Joseph P. Lash
Joseph P. Lash | |
---|---|
Born | New York City, U.S. | December 2, 1909
Died | August 22, 1987 Boston, U.S. | (aged 77)
Occupation | Writer |
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | City College of New York Columbia University |
Genre | Biography |
Notable works | Eleanor and Franklin (1971), Eleanor: The Years Alone (1972) |
Spouse | Trude Wenzel Pratt Lash |
Joseph Paul Lash (December 2, 1909 – August 22, 1987) was an American radical
Background
Joseph P. Lash was born December 2, 1909, in New York City, the son of the former Mary Avchin and Samuel Lash,
Career
Political activism
In 1930 while a Junior at City College, Lash joined the Socialist Party of America (SPA), of which he remained a member until his resignation in 1937.[4]
Following his graduation in 1932, Lash went to work for the League for Industrial Democracy (LID), an independent socialist organization closely tied to the SPA. He remained head of the Student League for Industrial Democracy (SLID) and editor of its publication Student Outlook[6] from 1933 until 1935.[4] In 1936 Lash became the executive secretary of the American Student Union, a popular front organization which brought together members of the youth organizations of the rival Socialist and Communist parties.[4] Lash served in this capacity until 1939.[4]
In 1934 Lash began organizing anti-war demonstrations on campuses, but when the Spanish Civil War broke out in 1936 between Loyalist defenders of the Spanish Republic, backed by the world Communist and Socialist movements, and pro-Fascist rebels under the leadership of Francisco Franco, he dropped his pacifism and dedicated himself to fighting Fascism. About 1937 Lash went to Spain but did not participate in the fighting, preferring to speak to youth groups in an effort to help rally support for the Loyalist cause.[4] He grew politically close to the Communist Party in this period.[3]
The
After boarding a train at Pennsylvania Station to attend the hearing, Lash met First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, becoming lifelong friends.[3] The White House press corps was stunned when she invited him and six other witnesses on the train to lunch at the White House, then made an appearance at Lash's afternoon hearing to lend moral support.[3] After the hearing, she invited Lash and the others to a dinner at the White House, where they met her husband and Helen Gahagan Douglas and her husband, actor Melvyn Douglas.[3]
In 1940, shaken by the turn of the Soviet Union and its
In 1942 at his own request, Lash made a second appearance before the Dies Committee, at which he renounced his former Communist Party allies, while at the same time refusing to provide information about individuals with whom he worked during the Popular Front period.[4]
Lash applied for a commission with
In 1947 with Eleanor Roosevelt, Lash was a co-founder and New York director of Americans for Democratic Action (ADA), an anti-Communist national membership organization of American liberals.[6] He remained director until 1949.[4]
Journalist and biographer
In 1950, Lash went to work for the New York Post as the paper's United Nations correspondent.[citation needed]
Lash began his career as a chronicler of the Roosevelt Administration in 1952, when he assisted Franklin D. Roosevelt's son Elliott Roosevelt with the editing for publication of two volumes of the President's letters.[6]
In 1961, Lash published his first full-length book, a biography of U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld. Thereafter, he moved to a position as assistant editor of the New York Post's editorial page, staying in that capacity until 1966.[4]
Following Eleanor Roosevelt's death in 1962, Lash set to work writing a memoir of her, published two years later as Eleanor Roosevelt: A Friend's Memoir.
Personal life and death
Lash married Trude Wenzel in 1944, after the couple was introduced by Eleanor Roosevelt. He had one son, Jonathan Lash (8/12/1945-).
Lash died at age 77 on August 22, 1987, in
Legacy
Lash won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award as well as the Francis Parkman Prize for Eleanor and Franklin.[5]
Lash's papers are held by the
Works
During his lifetime Lash's books were translated into a number of European languages, including German, French, Spanish, Swedish, Danish, and Croatian.[7]
- The Campus Strikes Against War. New York: Student League for Industrial Democracy, 1936
- War, Our Heritage. With James A. Wechsler. New York: International Publishers, 1936
- Toward a "Closed Shop" on the Campus. New York: American Student Union, 1936
- The Campus: A Fortress of Democracy. New York: American Student Union, n.d. [1937]
- "The Campus Debates War and Peace" (1938)[8]
- The Student in the Post-Munich World. New York: American Student Union, 1938
- Dag Hammarskjöld: Custodian of the Brushfire Peace. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1961
- Eleanor Roosevelt: A Friend's Memoir. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1964.
- W.W. Norton, 1971
- Eleanor: The Years Alone. New York: W.W. Norton, 1972
- From the Diaries of Felix Frankfurter. New York: W.W. Norton, 1975.
- Roosevelt and Churchill, 1939–1941: The Partnership That Saved the West. New York: W.W. Norton, 1976
- Helen and Teacher: The Story of Delacorte Press, 1980
- "Life was Meant to be Lived": A Centenary Portrait of Eleanor Roosevelt. New York: W.W. Norton, 1984
- A World of Love: Eleanor Roosevelt and Her Friends, 1943–1962. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1984
- Dealers and Dreamers: A New Look at the New Deal. New York: Doubleday, 1988[9]
References
- The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved 2012-03-17.
- ^ "National Book Awards – 1972". National Book Foundation. Retrieved 2012-03-17.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Pitt, David E. (30 August 1987). "Joseph P. Lash is Dead: Reporter and Biographer". New York Times. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Francis X. Gannon, "Joseph P. Lash", in Biographical Dictionary of the Left: Volume 1. Boston: Western Islands, 1969; pp. 414-415.
- ^ a b "Joseph P. Lash," Teaching Eleanor Roosevelt Glossary, Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project, George Washington University, Washington, D.C.. Retrieved May 29, 2010.
- ^ Greenwood Press, 2001; pp. 305-307.
- ^ Author search: Joseph P. Lash, WorldCat, Online Computer Library Center, Dublin, Ohio. Retrieved May 29, 2010.
- ^ Lash, Joseph P. (January 1938). "The Campus Debates War and Peace" (PDF). New Masses: 6–8. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
- ISSN 0362-4331.
External links
- Joseph P. Lash Papers in the Marist College archives
- FBI file on Joseph P. Lash