Daughter of Earth - Softcover

AGNES SMEDLEY

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0860680045 ISBN 13: 9780860680048

Publisher: VIRAGO PRESS LTD, 1957

Synopsis

This gritty autobiographical novel recreates the amazing life story of an American working class woman. Revered writer and activist Agnes Smedley worked to advance the cause of human justice on three continents as a writer and political activist. Here, she relives in fictionalized form her first thirty-three years—growing up on the wrong side of the tracks; discovering double standards of class, race, and sex among East Coast intellectuals; facing false espionage charges; and maintaining her independence through two tormented marriages.

About this title

About the Author:

Agnes Smedley (1892 – 1950) was an American journalist and writer, well known for her semi-autobiographical novel Daughter of Earth as well as for her sympathetic chronicling of the Communist forces in the Chinese Civil War. During World War I, she worked in the United States for the independence of India from the United Kingdom, receiving financial support from the government of Germany. Subsequently, she went to China, where she is suspected of acting as a spy for the Comintern. As the lover of Soviet super spy Richard Sorge in Shanghai in the early 1930s, she helped get him established for his final and greatest work as spymaster in Tokyo. She also worked on behalf of various causes including women's rights, birth control, and children's welfare. Smedley wrote six books, including a novel, reportage, and a biography of the Chinese general Zhu De, reported for newspapers such as New York Call, Frankfurter Zeitung, and Manchester Guardian, and wrote for periodicals such as the Modern Review, New Masses, Asia, New Republic, and The Nation.

Review:

"Agnes Smedley's memories tasted of hunger."
The New York Times Book Review

"A tale of American disinheritance told from the inside out, [this novel] is essentially about Smedley's struggle to come to spiritual consciousness in a world of unimaginable cruelty and deprivation. . . An entire society is limned in the pages of this book. . . The power of Daughter of Earth lies in the erotic heat which informs every page of the book, erotic in the original Greek sense of life force."
The Village Voice

"Daughter of Earth is a precious, priceless book. In it Agnes Smedley lays bare her soul in an effort to understand and heal her life. In the process, she . . . connects herself, as if there were no other options, to all people of her class and vision, regardless of color or sex. It is a remarkably rare affirmation."
Alice Walker, from the Foreword

"This moving novel is both a catharsis through which Smedley purges the pain in her own experience by shaping it in language, and a political act inspiring others to take up the struggle for change. Anticipating most of the issues of the modern women's liberation movement, Daughter of Earth has emerged as one of the major texts of twentieth-century feminism."
Deborah Rosenfelt, Professor of English and Director of Women's Studies, San Francisco State University

"Agnes Smedley's memories tasted of hunger."
―The New York Times Book Review

"A tale of American disinheritance told from the inside out, [this novel] is essentially about Smedley's struggle to come to spiritual consciousness in a world of unimaginable cruelty and deprivation. . . An entire society is limned in the pages of this book. . . The power of Daughter of Earth lies in the erotic heat which informs every page of the book, erotic in the original Greek sense of life force."
―The Village Voice

"Daughter of Earth is a precious, priceless book. In it Agnes Smedley lays bare her soul in an effort to understand and heal her life. In the process, she . . . connects herself, as if there were no other options, to all people of her class and vision, regardless of color or sex. It is a remarkably rare affirmation."
―Alice Walker, from the Foreword

"This moving novel is both a catharsis through which Smedley purges the pain in her own experience by shaping it in language, and a political act inspiring others to take up the struggle for change. Anticipating most of the issues of the modern women's liberation movement, Daughter of Earth has emerged as one of the major texts of twentieth-century feminism."
―Deborah Rosenfelt, Professor of English and Director of Women's Studies, San Francisco State University

About this edition

• Publisher: VIRAGO PRESS LTD
• Publication date: 1957
• ISBN 10: 0860680045
• ISBN 13: 9780860680048
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 279