Agnes Smedley: The Life And Times Of An American Radical

The product of years of research on three continents, this is an enthralling biography of a dedicated and romantic American left-wing journalist and activist. The authors skillfully blend a thorough grasp of the first half of the century with a sensitive use of psycho-biographical techniques. Agnes Smedley (1892-1950), reared in working-class poverty in the American West, worked first among radicals in Weimar Germany, and then in the 1930s and 1940s was a friend and associate of the Chinese Communist leadership. Her ashes are buried beneath a monument to her memory in Beijing.