John Reed (journalist)
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| John Reed | |
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 John Reed, American journalist
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| Born | October 22, 1887 Portland, Oregon, USA |
| Died | October 19, 1920 Moscow, Russia |
| Occupation | Journalist |
| Spouse | Louise Bryant |
John "Jack" Silas Reed (October 22, 1887 – October 19, 1920) was an American journalist and communist activist, famous for his first-hand account of the Bolshevik Revolution, Ten Days that Shook the World. He was the husband of the writer and feminist Louise Bryant. Reed and Bryant were the subjects of the film Reds (1981) directed by Warren Beatty.
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[edit] Birth and education
Reed was born in 1887 in Portland, Oregon. Despite recent pride by Portlanders in John Reed, he was not fond of the city of his birth. According to his own writings, he left Portland as soon as he could, to attend Harvard University in 1906, where he wrote for The Harvard Lampoon and was president of the Harvard Glee Club. He went on to graduate in 1910.
[edit] Journalism
He became well known for his journalism particularly for his sympathetic coverage of labor issues, worker rights, strikes, and his reporting of the Mexican Revolution. He had a brief relationship with socialite Mabel Dodge. Reed and his wife, Louise Bryant, were close friends of Eugene O'Neill. While in Europe covering the events of World War I, Reed heard about the brewing Bolshevik Revolution, and went to Russia in 1917. His experiences and interviews with Vladimir Lenin became the subject of a book.
[edit] Communism
Upon his return to America, Reed moved to Croton on Hudson, NY and threw himself into the embryonic Communist movement and was a leading figure in the Socialist Party left wing, and a sympathizer of the radical labor union The Industrial Workers of the World. As such he was instrumental in the foundation of the Communist Labor Party. This party was illegal and only one of two parties vying for the support of the newly founded Communist International (Comintern). It was as a delegate of this party to the Comintern that Reed returned to Russia. He died in Moscow of typhus and became the only American buried in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis in Red Square.
[edit] Bibliography
- Insurgent Mexico (1914)
- The War in Eastern Europe (1916)
- Ten Days that Shook the World (1919)
[edit] Trivia
- A perennial urban legend in Reed's home town is that Reed College was named for this journalist. Despite the college's reputation for leftist politics, there is no truth to this rumor.
- The 1981 film Reds starring Warren Beatty, Diane Keaton, and Jack Nicholson, was based on his life, won three Academy Awards, and was nominated for nine more.
- Another movie adaptation of his life is the 1982 Soviet two-parter Red Bells, starring Franco Nero.
[edit] External links
