SOURCE: "Clifford Odets: The Artist's Commitment," in Literature and Society, edited by Bernice Slote, University of Nebraska Press, 1964, pp. 142-52.

The following was originally presented as a conference paper in 1963. Mendelsohn views Odets' social and personal beliefs in the context of his early plays.

Early in Clifford Odets' 1949 melodrama, The Big Knife, the central character recalls something significant about his youth:

My uncle's books—for that neighborhood—I'll bet he had a thousand! He had a nose for the rebels—London, Upton Sinclair—all the way back to Ibsen and Hugo. Hugo's the one who helped me nibble my way through billions of polly seeds. Sounds grandiose, but Hugo said to me: "Be a good boy, Charlie. Love people, do good, help the lost and fallen, make the world happy, if you can!" [I]

These words spoken by Charlie Castle have clear autobio-graphical overtones for anyone familiar with...