In this Book
- Conversations with Trotsky: Earle Birney and the Radical 1930s
- Book
- 2017
- Published by: University of Ottawa Press
- Series: Canadian Literature Collection
summary
This collection presents all of Earle Birney’s known published and unpublished writings on Trotsky and Trotskyism for the very first time. It includes their correspondence as well as a selection of Birney’s letters and literary writings.
Before he became one of Canada’s most influential and popular twentieth century poets, Earle Birney lived a double life. To his students and colleagues, he was an engaging university lecturer and scholar. But for seven years—from 1933 to 1940—the great Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky was the focus of his writing and much of his life.
During his years as a Trotskyist in Canada, the United States and England, Birney wrote extensively about Trotsky, corresponded with him, organized Trotskyist cells in two countries, and recruited on behalf of Trotskyism; he also lectured on Trotsky and interviewed him over the course of several days. One of his two novels is based on some of these activities.
The collection traces the origins of Trotsky’s mistrust of “the British” to his experiences in Canada; shows Birney’s influence on a major shift in Trotsky’s policy of “entrism” in British politics; includes the largest body of Trotskyist criticism in Canadian literary history; and demonstrates the need for a radical re-reading of Birney’s poetry in light of his Trotskyism.
Table of Contents
Download Full Book
- Acknowledgements
- pp. xix-xx
- Introduction
- pp. 1-62
- I. An “optimistic sort of revolutionary” 1933–1935
- 7. In Defence of Party Democracy
- pp. 107-114
- 8. The Struggle Against British Imperialism
- pp. 115-122
- II. Conversations with Trotsky 1935
- 9. Birney to Trotsky
- pp. 125-128
- 10. Interviewing Leon Trotsky
- pp. 129-134
- 11. Conversations with Trotsky
- pp. 135-150
- 12. Further Conversations with Trotsky
- pp. 151-158
- 13. Trotsky on the Canadian Farmer
- pp. 159-162
- 14. Birney to Trotsky
- pp. 163-166
- 15. Birney to Trotsky
- pp. 167-168
- III. Political Writings: 1935–1939
- 16. Incident in Berlin
- pp. 171-176
- 17. Trotsky to Birney
- pp. 177-178
- 18. Birney to Trotsky
- pp. 179-190
- 19. Birney to Trotsky
- pp. 191-192
- 20. Birney to Trotsky
- pp. 193-194
- 21. Another Month—January
- pp. 195-198
- 22. Another Month—February
- pp. 199-202
- 23. Another Month—March
- pp. 203-204
- 24. Birney to Joe Hansen
- pp. 205-210
- 25. Trotsky to Birney
- pp. 211-212
- 26. Birney to Trotsky
- pp. 213-216
- 29. Is French Canada Going Fascist?
- pp. 249-260
- 30. Trotsky to Birney
- pp. 261-262
- 31. Birney to Trotsky
- pp. 263-266
- 32. War Is Here—What Now?
- pp. 267-272
- IV. Literature and Revolution 1934–1940
- 33. Escape by Emetic
- pp. 275-278
- 34. On “Proletarian Literature”
- pp. 279-282
- 35. The Brave New Words of Aldous Huxley
- pp. 283-284
- 36. Cecil Day Lewis, The Loving Communist
- pp. 285-286
- 38. What Do Canadians Tell Stories About?
- pp. 293-296
- 39. R.M. Fox: Worker–Fighter
- pp. 297-298
- 40. Soviet Fiction and American Fustian
- pp. 299-300
- 41. The Importance of Being Ernest Hemingway
- pp. 301-304
- 43. Yorkshire Proletarians
- pp. 307-308
- 44. The Rhymes of the Irish Revolution
- pp. 309-310
- 45. The Lost Irish Lenin?
- pp. 311-314
- 46. Onward with Edward Upward
- pp. 315-316
- 47. The Two William Faulkners
- pp. 317-320
- 48. John Bull’s Other Hell
- pp. 321-324
- 49. The English Worker
- pp. 325-328
- 50. New Writing in Britain and Elsewhere
- pp. 329-330
- 51. The Fiction of James T. Farrell
- pp. 331-338
- 53. Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath
- pp. 341-342
- 54. The Left Theatre in English
- pp. 343-344
- 56. The Mad Sanity of Henry Miller
- pp. 347-348
- 57. To Arms with Canadian Poetry
- pp. 349-354
- 59. New Writing and Literary Stalinism
- pp. 357-358
- 61. Literary Stalinism: Lehmann vs. Birney
- pp. 361-364
- 62. Changing Minds in Wartime
- pp. 365-366
- V. Envoi 1940
- 63. In Memory: Lev Davidovich Bronstein
- pp. 369-374
- Acronyms and Abbreviations
- pp. 375-378
- Textual Sources
- pp. 379-396
- Works Cited
- pp. 397-408
Additional Information
ISBN
9780776624648
Related ISBN(s)
9780776624631, 9780776624655, 9780776624662
MARC Record
OCLC
983482226
Launched on MUSE
2017-07-14
Language
English
Open Access
No