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Jumping the Line

Name: Jumping the Line
Author: Herrick, William
ISBN: 9780966856712

by Herrick, William

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Overview

Activist William Herrick chronicles his life of both conviction and disillusion-from the front lines of the Spanish Civil war, in and out of the Communist Party, to driving a tractor on a communal farm in Michigan, jumping the line as a hobo, organizing African American sharecroppers in Georgia, at work with Orson Welles, and immersed in his own writing. For those who like truth with a dash of wit, it's an exhilarating read.

Synopsis

3hours, 2 cassettes. Read by William Herrick with an introduction written and read by Paul Berman. Activist William Herrick chronicles his life of both conviction and disillusion-from the front lines of the Spanish Civil War, in and out of the Communist Party, to driving a tractor on a communal farm in Michigan, jumping the lines as a hobo, organizing African American sharecroppers in Georgia, at work with Orson Welles, and immersed in his own writing. For those who like the truth with a dash of wit, it's an exhilarating read.
In the 1930's, Herrick, like many American Communists, went to Spain to fight the Fascists. He writes about what he saw at the front lines in vivid, unsentimental prose. But there is much more to William Herrick than war stories. The childhood that sent him on the path to Spain, conflicts with those who continued to toe the Party line after Spain and the Hitler-Stalin pact, as well as his run in with the lackeys of the McCarthy Senate committee.