Those who knew Max Eastman when he edited and published the radical magazines the Masses and the Liberator in Greenwich Village remember him as a spellbinding speaker capable of charming an audience of skeptics. Whether he was soliciting funds for his magazines among wealthy radicals or persuading striking workers that socialism would solve their problems, Eastman was invariably articulate and effective. While his reputation today hinges on his magazines, Eastman was also a prolific poet, critic, political writer, translator, and scholar. Although he was often engaged in heated literary debate, it was his political writing, and the political content of his magazines, that made him the subject of much critical controversy.

Max Forrester Eastman was born in Canandaigua, New York, the fourth and last child of Samuel and Annis Ford Eastman, who had met as students at Oberlin College in Ohio. They both became ministers and, after Max's...