Educated at Harvard University, Reed was involved in journalism as a student, writing for the Harvard Lampoon, and continued with writing as a career after graduating in 1910. He spent some time traveling to England and Spain before returning to America to become a journalist with the New Review. There, he became known for his leftist/socialist views. In 1913, Reed published his first book, Sangar, a collection of poetry. He covered the Mexican Revolution in 1914, spending four months with Pancho Villa and his troops. His experiences were published in Insurgent Mexico in late 1914. He worked as a war correspondent for Metropolitan Magazine during the First World War and spent time in Germany, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria and Russia. In 1916, he published The War in Eastern Europe, which was well-received. In 1917, he married fellow journalist Louis Bryant. They traveled to Russia that year and Reed witnessed the Russian Revolution at first hand. As a Bolshevik sympathiser, Reed's account of the events is somewhat biased. Nevertheless, it is an excellent account of what transpired. In 1919, he published his chronicle of the events in Ten Days That Shook the World. Reed became a Communist and on his return to America, became the leader of the Communist Labor Party. He again returned to Russia in 1919, via Finland, and met with Lenin, Trotsky and others. He traveled back through Finland, but was arrested for smuggling when he was discovered to have 102 diamonds, large amounts of money and letters from Lenin and Trotsky on his person. Released in June, 1919, he returned to St. Petersburg and was subsequently elected to the executive committee of the Comintern. Reed developed Typhus after returning from a trip to Baku in died in Moscow in 1920. He was buried with state honors in the Kremlin. The file, Reds, starring Warren Beatty and Vanessa Redgrave was based on Reed's life. His other works include Diana's Debut (1910), The Day in Bohemia (1913), Tamburlaine (1917), Red Russia (1919) and Daughter of the Revolution (1927 Posthumous). |
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