FORWARD TO THE GREAT ALLIANCE
THE AMERICAN WRITERS CONGRESS CONVENES
THE FIRST CONGRESS OF AMERICAN WRITERS,
opening on
April 26th in New York City, will be a memorable event in
American culture and American life. From all parts of the
country writers of varying backgrounds and reputations-all
responsive to the necessity of combating reaction, fascism and
war-will come together to consider the economic, political and
literary problems facing the writer today. This Congress will
accelerate the secession of American intellectuals from the apol–
ogetics and chaos which capitalism nurtures in culture, and will
set the frame for a more profound and more extensive revo–
lutionary literature. It will be a stirring political demonstration
of the great battle-alliance of intellectuals and the exploited
masses against fascism and war.
The editors of
Partisan Review
greet the American Writers
Congress and look forward to the- esthetic and politica:l clarity
which will undoubtedly emerge from the Congress. We have
devoted a large part of this issue to a discussion of some of the
literary problems confronting revolutionary writers. At the
Congress itself, a more intensive and more authoritative discus–
sion of these problems will take place. In addition, the methods
of effective organized political action, the general relation of
literature to society, the improvement of the revolutionary press
and the widening of the distribution of revolutionary books,
among other related questions, will be considered.
Delegates from other countries in the Americas and from
European countries will bring to the Congress their revolutionary
experience. Foremost as a source of revolutionary tradition
looms the Soviet Union, with its gigantic cultural and economic
achievements in the sphere of socialist construction, its consistent
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