In a Generous Spirit: A First-person Biography of Myra PageDorothy Markey's family and culture prepared her to be a proper southern lady. Yet Markey broke free of her cultural bonds and became, instead, a feminist, a communist, and, under the pen name Myra Page, a radical journalist and novelist. Her activism on behalf of social justice, racial equality, and women's rights spanned the 1920s through her death in 1993. Page's work carried her far from her Virginia home to Moscow, Mexico, the rural South, and New York. As a journalist she wrote for the Daily Worker, the New Masses, Working Woman, and Southern Worker. Her novels captured workers' struggles in an authentic voice: The Gathering Storm, Daughter of the Hills, and Moscow Yankee. With consummate skill, Christina Baker weaves together historical research, her own and others' conversations with Page, and Page's letters and other writings. The resulting narrative is a vivid recreation of the life of an uncommon woman and her more than seventy years of striving for the things she believed in. |
Contents
Rebel Roots | 5 |
Thwarted Sisters | 13 |
Southern Discomfort | 21 |
Choosing Freedom | 30 |
LOVE AND THE LEFT 191831 | 39 |
Breaking Away | 41 |
Union Novice | 54 |
Finding Love | 65 |
Soviet Yankees | 129 |
Finding Shelter | 140 |
Another South | 148 |
Active Women | 157 |
WARS AND PEACE 193993 | 169 |
Home Fronts | 171 |
Red Scare | 181 |
New Left | 190 |
Common terms and phrases
active American Left Annette Rubinstein asked Barham became began believed Carolina Communist party Daddy Daily Worker daughter doctor Dolly Dorothy Earl Browder Emily Encyclopedia father felt Feminist friends Gary Gastonia Gathering Storm girls Grace Lumpkin Highlander Hilda industrial interview John Kanfer Katharine knew Labor later leader League of American learned lived Lumpkin Mama Markey married Mary Mary Heaton Vorse mill Minnesota Moscow Moscow Yankee mother movement Myles Horton Myra never Newport Norfolk novel organized Page Papers Page's Papers Pete Seeger political radical Richmond Russia Scott Nearing shipyard social Socialist South southern Soviet Union stayed story strike talk taught teachers teaching things thought told took Tophill town trade union Valya Virginia Vorse wanted Westhampton woman women write wrote Yonkers York young YWCA Zilphia
Popular passages
Page xxii - For a woman, however, the story is rarely told without reference to the dynamics of gender. Women's personal narratives are, among other things, stories of how women negotiate their "exceptional" gender status both in their daily lives and over the course of a lifetime.