Re: Samuel Delany

[Chris Brady <cdbrady@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

"F.O. Matthiessen leapt out of a window because people knew that he was
gay?"

I am not at all sure that was it entirely.
Close friends knew, like Paul Sweezy and Leo Huberman, and it was
acceptable.
Gay men and women seem to have been a part of their circle of reds.
He was subject to depression.
And I seem to recall he was nearing the end of a long-term relationship.

And there was the Red Witch Hunt bearing down on him as well.
A commie AND a queer might have been to much to carry a Hahvahd.
Too bad.  He was a wonderful teacher.

Daniel J. Boorstin, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, former
Librarian of Congress, and best-selling author of such books as The
Discoverers and The Creators, paid the highest tribute to F.O.
Matthiessen:
"My first great life-shaping book experience came when I went off to
study at Harvard College in 1930. There I was introduced to a great book
by a great teacher?a powerful combination. The book was Edward Gibbon?s
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and the teacher was F.O.
Matthiessen."

F.O. Matthiessen political rap sheet:
Founding member of the Harvard University local of the Teachers Union
(TU)
Chair of the Harry Bridges Defense Committee
Progressive Party leader, Henry Wallace campaign.

His will endowed Huberman and Sweezy with the capital to start up
Monthly Review,
a legacy with an edge.