Randolph
Bourne was born in Bloomfield, New Jersey in 1886. Badly disfigured
and a hunchback since birth, Bourne was extremely intelligent and
was an outstanding student at Columbia University.
Bourne's first articles were first published in the Atlantic
Monthly. He also wrote for the New
Republic and The Masses.
In his literary criticism, Bourne argued for a socially responsible
fiction and helped to influence the work of novelists such as Upton
Sinclair, Sinclair Lewis, Floyd
Dell and Theodore Dreiser. Bourne also
wrote several books on education including Youth
and Life (1913), The Gary Schools
(1916) and Education and Living
(1917).
A pacifist, Bourne was one of the main
figures in the movement against the involvement of the United
States in the First World War. Randolph
Bourne died of pneumonia in December,
1918.
(1)
Floyd
Dell wrote about Randolph Bourne in his autobiography,
Homecoming (1933)
One
of my most-loved friends was Randolph Bourne. He had, I think, the
best intellect of any of the younger group in America; a mind always
clear, poised and just about the issues about which the rest of us
wavered or went to emotional extremes.
He was one of the very tiny anti-war group. He had been associated
with Van Wyck Brooks, Waldo Frank, Louis Untermeyer, James Oppenheim
and Paul Rosenfeld in the editorship of the Seven Arts, until
its subsidy was withdrawn because of its anti-war attitude.
Randolph Bourne's friends were used to his appearance, and forgot
about it, thinking of his beautiful mind; but at first sight he was
very startling. He had been born dreadfully misshapen, with a crooked
back and a grotesque face, out of which only his eyes shone with the
beauty of his soul. He forgot this outward aspect, or succeeded in
pretending to himself that it did not exist; he hated to be treated
as any other than a wholly robust and ordinary person, and if anyone
took his arm in going across the street, the touch would be shaken
off fiercely.
(2)
Max
Eastman, Love and Revolution
(1965)
Randolph Bourne was the most
stalwart of these publicists (against the First world War), a hunchback
with twisted face and ears, a bulblike body on spindly legs, and yet
hands with which he could play Brahms melodies on the piano with such
delicacy as brought tears both of joy and pity to one's eyes. He had
a powerful mind, philosophic erudition, a commanding prose style,
and the courage of a giant.
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