NOTES ON SELECTED CORRESPONDENTS
Alinsky, Saul (1909–72)
The social activist and professional organizer whose most well-known books are Reveille for Radicals (1946) and Rules for Radicals (1971). Alinsky initiated a brief correspondence with Mills in 1943 after hearing about Mills from Robert S. Lynd. At the time, Alinsky was working as a criminologist in Chicago and Mills was teaching at the University of Maryland. As far as we know, Alinsky and Mills never met.
Ballantine, Ian (1916–95)
The founder (with his wife, Betty) of three important paperback houses: Penguin USA in 1935, Bantam Books in 1945, and Ballantine Books in 1952. The Ballantines were given the Literary Market Place's Lifetime Achievement Award a month before his death. Although widely known for their classic science-fiction list, the Ballantines also published commentary on environmental, political, and social issues, including Mills's The Causes of World War Three (1958, 1960) and Listen, Yankee (1960).
Bell, Daniel (1919–)
The sociologist who was managing editor of New Leader (1941–44) and labor editor of Fortune magazine (1948–58). Bell taught at the University of Chicago (1945–48) and Columbia University (1952–69) before going to Harvard in 1969, where he has remained. He was named Henry Ford II Professor of Social Sciences in 1980 and has been professor emeritus since 1990. Bell's books include Marxian Socialism in the United States (1952, 1967, 1996, ed. with Michael Kazin), The End of Ideology: On the Exhaustion of Political Ideas in the Fifties (1960, 1965, 1988), The Coming of Post-Industrial Society (1973), The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism (1976), and The Winding Passage: Essays and Sociological Journeys, 1960–1980 (1980, 1991). He also edited The New American Right (1955), revised as The Radical Right:The New American Right (1963, 1977). Mills and Bell met in the early 1940s and were on friendly terms until 1945.
Birnbaum, Norman (1926–)
A sociologist educated at Williams College and Harvard University, Birnbaum taught at the London School of Economics, Oxford University, the University of Strasbourg, the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research, and Amherst College. He is presently a university professor at Georgetown University Law Center. His books include The Crisis of Industrial Society (1969), Towards a Critical Sociology (1971), The Radical Renewal: The Politics of Ideas in Modern America (1988), and Searching for the Light (1993). He was on the editorial board of Partisan Review and is now on the board of The Nation. In the United Kingdom he was an early editor of Universities and Left Review and a founding editor of the New Left
Bottomore, Tom (1920–92)
British sociologist whose work concentrated on Marxist social theory. His books include Classes in Modern Society (1955), Elites and Society (1964, 1966, 1993), Marxist Sociology (1975), A History of Sociological Analysis, with Robert Nisbet (1978), and Theories of Modern Capitalism (1985). Bottomore was on the faculty of the London School of Economics and Political Science (1952–65) when he and Mills met. Bottomore also taught at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada (1965–67), and the University of Sussex (1967–85). When Mills stayed in London in 1961, he visited Bottomore.
Coser, Lewis A. (1913–)
German-born sociologist who studied at the Sorbonne in Paris (1935–38) and received a Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1954. Among many books he authored or edited are the following: The Functions of Social Conflict (1956), Sociological Theory: A Book of Readings, ed. with Bernard Rosenberg (1957), Masters of Sociological Thought: Ideas in Historical and Social Context (1971), Refugee Scholars in America: Their Impact and Their Experiences (1984), and A Handful of Thistles: Collected Papers in Moral Conviction (1988). Coser and Mills met in the mid-1940s, when they both wrote articles for Dwight Macdonald's journal politics. At the time, Coser used the pen name Louis Clair. In 1949, Coser was teaching at the University of Chicago during the semester that Mills spent at that institution. In 1953, as a member of the faculty of Brandeis University, Coser helped arrange for Mills's semester of teaching there.
rskine, Hazel Gaudet (1908–75)
A social psychologist who became an authority on public opinion research. In addition to coauthoring two books, The Invasion from Mars, with H. Contril (1940) and The People's Choice, with Paul Lazarsfeld and Bernard Berelson (1944), Erskine was the polls editor of Public Opinion Quarterly from 1960 to 1975. She and Mills met in New York in the mid–1940s, when they both worked for the Bureau of Applied Social Research. Besides writing two articles together, Erskine and Mills collaborated occasionally after she left New York in 1947.
Freidel, Frank (1916–93)
The historian who is best known for the six volumes of biography he wrote about Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Franklin Delano Roosevelt: The Apprenticeship (1952), Franklin Delano Roosevelt: The Ordeal (1954), Franklin Delano Roosevelt: The Triumph (1956), F. D. R. and the South (1966), Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Launching the New Deal (1973), and Franklin Delano Roosevelt: A Rendezvous with Destiny (1990). Freidel was on the faculty of Harvard University from 1955 to 1981. Mills and Freidel met in the early 1940s when they were both on the faculty of the University of Maryland.
Fuentes, Carlos (1928–)
The internationally acclaimed Mexican author of many novels, short stories, plays, and works of nonfiction, Fuentes has taught at several universities, including Cambridge, Columbia,
Gerth, Hans H. (1908–78)
German-born and educated sociologist who collaborated with Mills on two books: From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (1946) and Character and Social Structure (1953). Gerth and Mills met in 1940 at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where Gerth taught sociology and Mills was studying for his Ph.D. They kept in contact for over two decades in spite of the physical distance between them during all but a few years. Gerth was a collaborator and friend to whom Mills wrote hundreds of letters.
Hofstadter, Richard (1916–70)
The historian who wrote Social Darwinism in American Thought (1944), The American Political Tradition and the Men Who Made It (1948), The Age of Reform (1955), Anti-Intellectualism in American Life (1963), and The Paranoid Style in American Politics (1965), among other titles. (The Age of Reform and Anti-Intellectualism in American Life were both awarded the Pulitzer Prize.) Hofstadter and Mills met in the early 1940s, when they both taught at the University of Maryland. In September 1946, the year after Mills's arrival in New York, Hofstadter joined the faculty of Columbia University.
Howe, Irving (1920–93)
Author, historian, and critic who was the cofounder and longtime editor of Dissent magazine. Howe taught at Brandeis University (1953–61), Stanford University (1961–63), and CUNY's Hunter College (1963–86), where he was Distinguished Professor from 1970 to 1986. His books include The UAW and Walter Reuther, with B. J. Widick (1949), Sherwood Anderson: A Critical Study (1951), Politics and the Novel: A World More Attractive (1963, 1977, 1992), World of Our Fathers: The Journey of the Eastern European Jews to America and the Life They Found and Made (1976, 1989, 1990, 1994), which won the National Book Award in 1976, Socialism and America (1985), The American Newness: Culture and Politics in the Age of Emerson (1986), and William Faulkner: A Critical Study (4th ed., 1991).
Klink, Walter (1927–2002)
Former student and then assistant to C. Wright Mills, Klink first met Mills in the latter's course in social stratification at Columbia College in the Fall of 1953. He went on to take Mills's theory seminar in which many of the themes from The Power Elite were under discussion. He did extensive research for Mills on "The Very Rich" for The Power Elite and on the project Mills called "The Cultural Apparatus." After receiving a Ph.D. in Sociology from Columbia University, Klink worked in the medical sociology area and also taught social theory at several universities on both coasts. In addition, he has published in several national photographic magazines and in Boston University's Videosociology and had two one-man photographic shows in Marin County California, featuring Documentary Images.
Lowenthal, Leo (1900–93)
German-born and educated sociologist who worked at the Institute of Social Research in Frankfurt and the Bureau of Applied Social Research in New York from 1926 to 1949. He was also a lecturer at Columbia University from 1940 to 1956, and worked for the U.S. Department of State in the 1940s and 1950s. He began a long career at University of California at Berkeley in 1956. Lowenthal was the managing editor of Studies in Philosophy and Social Sciences from 1932 to 1941. His books in English include Literature and the Image of Man: Sociological Studies of the European Drama and Novel, 1600–1900 (1957) and Literature, Popular Culture, and Society (1961). He and Mills met after Mills wrote him a letter in May 1944 praising Lowenthal's "piece on biography in radio research" and suggesting a meeting.
Macdonald, Dwight (1906–82)
Journalist and critic who was an editor of Partisan Review from 1937 to 1943 and who founded and edited the journal politics, published from 1944 to 1949. He later wrote for the New Yorker and was a film critic for Esquire. In addition to authoring books of criticism, Macdonald wrote Henry Wallace: The Man and the Myth (1948) and Memoirs of a Revolutionist (1957). Macdonald and Mills met in the early 1940s, through Daniel Bell, when Mills was teaching at the University of Maryland.
Merton, Robert K. (1910–)
A sociologist on the faculties of Harvard and Tulane Universities before going to Columbia in 1941, where he has remained ever since. Associate director of the Columbia Bureau of Applied Social Research from 1942 to 1971, he was named Giddings Professor of Sociology from 1963 to 1974 and then a university professor until he became university professor emeritus in 1979. His books include Science, Technology, and Society in 17th-Century England (1938), Social Theory and Social Structure (1949, 1957, 1968), On the Shoulders of Giants (1965, 1985, 1993), The Sociology of Science: Theoretical & Empirical Investigations (1973), Sociological Ambivalence (1976), Social Research and the Practicing Professions (1982), and On Social Structure and Science (1996). Mills wrote to Merton as early as 1939, and they had met before Mills began to work at the Columbia Bureau of Applied Social Research in 1945.
Miliband, Ralph (1924–94)
London-based political scientist and coeditor of The Socialist Register from its foundation in 1964 until his death. He wrote Parliamentary Socialism (1961, 1973), The State in Capitalist Society (1969), Marxism and Politics (1977), Capitalist Democracy in Britain (1981), Class Power and State Power (1983), Divided Societies: Class Struggle in Contemporary Capitalism (1989), and Socialism for a Skeptical Age (published posthumously in 1994). Miliband and Mills met when Mills went to England in 1957; at the time, Miliband was a lecturer at the London School of Economics and Political Science. For the rest of Mills's life, they kept in touch through correspondence and visits.
Miller, William (1912–92)
A historian who had a varied career as university teacher, journalist, editor, and consultant to government and industry. His books include The Age of Enterprise, with Thomas Cochran (1942) and, in collaboration with Richard Hofstadter and Daniel Aaron, The United States: The History of a Republic (1957), The American Republic (1959), and The Structure of American
Riesman, David (1909–)
Lawyer and social scientist whose best-known book is The Lonely Crowd: A Study of the Changing American Character, written in collaboration with Nathan Glazer and Revel Denny (1950). Riesman also wrote Faces in the Crowd (1952), Individualism Reconsidered and Other Essays (1954), Abundance for What? and Other Essays, with Evelyn Thompson Riesman (1963, 1993), and The Academic Revolution, with Christopher Jencks (1968), among others. Professor of social science at the University of Chicago from 1949 to 1958, Riesman became Henry Ford II Professor of Social Science at Harvard in 1958. We do not know how Riesman and Mills met.
Swados, Harvey (1920–72)
The author of novels including Out Went the Candle (1955), False Coin (1959), Standing Fast (1970), and Celebration (1972); collections of short stories including On the Line (1957) and Nights in the Gardens of Brooklyn (1961); and works of nonfiction, such as A Radical's America (1962). Swados and Mills met in Maryland in the early 1940s, when Swados was a merchant marine and Mills taught at the University of Maryland. During most of the last decade of Mills's life, he and Swados both lived in Rockland County, New York.
Thompson, E. P. (1924–93)
British historian whose major historical publications include William Morris: Romantic Revolutionary (1955, 1977), The Making of the English Working Class (1963), Whigs and Hunters: The Origins of the Black Act (1975), Customs in Common (1991), and Witness against the Beast: William Blake and the Moral Law (1993). He was one of the founders of the journal the Reasoner, which became the New Reasoner in 1957 before merging with Universities and Left Review in 1959. Thompson was also a regular contributor to the New Left Review. A political activist, he was the acknowledged leader of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in the early 1980s. Mills visited Thompson at his home on at least one occasion, accompanied by Ian Ballantine, in 1961.
Wakefield, Dan (1932–)
Author and screenwriter whose best-selling novel Going All the Way (1970, 1997) was made into a film. Other novels include Starting Over (1973), Under the Apple Tree (1982), and Selling Out (1985). His works of nonfiction include Island in the City: The World of Spanish Harlem (1959), Returning: A Spiritual Journey (1988), The Story of Your Life: Writing a Spiritual Autobiography (1990), New York in the Fifties (1993), and Expect a Miracle: The Miraculous Things That Happen to Ordinary People (1995). Wakefield met Mills in the mid-1950s when he took a seminar Mills was teaching at Columbia College. He wrote his impressions of Mills both in New York in the Fifties and in an article on Mills for Atlantic Monthly (September 1971) entitled "Taking It Big: A Memoir of C. Wright Mills."