V. F. Calverton
V. F. Calverton, born George Goetz, was a prominent American intellectual and radical thinker known for his contributions to leftist thought during the early 20th century. He graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 1921 and subsequently became involved in socialist politics while teaching in public schools. In 1923, he founded the journal *Modern Quarterly*, which became a platform for leftist intellectuals, allowing for the exploration of a variety of subjects including politics, sexuality, and African American culture. Calverton wrote extensively, authoring over eighteen books, and produced notable fictional works such as *Three Strange Lovers* and *The Man Inside*.
His political affiliations were complex; he was a member of the Communist Party but later distanced himself from it, engaging with figures like Leon Trotsky and Nikolai Bukharin. His belief in free love and sexual independence was reflected in his personal life, which included multiple relationships and a divorce. Though not a leading figure on the American left, Calverton played a crucial role as a catalyst, influencing subsequent liberal thought in the context of the Great Depression. He passed away in 1940, leaving behind a legacy captured in various assessments by his contemporaries and archived at the New York Public Library.
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V. F. Calverton
Writer
- Born: June 25, 1900
- Birthplace: Baltimore, Maryland
- Died: November 20, 1940
Biography
V. F. Calverton’s given name was George Goetz. His father, also named George Goetz, was a German-American tailor, and his mother, Ida Geiger, was the granddaughter of a German left-wing refugee. Calverton financed his education at Johns Hopkins University by working as a timekeeper for the Bethlehem Steel Company. After graduating with a degree in English literature in 1921, he studied psychology, joined the Socialist Labor Party, and began teaching in the public schools. In 1923, he began publishing a radical journal, Modern Quarterly, and adopted a pseudonym to protect his teaching position from reprisals against his radical politics. During the 1920’s and 1930’s, the journal became a clearing house for leftist intellectuals.
Calverton wrote and edited more than eighteen books on a range of topics, including politics, sex, medicine, and African American culture. His personal fiction included Three Strange Lovers (1930), and The Man Inside (1936). His study of the history of Utopian colonies in the United States, Where Angels Dared to Tread (1941), was published posthumously.
Calverton believed in free love and sexual independence. His marriage to Helen Letzer in 1921 ended in divorce in 1930. He had an illegitimate child with Una Corbett, and he spent the last years of his life with Nina Melville; he later said that he and Melville had entered a common- law marriage in 1931. From1926 to 1932, Calverton was involved with the Communist Party. In July,1927, he visited the Soviet Union, but his desire to “Americanize” the party made him unpopular with the Communist International and other supporters of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. In 1932 and 1933, the Communist Party attacked him as a fascist, and he responded by printing articles in the Modern Quarterly supporting Leon Trotsky and Nikolai Bukharin, Russian radicals who had fallen out of favor with the Communist Party. Calverton eventually left the Communist party and joined an independent revolutionary group, the American Workers party.
Although Calverton was not personally a major force in the American left, he acted as an important catalyst. Among the Communist intellectuals who contributed to his journal were Lionel Trilling, James Rorty, Elliot Cohen, Anita Brenner, and Lewis Corey. His distinguished editorial board included Sidney Hook, Max Eastman, and Lionel Trilling. His practical concern with “Americanizing” socialism influenced the liberalism of the generation following the Great Depression. Calverton died suddenly of pernicious anemia in 1940. His papers and manuscripts have been collected at the New York Public Library. A commemorative issue of Modern Quarterly (1940) contains more than forty assessments by his contemporaries.