In the deathbed issue of Manhattan's Communist New Masses last January, twelve Russian Communist writers addressed an open letter to their colleagues in the U.S. The gist of it: Whose side are you on? Last week, in the resurrected and rebaptized Masses & Mainstream, 32 U.S. writers, painters and musicians published their answer. Its gist: We're on your side, comrades.
Said the American "cultural workers": "We want to share responsibility with you . . . Our enemies will see that our international solidarity for peace and democracy stands firm against their frantic writhing and thrashing. On this May Day we grip your hand . . ."
The list of signers included such perennial prophets of the Communist faith as Novelist Howard (Citizen Tom Paine) Fast and a whole bevy of Daily Worker staffers: ex-New Masses Editor Joseph North, his onetime Executive Editor A. B. Magil, Ben Field. It included at least one former Communist Party official: V. J. Jerome (real name: Isaac Romain).
There were other names which pop up regularly all along the U.S. Communist line: ex-Yank Correspondent Walter Bernstein, Movie Scripter Alvah Bessie (now awaiting trial for contempt of Congress), New Yorker Profiler Richard O. Boyer, ex-Howard University Professor Doxey Wilkerson.
Among the not-so-well-known fellow travelers: Anthologist Ben Botkin; Playwright Arnaud (Deep Are the Roots) d'Usseau; Artists Philip Evergood,* Raphael Soyer and Max Weber; Pianist Ray Lev. Just over half were members of the Masses & Mainstream staff.
* Who once described himself as "a centaur gadding about with nymphs—or Solomon dickering with his harem."