I bought the out-of-print biography of Eastman by William L. O’Neill on the web and it arrived yesterday. I decided to buy it because Eastman keeps coming up in my research about World War One. Eastman was the editor of the radical magazine The Masses at the time and was tried twice for treason by the enlightened Wilson Administration. He was Trotsky’s translator, quasi literary agent and first biographer. Later, when he became disillusioned with Communism he migrated to the National Review. I knew he was a Trotskyite and was familiar with his tempestuous time at NR, but I’ve grown increasingly fascinated by his earlier career and the short life of The Masses. If anybody knows about anything else worth reading on the subject drop me a line. This isn’t a full-blown “bleg” just a line of interest.

Oh, and just to offer a tweak, the next time you hear someone complain that NR has become so “neocon” or how neocons are really Trotskyists, remind them about Eastman (and Burnham and Chambers and …. oh you get it).