Occupation writer Citizenship American Language English Name Jack Conroy | Nationality American Role Writer Ethnicity Irish-American | |
Pen name Jack Conroy, Tim Brennan, John Norcross Died February 28, 1990, Moberly, Missouri, United States Books The Disinherited, A World to Win, The weed king & other stories Awards Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Arts, US & Canada | ||
Jack Conroy Lacrosse Spring 2018
John Wesley Conroy (December 5, 1899 - February 28, 1990) was a leftist American writer, also known as a Worker-Writer, best known for his contributions to “proletarian literature,” fiction and nonfiction about the life of American workers during the early decades of the 20th century.
Contents
- Jack Conroy Lacrosse Spring 2018
- Background
- Career
- Legacy
- Fiction
- Nonfiction
- Magazines
- Collaborations
- Editing
- Awards
- References
Background
He was born John Wesley Conroy to Irish immigrants on December 5, 1898, in the coal mining camp of Monkey Nest near Moberly, Missouri. A Depression-era novelist, Conroy drew upon his childhood growing up in a mining camp and elements of this can be seen in his novels, The Disinherited and A World to Win.
Career
Though he did not complete a formal education, Conroy worked at various jobs including: railroad shop apprentice (and eventual foreman), recording secretary for the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen of America union office, an auto factory worker, and construction. While he worked, he wrote, and it is said that in 1934, when soaring temperatures had burned up crops and blistered city streets, Conroy moved his kitchen table outdoors beneath a shade tree where he created his second novel, A World to Win.
From 1931 to 1941 Conroy edited successively the magazines Rebel Poet, The Anvil, and The New Anvil. He included works by Erskine Caldwell, Langston Hughes, and William Carlos Williams, among others. Conroy later edited, with Curt Johnson, a collection of these pieces, Writers in Revolt: The Anvil Anthology (1973). He also contributed to the New Masses magazine as writer and contributing editor; often, his work was reviewed in that magazine, too.
In 1938 Conroy came to Chicago, on Algren's suggestions, to work on the Illinois Writers' Project. Along with recording folktales and industrial folklore, Conroy was assigned to the black history portion of the IWP, and collaborated with Arna Bontemps, producing the pioneering black studies works They Seek A City (1945) and Anyplace But Here (1965), both about African-American migration from the South to the North. Conroy and Bontemps also collaborated on several successful juvenile books based on folktales, including The Fast Sooner Hound (1942) and Slappy Hooper, The Wonderful Sign Painter (1946).
In 1965, Conroy moved from Chicago back to Moberly, Missouri, where he lived until his death. He continued to write into his 80s, publishing The Weed King and Other Stories in 1985. Over the course of his career, Conroy was also a teacher and lecturer, and a mentor to younger radical writers. Known as The Sage of Moberly, Conroy also wrote under the pseudonyms of Tim Brennan and John Norcross.
Conroy died February 28, 1990 in Moberly, Missouri.
Legacy
The difficulty scholars have had in finding theoretical studies about the worker-writer in America signifies how ground-breaking Jack Conroy’s work was with introducing the worker-writer in literature. Conroy’s first novel, The Disinherited, confused critics because it was a narrative that challenged traditional views of the novel and did not seem to align with what was considered influential literature at the time. Most critics felt that there should be a definite line drawn between the world of the middle-class literate, and the world of the worker.
Although Conroy first achieved national attention when H.L. Mencken discovered his work and published Conroy’s sketches and stories in The American Mercury magazine, recognition of Conroy’s work was all but abandoned between the 1930s and 1960s. Awareness of Conroy’s work disappeared for a variety of reasons, including the difficulty Conroy had in simultaneously establishing himself as a writer and staying loyal to his identity as a worker. Although Conroy longed for literary success, he decided not to abandon his worker identity, and so he worked for 23 years as an editor of an encyclopedia sold through Sears stores and as a book reviewer for the Chicago Sun and the Daily Defender. It wasn’t until the 1960s that Conroy was recognized by a new generation as a writer who knew very well the life of the worker, and as an influential writer of that worker identity. On the other hand, in the Soviet Union Conroy's works were noticed immediately: Russian translation of The Disinherited appeared in 1935 and was warmly greeted by Soviet magazines, and as late as in 1990 Soviet sources claimed that Conroy's novels truly describe the reality of working-class America.
Conroy is now remembered not only as the worker-writer, but also as a teacher, lecturer, and mentor to younger radical writers. Until Jack Conroy, the worker had hardly been mentioned in American literature. Best-seller lists suggest that people would rather read about lives of the wealthy, but Jack Conroy’s legacy as a worker-writer has introduced to American literature one writer’s desire in “educating readers to prefer ‘crude vigor to polished urbanity’”.
Fiction
Nonfiction
Magazines
Collaborations
Conroy wrote a number of books with Arna Bontemps, including:
Editing
Awards
Along with his work with rather unusual literary themes, Conroy has won various awards and recognition, including: