In order to tackle complex and often misunderstood political-literary relationships, I have adopted methods of capitalization in this book that may deviate from editorial norms practiced at certain journals and publishing houses. In particular, I capitalize “Communist” and “Communism” when referring to official parties of the Third International, but not when pertaining to other adherents of Bolshevism or revolutionary Marxism (which encompasses small-“c” communists such as Trotskyists, Bukharinists, council communists, and so forth). Moreover, I capitalize “Party” when the word is part of an organization’s name, such as Communist Party, Socialist Party, Socialist Workers Party, Democratic Party, and Progressive Party. When used by itself, however, the capitalized term “Party” designates the Communist Party, the dominant political organization in this study. Finally, I capitalize the term “Left” in respect to political movements and individuals more radical than New Deal liberalism, even if they may have been pro-FDR at times.
In addition, I follow the practice of capitalizing “Black” when referring to populations of the African Diaspora. The reason is to underscore that my concern in this study is the national culture of African Americans, not skin color or any other alleged mark of “race.”
I must note that there is extraordinary inconsistency in the history of the Left in regard to the use of an apostrophe in names of organizations such as New Playwrights Theater, Workers Theater, American Writers’ (or Writers) Congress, and so forth. Where possible, I have tried to follow the predominant style used by key participants.
Photographs are crucial to any narrative seeking to humanize literary and political activity, but are limited by availability, cost, and the amount of space that can be allocated in a book already quite long. Moreover, after forty or fifty years, it is sometimes difficult to identify the exact year in which the photograph was taken or the name of the photographer. In the captions to the photographs I have attempted to give the fullest information available at this time.
In the Notes, the citation style for issues of the New Masses will vary according to whether the publication is on a weekly or monthly schedule.