Samuel Sillen

Samuel Sillen
Born	June 17, 1910 Brooklyn, New York
Died	February 5, 1973(1973-02-05) (aged 62) Brooklyn
Pen name	Walter Ralston
Occupation	Editor, teacher, author
Citizenship	American
Education	New York University University of Wisconsin-Madison
Employer(s)	New York University New Masses Masses & Mainstream
Notable works	Walt Whitman: Poet of American Democracy (1944) Women against Slavery (1955)
Spouse	Janet Feder ​ (m. 1935)​
Children	2: Thomas and Robert

Samuel Sillen (June 17, 1910 - February 5, 1973) was an American literary critic, author, professor, and magazine editor. In 1948, he co-founded and became the first editor of the Marxist monthly publication, Masses & Mainstream .

Biography

Sillen was born in Brooklyn, where he attended Boys High School. ^[1] He graduated from NYU in 1930. ^[2] In 1935, he received a doctorate in English from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. ^[3] He wrote his dissertation on the 19th century English biographer, Sir Leslie Stephen. ^[3] After graduating, Sillen was hired as an English professor at NYU. ^[4] He remained in the job until 1944, when he left in anticipation of what he expected to be an anti-Communist purge at the university. ^{[5] [6]}

While teaching at NYU, Sillen started contributing articles to Communist Party (CPUSA) publications, including the Daily Worker and New Masses . For the latter publication, he sometimes used the pseudonym "Walter Ralston". ^[7] In 1937, Sillen became literary editor at New Masses, ^[3] eventually replacing Granville Hicks as chief literary critic. ^[8] In 1944, Sillen edited and provided a lengthy introduction to Walt Whitman: Poet of American Democracy. The following year, he edited a similar anthology about 19th century American poet William Cullen Bryant.

In 1947, the CPUSA launched a quarterly literary journal called Mainstream, with Sillen serving as its editor. ^[9] The journal only lasted one year. In 1948, facing dwindling financial resources, Mainstream and New Masses were merged into Masses & Mainstream. ^[10] Sillen was a co-founder of the new monthly publication and its first editor. ^[11] During his tenure, he wrote and/or edited numerous pamphlets that were published under the Masses & Mainstream imprint. In some instances, notable issues of the magazine were re-edited by Sillen and separately published. In 1955, he authored Women against Slavery, a book about American women abolitionists.

In April 1956, in the wake of Khruschev's Secret Speech at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party, Sillen resigned his editorship at Masses & Mainstream. ^[12] He also dropped out of the CPUSA that same year. ^[13] He then got a job as editor at Citadel Press. He became interested in the medical field and from 1963 to 1967 served as senior editor of Medical World News. ^[3] In 1972, he co-authored with Alexander Thomas a book titled Racism and Psychiatry.

On February 5, 1973, Samuel Sillen died of cancer at University Hospital in Brooklyn. He was 62. ^[3]

Bibliography

• Leslie Stephen: A Study in Critical Theory. University of Wisconsin-Madson. 1935. OCLC   1512672893. Ph.D. dissertation.
• Walt Whitman: Poet of American Democracy. International Publishers. 1944. LCCN   45001286. OCLC   2211645. Edited and with an introduction by Sillen.
• William Cullen Bryant: Selections from His Poetry and Prose. International Publishers. 1945. LCCN   46002417. OCLC   1397217. Edited and with an introduction by Sillen.
• Pound relies on 'soft' Americans to escape traitor's fate. Daily Worker. 1945. OCLC   38545299.
• "The Worst Crimes in History". Daily Worker . May 8, 1945.
• Masses & Mainstream, Volume 1, Number 4. Masses & Mainstream. 1948. OCLC   1153697370.
• Dooley, Twain and Imperialism. Masses & Mainstream. 1948. OCLC   56094200.
• Cold War in the Classroom. Masses & Mainstream. 1950.
• Masses & Mainstream, Volume 3, Number 9. Masses & Mainstream. 1950. OCLC   56562727.
• Negro History Week. Masses & Mainstream. 1952. OCLC   495545766. Republication of Masses & Mainstream, Volume 5, Number 2.
• Charles W. Chesnutt: A Pioneer Negro Novelist. Masses & Mainstream. 1953. OCLC   383449777.
• Women against Slavery. Masses & Mainstream. 1955. LCCN   56001026. OCLC   1048506.
• The Standard Handbook of Style. Grosset & Dunlap. 1963. LCCN   63014803. OCLC   6201357.
• Racism and Psychiatry. Brunner/Mazel. 1972. ISBN   978-0876300497. OCLC   425590373. Co-written with Alexander Thomas.

References

1. "Sillen, Fifth Termer, Wins First Place for Boys Again". The Brooklyn Eagle. April 4, 1925. p. 3.
2. "17 Local Students Made Phi Beta Kappa Members". The Brooklyn Eagle. April 11, 1930. p. 9.
3. "Samuel Sillen, Editor of Marxist Journals, Dies" . The New York Times. February 6, 1973. p. 34. Retrieved 2025-08-01.
4. "4 Brooklynites Get Posts With N.Y.U." The Brooklyn Eagle. November 18, 1935. p. 10.
5. Wald, Alan M. (2012). American Night: The Literary Left in the Era of the Cold War. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press. p. 69. ISBN   978-0807837344.
6. Wald 1994, p. 89.
7. Wald 2012, p. 66.
8. Schwartz, Lawrence H. (1980). Marxism and Culture: The CPUSA and Aesthetics in the 1930s. Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press. p. 67.
9. Wald, Alan M. (1994). Writing from the Left: New Essays on Radical Culture and Politics. Verso. p. 89. ISBN   1859840019.
10. Wald 1994, p. 90.
11. Wald, Alan M. (2002). Exiles from a Future Time: The Forging of the Mid-Twentieth-Century Literary Left. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press. p. 108. ISBN   0807826839.
12. Hemingway, Andrew (2002). Artists on the Left: American Artists and the Communist Movement, 1926-1956. Yale University Press. p. 223. ISBN   978-0300092202.
13. Thacker, Andrew; Brooker, Peter, eds. (2009). The Oxford Critical and Cultural History of Modernist Magazines. Vol. II. Oxford University Press. p. 854. ISBN   978-0199545810.