MAX EASTMAN - AUTOGRAPH POST CARD SIGNED - HFSID 224647

MAX EASTMAN
In 1957, Eastman handwrote this postcard to a friend in North Hollywood, California, apologizing for his not writing because he felt "sad and preoccupied"
Autograph postcard signed "Max" in pencil. 5 ½ x 3, on postcard imprinted "Max Eastman Chilmark Massachusetts". 1957. Addressed on verso to John Black, 11009 Hunton St., North Hollywood, California. Two 2¢ stamps and one air mail sticker affixed. In full: "Dear John, I'll write you in a few days. I've been sad and preoccupied. Forgive me-". Eastman (1883-1969) was an American writer. Born in Canandaigua, New York, he settled in Manhattan's Greenwich Village and founded the Men's League for Women's Suffrage in 1910. He became an important figure in Greenwich Village and became editor of the socialist magazine The Masses in 1913. The magazine was forced to close in 1918 under the Espionage Act because it denounced United States participation in World War I, and Eastman stood trial, and was acquitted, twice under the Sedition Act of 1918. He traveled to the Soviet Union in 1923 to see how Marxism worked in practice. The trip drastically changed his views of the Soviet Union and, upon returning to the United States, wrote several essays that were critical of Stalinism. He retained his leftist ideas after returning to America, but had largely abandoned them by the 1940s. He became a roving editor for Reader's Digest in 1941 and wrote articles criticizing socialism and communism and supporting McCarthy's anti-communist crusade, culminating in Reflections on the Failure of Socialism in 1955. Lightly toned, spotted, and soiled. Light crease in upper left corner. Horizontal crease near upper right corner. Otherwise in fine condition.