Hicks was a highly influential Marxist literary critic during the 1930s, well known for his involvement in a number of celebrated causes. He established his reputation as an important literary critic with the 1933 publication of The Great Tradition: An Interpretation of American Literature since the Civil War, a systematic history of American literature from a Marxist perspective. In 1932 he voted for the Communist Party ticket and joined almost all the significant Communist front groups of the 1930s. In 1934 Hicks joined the Communist Party itself and became editor of its cultural magazine The New Masses. In 1935 Hicks was let go from his teaching position at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a dismissal he claimed was politically motivated although school officials denied this. He continued to teach at various institutions but devoted more and more of his time to writing. In 1936 Hicks was asked to co-write John Reed: The Making of a Revolutionary, a biography of radical journalist John Reed. Communist Party General Secretary Earl Browder pressured Hicks to remove several passages that reflected negatively on the Soviet Union, but in the end the book was praised for its even-handed and unbiased presentation. In 1939, in protest against the Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact, Hicks resigned from the Communist Party. He attempted to organize an independent left-wing alternative organization, but with little success. By 1940 he had entirely renounced Communism and termed himself a democratic socialist; that same year he wrote an essay for The Nation entitled "The Blind Alley of Marxism." During the 1950s Hicks testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee twice. In a 1951 essay in Commentary, he explained that Communism “permits of no neutrality. The liquidation of neutrals is one of its specialties.” Its aim is “brutal revolutionary totalitarianism.”
Writer and publisher
Hicks's seminal work, Small Town, based on his experiences in Grafton, NY, was published in 1946. For three years he taught novel writing at the New School for Social Research in New York. He was a visiting professor at New York University, Syracuse University, and Ohio University. He was the director of the Yaddo artists' community beginning in 1942 and later served as its acting executive director. For 35 years he was the literary advisor to Macmillan Publishers.
Death and legacy
Hicks died June 18, 1982, in Franklin Park, New Jersey. By the time Hicks died, his early radical/Marxist writings were balanced by his later turn to a broader, more humanistic criticism.
Footnotes
Works
In addition to his books, Hicks wrote a number of articles for various publications including American Mercury, Saturday Review, Pacific Weekly, Antioch Review, Harper's, Sewanee Review, New York Times Book Review, The Bookman, Esquire, New Republic, and Nation. He also wrote the introduction to John Reed's Ten Days that Shook the World''.
Nonfiction
Eight Ways of Looking at Christianity, New York: Macmillan, 1926.
The Great Tradition: An Interpretation of American Literature since the Civil War, New York: Macmillan, 1933, revised 1933, revised edition with a new foreword and afterword, New York: Quadrangle, 1969.
One of Us: The Story of John Reed, New York: Equinox Cooperative Press, 1935.
John Reed: The Making of a Revolutionary, New York: Macmillan, 1936; reprinted, New York: Arno, 1968.
I Like America, New York: Modern Age Books, 1938.
Figures of Transition: A Study of British Literature at the End of the Nineteenth Century, New York: Macmillan, 1939; reprinted, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1969.
