Wedding 1927 novel by Melvin P. Levy, University of Washington, communist author (& associate of Dreiser, Dos Passos) Unicorn Press ~ RARE

Title: Wedding

Author: Melvin P. Levy

Publisher's black cloth. The stamped lettering on the spine has faded.
Worn at extremities. Binding shaken. Ex-rental library with rubber
stamps on endpapers (but no other library marks) and otherwise
internally clean. 197 pages. Scarce.

A scarce title by Melvin P. Levy (1902-1980), novelist, writer, and
Hollywood screenwriter, known for his radical politics. The son of
Russian immigrants, he received his masters degree in English from the
University of Washington in 1924. His first novel, Matrix, was published
by Thomas Seltzer in 1925 and was characterized by a critique of middle
class conventions, social mechanization, and the restraints placed on
youth. He relocated to New York and in 1926 presented a lecture at the
Bronx Free Fellowship entitled ''Capitalism and the Artist.'' In
September 1927, his New York office was attacked and 400 copies of
Wedding were either damaged or destroyed (likely why this is such a rare
copy). The attack was presumed to have been inspired by the charge that
his book ''profaned Jesus.'' In 1931, he was indicted alongside Theodore
Dreiser and John Dos Passos for criminal syndicalism while investigating
the working conditions of coal miners in Kentucky. After publishing four
novels and a play, he went to work in Hollywood as a screenwriter. As
revealed in his 1952, McCarthy-era interview before the House
Un-American Activities Committee, he had been a member of the Communist
Party in 1933 and in 1944 became affiliated with the Communist Political
Association. By 1952 he had written many movie screenplays, including
Hitler's Madman (1943), which starred John Carradine as
Reinhard Heydrich.

Levy was also the author of the novels Lafayette Carter and The Last
Pioneer as well as the play Gold Eagle Guy. At one point, he worked on
a biography of the labor leader Thomas Mooney, at the request of
publisher Harcourt, but the project was never completed.

Binding: Hard cover
Condition: Fair.
Jacket Condition: N/A.

Publisher: The Unicorn Press
Place: New York
Year: 1927

Size: 5.5 x 8.25 inches.