Biographies of Eugene Debs

[Red Commissar]

I'm thinking of reading up more on Eugene V Debs, as I really don't know much about his life as I would like to- I'm a bit of a history nut so I like to learn those details.

I've seen "The Bending Cross" by Ray Ginger recommended a number of times in older threads here, and there is a copy of that in my local library I will pick up in the coming days. Are there any other texts any of you would recommend? Or to stay away from/ pass?

[Luc]

http://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/bio/bio.htm

http://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/bio/index.htm

Haven't read any of 'em but I am also going to read about him and thought I'd post what I'm going to read.

Hope it helps!:)

sorry if you already know about these! lol

[NoOneIsIllegal]

"The Bending Cross" is the best biography on Eugene V. Debs. Luckily for you, it's quite easy to track down. If you don't like ordering online, I've seen this book many times at several Barnes & Noble bookstores.

I've also read "Eugene Debs: Citizen and Socialist" by Nick Salvatore. It's a bit more balanced in perspective, but I just didn't enjoy reading it for some reason. Maybe it's because the author dragged on a little too much on certain subjects. However, if you're looking to read more on Debs that didn't quite detail enough in The Bending Cross, this is your next best bet.

[Binh]

I recommend Eugene Debs Speaks (put out by Pathfinder I think). It's a collection of his writings and speeches. Some biographers end to portray him as a pacifist, but in this collection he wrote an appeal calling on workers to arm themselves after the Ludlow massacre. It gives you a real taste of what he was like and why he was so popular among workers in the U.S.

[RED DAVE]

Back in the 1940s, Irving Stone, author of Lust for Life, fictionalized biography of Vincent Van Gogh, wrote a novel called Adversary in the House, which is about Debs and his wife, who, allegedly, was anti-socialist, anti-semitic, etc. I don't know how accurate that is, but the novel was lots of fun.

RED DAVE

[NoOneIsIllegal]

Back in the 1940s, Irving Stone, author of Lust for Life, fictionalized biography of Vincent Van Gogh, wrote a novel called Adversary in the House, which is about Debs and his wife, who, allegedly, was anti-socialist, anti-semitic, etc. I don't know how accurate that is, but the novel was lots of fun.

RED DAVE
From what I've read, his wife was mostly apolitical, although it sounds like she was a bit frightened of Eugene's revolutionary tones at times. She wasn't anti-Semitic though. No matter what Eugene did though, she was supportive of him, even if he rarely saw her and only stayed at home for long-terms when he was sick.

[x359594]

Back in the 1940s, Irving Stone...wrote a novel called Adversary in the House, which is about Debs and his wife...

Margurite Young wrote a novel about Debs called Harp Song for a Radical (1999) that she left unfinished at the time of her death. The 600 pages that she finished take the story only up to 1894 (which suggests that the novel would have topped out at 2,000 pages if she lived to finish it.) To call it quirky is an understatement, but it is richly textured and really evokes the time and place vividly.