Isidor Schneider (August 23, 1896 in
Horodenka
Horodenka (, ; , occasionally '';'' ) is a city located in Kolomyia Raion, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, in Western Ukraine. It hosts the administration of Horodenka urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Population: In 2001 the population ...
,
Galicia,
Austria
Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
–August 3, 1977 in
Manhattan
Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
,
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
,
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
New York may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* ...
)
was an American poet, novelist and critic.
Career
Isidor Schneider was born in 1896 in
Horodenka
Horodenka (, ; , occasionally '';'' ) is a city located in Kolomyia Raion, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, in Western Ukraine. It hosts the administration of Horodenka urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Population: In 2001 the population ...
,
["New York, Southern District, U.S. District Court Naturalization Records, 1824-1946", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QG2T-ZM65 : 8 March 2021), Isidor Schneider, 1925.] one of four children born to Hyman and Sarah Schneider. His family came to the USA when he was six years old.
[
]
Literary career
Schneider contributed to many literary journals and magazines in his career. They included the left-leaning ''
Menorah Journal
''The Menorah Journal'' (1915–1962) was a Jewish-American magazine, founded in New York City. Some have called it "the leading English-language Jewish intellectual and literary journal of its era."
The journal lasted from 1915 until ...
'' (1920s) and ''
New Masses
''New Masses'' (1926–1948) was an American Marxist magazine closely associated with the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). It was the successor to both '' The Masses'' (1911–1917) and ''The Liberator'' (1918–1924). ''New Masses'' was later merge ...
'' (1930s and 1940s).
[
] He also published more literary works in ''The Nation'' (where he is still listed as an "author") and in ''Poetry'' magazine.
According to
Al Filreis
Al Filreis (born 1956) is the Kelly Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania, Faculty Director of the Kelly Writers House, and Director of the Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing at the University of Pennsylvania.
With Charl ...
, professor of English at the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...
, Schneider moved from "standard Imagist ditties" in the 1920s to "full-fledged, narrative, descriptive Communist poetry -- poetry that was meant to summon people of the working class to not only take a place in the social scene and demand their rights but to a poetry that they could read, according to the poet in Schneider's case."
He was a
Guggenheim Fellow
Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon individuals who have demonstrated d ...
for poetry in 1934.
Communist career
Like many literary Americans of the 1920s and 1930s, Schneider became very pro-Communist. Other like-minded literati with whom he interacted closely over the years include:
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 ...
,
Malcolm Cowley
Malcolm Cowley (August 24, 1898 – March 27, 1989) was an American writer, editor, historian, poet, and literary critic. His best known works include his first book of poetry, ''Blue Juniata'' (1929), and his memoir, ''Exile's Return'' ( ...
,
Theodore Dreiser
Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser (; August 27, 1871 – December 28, 1945) was an American novelist and journalist of the naturalism (literature), naturalist school. His novels often featured main characters who succeeded at their objectives despi ...
,
Lillian Hellman
Lillian Florence Hellman (June 20, 1905 – June 30, 1984) was an American playwright, Prose, prose writer, Memoir, memoirist, and screenwriter known for her success on Broadway as well as her communist views and political activism. She was black ...
, and
Lewis Mumford
Lewis Mumford (October 19, 1895 – January 26, 1990) was an American historian, sociologist, philosopher of technology, and literary critic. Particularly noted for his study of cities and urban architecture, he had a broad career as a ...
.
Diana Trilling
Diana Trilling (née Rubin; July 21, 1905 – October 23, 1996) was an American literary critic and author, one of a group of left-wing writers known as the New York Intellectuals.
Background
Born Diana Rubin, she married the literary and ...
summarized Schneider's Communist career in highly personal terms:
Over these long years, I still think of the Schneiders as pre-eminent among the forgotten dead of the hoped-for Communist revolution in this country. They have their unmarked place in history as people whose lives were destroyed in the pointless and degrading service of Stalin. Or it may be that only Isidor's life was destroyed; Helen's was perhaps fulfilled as it would not have been if she had remained the discontented housewife she was when Lionel and I knew her... Still young when we knew him, Isidor had already achieved something of a reputation as a poet. He had also won critical attention with a novel in the experimental mode, ''Dr. Transit''; somewhere it no doubt survives as a reminder of the territory which his imagination claimed for itself before it was enslaved by the Communist orthodoxy... The Communist movement rescued Helen Schneider from the dis-contents of her marriage. Within the Party she perhaps found men who were better suited to her needs than Isidor; report had it that she became the lover of one of the black Communist leaders. Determined to hold on to his wife, Isidor followed Helen into the Communist movement and became a writer for the Party's literary journal, the ''New Masses
''New Masses'' (1926–1948) was an American Marxist magazine closely associated with the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). It was the successor to both '' The Masses'' (1911–1917) and ''The Liberator'' (1918–1924). ''New Masses'' was later merge ...
''. The gender-myopic poet became one of the Party's most dependable hatchet men, a well-practiced and efficient literary executioner... Amid the crush and bustle of Macy's then-famous bookstore, he confessed to Lionel that he had never meant to be a Communist. He had intended only to be a poet and a private man. He had lost control of his life; it had moved in a direction he had not chosen for it. There was nothing unusual in intellectuals who were close to the Party, or even Party members, criticizing the Party to non-members: the novelist Joseph Freeman made a habit of cornering one with his complaints. But Isidor was admitting to more than dissent from this or that aspect of the official line. He was confessing to having surrendered his life for his marriage. He was still a craven servant of the Party when we last heard of him.
Personal life
Schneider married Helen Berlin in Manhattan on January 12, 1925.
["New York, New York City Marriage Records, 1829-1938", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2464-JLH : 21 August 2022), Isidor Schneider and Helen Berlin, 1925.] The couple resided in
Sunnyside in
Queens, New York
Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...
with a daughter. (
Lewis Mumford
Lewis Mumford (October 19, 1895 – January 26, 1990) was an American historian, sociologist, philosopher of technology, and literary critic. Particularly noted for his study of cities and urban architecture, he had a broad career as a ...
had planned and designed Sunnyside.)
Works
Schneider's papers are archived at
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
.
Works
Books
*''Doctor Transit'',
Boni & Liveright
Boni & Liveright (pronounced "BONE-eye" and "LIV-right") is an American trade book publisher established in 1917 in New York City by Albert Boni and Horace Liveright. Over the next sixteen years the firm, which changed its name to Horace Liv ...
, 1925
*''The Temptation of Anthony: A Novel in Verse, and Other Poems'', Boni and Liveright, 1928
*''Comrade: mister'', Equinox cooperative press, 1934
*''From the Kingdom of Necessity (Novel)'', Putnam & Sons 1935
*''The Judas Time'', The
Dial Press
The Dial Press is a publishing house founded in 1923 by Lincoln MacVeagh.
The Dial Press shared a building with ''The Dial'' and Scofield Thayer worked with both. The first imprint was issued in 1924.
Authors included Elizabeth Bowen, W. R. Bur ...
, 1947
*''The World of Love, Volume 1'', G. Braziller, 1964
Translations
*''Mother'' by Maxim Gorky, The Citadel Press, 1947.
*''Autobiography of Maxim Gorky: My Childhood, In the World, My Universities'', The Citadel Press, 1949; Fredonia Books, 2001,
Edited
*''Proletarian Literature in the United States: an Anthology'', edited by
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 and education
Granville Hicks was born September 9, 1901, in Exeter, New Hampshire, ...
,
Joseph North, Paul Peters, Isidor Schneider and
Alan Calmer; with a critical introduction by
Joseph Freeman.
International Publishers
International Publishers is a book publishing company based in New York City, specializing in Marxism, Marxist works of economics, political science, and history.
Company history
Establishment
International Publishers Company, Inc., was founde ...
, New York 1934
References
External links
Columbia University Libraries Isidor Schneider papers, 1925–1975
* (previous page of browse report under 'Schneider, Isidor, 1896–')
Isidor Schneiderat
''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schneider, Isidor
1896 births
1977 deaths
20th-century American poets
People from Sunnyside, Queens
Emigrants from Austria-Hungary to the United States
American women poets