American Quarterly

Phelps, Christopher, 1965-
Out of the Fraina and Into the Fire
American Quarterly - Volume 50, Number 2, June 1998, pp. 424-431

The Johns Hopkins University Press

Christopher Phelps - Out of the Fraina and into the Fire (Review of: Paul Buhle, A Dreamer's Paradise Lost: Louis C. Fraina/Lewis Corey (1892-1953) and the Decline of Radicalism in the United States) - American Quarterly 50:2 American Quarterly 50.2 (1998) 424-431 Out of the Fraina and Into the Fire Christopher Phelps A Dreamer's Paradise Lost: Louis C. Fraina/Lewis Corey (1892-1953) and the Decline of Radicalism in the United States. By Paul M. Buhle. Atlantic Highlands, N.J.: Humanities Press International, 1995. 192 pages. $49.95 (cloth). $18.50 (paper). Although Italian American immigrant Louis Fraina was pivotal to the formation of the American revolutionary left, to this day he remains enigmatic. Early in 1917, prior to the Soviet revolution, Fraina (pronounced Fry-eena) became a prominent, effective champion of the Bolshevik cause. He urged American socialists to emulate the Russian example, and James P. Cannon, himself a pioneer of American Communism, called him "the single person most responsible for the founding of the American Communist Party." Early in the 1920s, however, Fraina virtually disappeared, first to Russia, then to Mexico. Finally he dropped away from the Communist movement altogether and led a quiet, obscure life as a proofreader in New York City before resurfacing in the 1930s as an important independent Marxist economist under the assumed name of Lewis Corey. For decades, anyone seeking more detailed information on Corey has...