned an MA at Harvard and his Ph.D. in English at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1936. Durin ...

& Larzer Ziff. New York:

McGraw-Hill McGraw Hill is an American educational publishing company and one of the "big three" educational publishers that publishes educational content, software, and services for pre-K through postgraduate education. The company also publishes refere ...

, 1971.
''The Critical Point: On Literature and Culture''
New York: Horizon Press, 1973.
''World of our Fathers: The Journey of the East European Jews to America and the Life They Found and Made''
New York:

Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Harcourt () was an American publishing firm with a long history of publishing fiction and nonfiction for adults and children. The company was last based in San Diego, California, with editorial/sales/marketing/rights offices in New York City ...

, 1976. *''New Perspectives: The Diaspora and Israel''. Co-authored with Matityahu Peled. New York:

, 1976
''Trotsky''
London:

Fontana Modern Masters The Fontana Modern Masters was a series of pocket guides on writers, philosophers, and other thinkers and theorists who shaped the intellectual landscape of the twentieth century. The first five titles were published on 12 January 1970 by Fontana ...

, 1978.
''Leon Trotsky''
New York:

Viking Press Viking Press (formally Viking Penguin, also listed as Viking Books) is an American publishing company owned by Penguin Random House. It was founded in New York City on March 1, 1925, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheim and then acquir ...

, 1978
''Celebrations and Attacks: Thirty Years of Literary and Cultural Commentary''
New York: Horizon Press, 1979. *''The Threat of Conservatism''. Co-authored with

Gus Tyler August Tyler (1911-2011) was an American socialist activist of the 1930s, a labor union official, author, and newspaper columnist. Tyler is best remembered as a leading American labor intellectual of the post-World War II era and as the author o ...

Peter Steinfels Peter F. Steinfels (born 1941) is an American journalist and educator best known for his writings on religious topics. A native of Chicago, Illinois, and a lifelong Roman Catholic, Steinfels earned his Ph.D. from Columbia University and joined th ...

. New York: Foundation for the Study of Independent Social Ideas, 1980. *''The Making of a Critic'', Bennington, VT:

Bennington College Bennington College is a private liberal arts college in Bennington, Vermont. Founded in 1932 as a women's college, it became co-educational in 1969. It claims to be the first college to include visual and performing arts as an equal partner in ...

, 1982.

Ben Belitt Ben Belitt (May 2, 1911 – August 17, 2003) was an American poet and translator. Besides writing poetry, he also translated several books of poetry by Pablo Neruda and Federico García Lorca from Spanish to English.''A Margin of Hope: An Intellectual Autobiography''

, 1982.
''Socialism and America''
San Diego:

, 1985.
''The American Newness: Culture and Politics in the Age of Emerson''
Cambridge, MA:

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retir ...

, 1986. * ''American Jews and Liberalism''. Co-authored with

Michael Walzer Michael Laban Walzer (born 1935) is an American political theorist and public intellectual. A professor emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton, New Jersey, he is editor emeritus of '' Dissent'', an intellectual magazin ...

Leonard Fein Leonard J. Fein (July 1, 1934 – August 14, 2014), also known as Leibel Fein, was an American activist, writer, and teacher specializing in Jewish social themes. Academic career After studying at the University of Chicago, Fein later received h ...

Mitchell Cohen Mitchell Cohen is an author, essayist and critic, He is professor of political science at Baruch College of the City University of New York and the CUNY Graduate Center. From 1991 to 2009, he was co-editor of '' Dissent'', one of the United States ...

. New York: Foundation for the Study of Independent Social Ideas, 1986. *''The Return of Terrorism''. Bronx, NY:

Lehman College Lehman College is a public college in the Bronx borough of New York City. Founded in 1931 as the Bronx campus of Hunter College, the school became an independent college within CUNY in September 1967. The college is named after Herbert H. Lehman ...

of the

City University of New York The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the public university system of New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven senior colleges, seven community colleges and seven pro ...

, 1989.

Herbert H. Lehman Herbert Henry Lehman (March 28, 1878 – December 5, 1963) was an American Democratic Party politician from New York. He served from 1933 until 1942 as the 45th governor of New York and represented New York State in the U.S. Senate from 1949 ...

memorial lecture,

publications, #22. *''Selected Writings, 1950-1990'' San Diego:

Harcourt Brace Harcourt () was an American publishing firm with a long history of publishing fiction and nonfiction for adults and children. The company was last based in San Diego, California, with editorial/sales/marketing/rights offices in New York City ...

, 1990.
''A Critic's Notebook''
Edited and introduced by Nicholas Howe. New York:

, 1994. *''The End of Jewish Secularism''. New York:

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also admin ...

of the

, 1995. Occasional papers in Jewish history and thought, #1. Edited * Gissing, George. ''

New Grub Street ''New Grub Street'' is a novel by George Gissing published in 1891, which is set in the literary and journalistic circles of 1880s London. Gissing revised and shortened the novel for a French edition of 1901. Plot The story deals with the lite ...

''. Boston:

Houghton Mifflin The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...

, 1962.
''Poverty: Views from the Left''
Edited with

Jeremy Larner Jeremy Larner (born March 20, 1937) is an author, poet, journalist and speechwriter. He won an Oscar in 1972 for Best Original Screenplay, for writing '' The Candidate.'' Childhood Jeremy Larner was born in New York, and grew up in Indianapolis, ...

. New York: Apollo, 1962.
''The Basic Writings of Trotsky''
New York:

, 1963. *''The Radical Papers''. New York: Doubleday, 1966. *''Shoptalk: An Instructor's Manual for Classics of Modern Fiction: Eight Short Novels''. New York:

, 1968.
''Beyond the New Left''
New York: McCall Publishing Co., 1970.
''The New Conservatives: A Critique From the Left''
Edited with

Lewis A. Coser Lewis Alfred Coser (27 November 1913 in Berlin – 8 July 2003 in Cambridge, Massachusetts) was a German-American sociologist, serving as the 66th president of the American Sociological Association in 1975. Biography Born in Berlin as Ludwig ...

. New York: Quadrangle/The New York Times Book Co., 1974.
''Yiddish Stories: Old and New''
Edited with Eliezer Greenberg. New York:

Avon Books Avon Publications is one of the leading publishers of romance fiction. At Avon's initial stages, it was an American paperback book and comic book publisher. The shift in content occurred in the early 1970s with multiple Avon romance titles rea ...

, 1977.
''The Best of Sholem Aleichem''
Edited with Ruth R. Wisse. Washington: New Republic Books, 1979.
''How We Lived: A Documentary History of Immigrant Jews in America, 1880-1930''
Edited with Kenneth Libo. New York: R. Marek, 1979.
''The Portable Kipling''
New York:

, 1982.
''Beyond the Welfare State''
New York:

Schocken Books Schocken Books is a book publishing imprint of Penguin Random House that specializes in Jewish literary works. Originally established in 1931 by Salman Schocken as Schocken Verlag in Berlin, the company later moved to Palestine and then the Uni ...

, 1982.
''Short Shorts: An Anthology of the Shortest Stories''
Edited with Ilana Wiener Howe. Boston, MA: D.R. Godine, 1982.
''1984 Revisited: Totalitarianism in Our Century''
New York:

Harper & Row Harper is an American publishing house, the flagship imprint of global publisher HarperCollins based in New York City. History J. & J. Harper (1817–1833) James Harper and his brother John, printers by training, started their book publishin ...

, 1983. Contributed *“Introduction.” ''

'', by

George Gissing George Robert Gissing (; 22 November 1857 – 28 December 1903) was an English novelist, who published 23 novels between 1880 and 1903. His best-known works have reappeared in modern editions. They include '' The Nether World'' (1889), ''New Gru ...

. Boston:

, 1962.
”Notes on the Welfare State.”''Poverty: Views from the Left''
edited with

. New York: Apollo, 1962, pp. 293–314. *”Introduction.�
''The Basic Writings of Trotsky''
edited by Irving Howe. New York:

, 1963.
”Afterword.”''An American Tragedy''
by

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 ...

. New York:

Signet Classic The New American Library (also known as NAL) is an American publisher based in New York, founded in 1948. Its initial focus was affordable paperback reprints of classics and scholarly works as well as popular and pulp fiction, but it now publishe ...

, 1964.
”Are American Jews Turning to the Right?”''The New Conservatives: A Critique From the Left''
edited by Daniel Bell &

. New York: Quadrangle/The New York Times Book Co., 1974. *”Introduction.�
''Short Shorts: An Anthology of the Shortest Stories''
Edited with Ilana Wiener Howe. Boston, MA: D.R. Godine, 1982. Translated * Baeck, Leo. ''The Essence of Judaism'', translated by Irving Howe and Victor Grubwieser. New York:

, 1948.

Articles and introductions

*''A treasury of Yiddish stories'', editor with

Eliezer Greenberg Eliezer Greenberg (December 13, 1896 – June 2, 1977) was a Bessarabian-born Jewish-American Yiddish poet and literary critic. Life Greenberg was born on December 13, 1896 in Lipcani, Russian Empire, the son of Ezekiel Greenberg and Ethel H ...

New York,

, 1954. *''Modern literary criticism: an anthology'', editor, Boston, Beacon Press, 1958. * "New York in the Thirties: Some Fragments of Memory," ''Dissent,'' vol.8, no.3 (Summer 1961), pp. 241–250. *''The Historical Novel'' by Georg Lukacs; preface by Irving Howe, Boston:

, 1963 *''Orwell's Nineteen eighty-four: text, sources, criticism'' editor, New York :

Harcourt, Brace and World Harcourt () was an American publishing firm with a long history of publishing fiction and nonfiction for adults and children. The company was last based in San Diego, California, with editorial/sales/marketing/rights offices in New York City ...

, 1963. *''The Merry-Go-Round of Love and selected stories'' by Luigi Pirandello, trans. Frances Keene and Lily Duplaix, with a foreword by Irving Howe, New York, The New American Library of World Literature, 1964. *''

Jude the obscure ''Jude the Obscure'' is a novel by Thomas Hardy, which began as a magazine serial in December 1894 and was first published in book form in 1895 (though the title page says 1896). It is Hardy's last completed novel. The protagonist, Jude Fawley ...

'' by

; edited with an introduction by Irving Howe, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1965. *''Selected writings: stories, poems and essays.'' by Thomas Hardy; edited with an introduction by Irving Howe, Greenwich, Conn.,

, 1966. *''Selected short stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer'' edited with an introduction by Irving Howe, New York,

Modern Library The Modern Library is an American book publishing imprint and formerly the parent company of Random House. Founded in 1917 by Albert Boni and Horace Liveright as an imprint of their publishing company Boni & Liveright, Modern Library became an ...

, 1966. *''The radical imagination; an anthology from Dissent Magazine'' editor, New York :

New American Library The New American Library (also known as NAL) is an American publisher based in New York, founded in 1948. Its initial focus was affordable paperback reprints of classics and scholarly works as well as popular and pulp fiction, but it now publish ...

, 1967. *''A Dissenter's guide to foreign policy'' editor, New York : Praeger, 1968. *''Classics of modern fiction; eight short novels'' editor, New York : Harcourt, Brace & World, 1968. *''A treasury of Yiddish poetry'', editor with Eliezer Greenberg New York, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1969. *''Essential works of socialism'' editor, New York, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1970. *''The literature of America; nineteenth century'' editor, New York,

, 1970. *''Israel, the Arabs, and the Middle East'' editor with

Carl Gershman Carl Gershman (born July 20, 1943) is an American civil servant who served as the president of the National Endowment for Democracy since its founding in 1984 until 2021. Gershman previously served as the United States Ambassador to the United Nat ...

, New York,

Quadrangle Books Times Books (previously the New York Times Book Company) is a publishing imprint owned by the New York Times Company and licensed to Henry Holt and Company. Times Books began as the New York Times Book Company in 1969, when The New York Times Com ...

, 1970. *''Voices from the Yiddish: essays, memoirs, diaries'', editor with Eliezer Greenberg Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, 1972. *''The seventies: problems and proposals'', editor with

New York, Harper & Row, 1972. *''The world of the blue-collar worker'' editor, New York, Quadrangle Books, 1972. *''Yiddish stories, old and new'', editor with Eliezer Greenberg New York, Holiday House 1974 *''

Herzog ''Herzog'' (female ''Herzogin'') is a German hereditary title held by one who rules a territorial duchy, exercises feudal authority over an estate called a duchy, or possesses a right by law or tradition to be referred to by the ducal title. ...

'' by

Saul Bellow Saul Bellow (born Solomon Bellows; 10 July 1915 – 5 April 2005) was a Canadian-born American writer. For his literary work, Bellow was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize for Literature, and the National Medal of Arts. He is the only w ...

text and criticism edited by Irving Howe, New York, Viking Press, 1976. *''Jewish-American stories'', editor, New York : New American Library, 1977. *''Ashes out of hope: fiction by Soviet-Yiddish writers'', editor with Eliezer Greenberg New York : Schocken Books, 1977. *''Literature as experience: an anthology'' editor with

John Hollander John Hollander (October 28, 1929 – August 17, 2013) was an American poet and literary critic. At the time of his death, he was Sterling Professor Emeritus of English at Yale University, having previously taught at Connecticut College, Hunter ...

and

David Bromwich David Bromwich is Sterling Professor of English at Yale University. Career After graduating from Yale with a B.A. in 1973 and a Ph.D. four years later, Bromwich became an instructor at Princeton University, where he was promoted to Mellon Profe ...

, New York : Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1979. *''Twenty-five years of Dissent: an American tradition'' compiled and with an introd. by Irving Howe, New York : Methuen, 1979. *''1984 revisited: totalitarianism in our century'' editor, New York : Harper & Row, 1983. *''Alternatives, proposals for America from the democratic left'' editor, New York : Pantheon Books, 1984. *''We lived there, too: in their own words and pictures—pioneer Jews and the westward movement of America, 1630-1930'' editor with Kenneth Libo, New York : St. Martin's/Marek, 1984. *''The Penguin book of modern Yiddish verse'' edited by Irving Howe,

Ruth Wisse Ruth Wisse (surname pronounced ) (Yiddish: רות װײַס; Roskies; born May 13, 1936) is a Canadian academic and is the Martin Peretz Professor of Yiddish Literature and Professor of Comparative Literature at Harvard University ''emerita''. ...

and

Chone Shmeruk Chone may refer to: *Casabona, Italy, previously the Ancient Greek city of Chone, Magna Graecia *Chone, Ecuador, an Ecuadorian city located in the Manabí Province * Chone Canton, Ecuador, whose capital is Chone *Chone Figgins Desmond DeChone Figg ...

New York, Viking Press, 1987 *''

Oliver Twist ''Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy's Progress'', Charles Dickens's second novel, was published as a serial from 1837 to 1839, and as a three-volume book in 1838. Born in a workhouse, the orphan Oliver Twist is bound into apprenticeship with ...

'' by

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian er ...

, introduction New York: Bantam, 1990. *'' The castle'' by

Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It typ ...

, introduction London :

David Campbell Publishers David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

, 1992. *''

Little Dorrit ''Little Dorrit'' is a novel by Charles Dickens, originally published in serial form between 1855 and 1857. The story features Amy Dorrit, youngest child of her family, born and raised in the Marshalsea prison for debtors in London. Arthur Cl ...

'' by

, introduction London : David Campbell Publishers, 1992.

References

External links

Irving Howe Archive
at

marxists.org Marxists Internet Archive (also known as MIA or Marxists.org) is a non-profit online encyclopedia that hosts a multilingual library (created in 1990) of the works of communist, anarchist, and socialist writers, such as Karl Marx, Friedrich En ...

''Dissent''
the quarterly Howe founded and edited

by

Alan M. Wald Alan Maynard Wald (born June 1, 1946) is an American professor emeritus of English Literature and American Culture at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and writer of 20th-century American literature who focuses on Communist writers; he is an ...

''Arguing the World''
1998 PBS documentary film featuring

Nathan Glazer Nathan Glazer (February 25, 1923 – January 19, 2019) was an American sociologist who taught at the University of California, Berkeley, and for several decades at Harvard University. He was a co-editor of the now-defunct policy journal ''The Pu ...

, and Howe
Irving Howe
at

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The libra ...

Authorities — with 108 catalog records {{DEFAULTSORT:Howe, Irving 1920 births 1993 deaths American literary critics American Marxists American communists Jewish activists Brandeis University faculty City College of New York alumni Jewish American historians American male non-fiction writers Jewish socialists MacArthur Fellows National Book Award winners Members of the Democratic Socialists of America Writers from New York City American Trotskyists Historians of anarchism Historians of communism Historians of socialism Members of the Workers Party (United States) 20th-century American historians 20th-century American male writers Historians from New York (state) Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters

Early years

Political career

Writer

Death

Legacy

Works

Books

Articles and introductions

References

Further reading

Primary sources

External links