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Meridel Le Sueur

メリデル・ル・スーア

Meridel Le Sueur

Aliases: Meridel Wharton
Pen Names: Meridel Le Sueur (born Meridel Wharton)（Used the surname of her mother's second husband）

Profile

Gender
Female
Born
1900-02-22 （Murray, Iowa）
Died
1996-11-14 （Hudson, Wisconsin） age 96
Nationality
American
Languages
English
Residence History
Murray, Iowa (birthplace) → New York City (early adult period) → California (acting and stunt work in Hollywood) → Minneapolis / Twin Cities (long-term residence and writing) → Arizona (time spent living among the Navajo) → Hudson, Wisconsin (later life)

Career

Occupations
writer, actress, stuntwoman, journalist, poet
Active Years
1920-1996
Memberships
Communist Party USA
Influenced By
Emma Goldman, Native American oral traditions, radical farm and labor movements (Populists, Farmers' Alliance, IWW)
Influenced
Feminist writers and activists (from 1970s onward), Regional writers and cultural activists in Minnesota

Education

American Academy of Dramatic Arts
Period: 1910年代後半〜1920年代初頭（在籍時期不確定）
Country: United States
Studied dance and acting; had early career work in theater/film

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

The Girl

1978 Novel (proletarian literature)

A novel written in the 1930s but published in 1978. Depicts struggles and resistance of working-class people, especially young women, during the Great Depression.

working classwomen's struggleGreat Depression

Salute to Spring

1940 Short stories

A 1940 short story collection containing pieces about workers, immigrants, and women's daily struggles.

laborimmigrationwomen

North Star Country

1945 People's history (regional history)

A 1945 people's history of Minnesota, written from the perspective of workers and farmers, emphasizing popular voices over official narratives.

regional historyworkers' perspectivepeople's history

Women on the Breadlines

1932 Sketch/reportage

A short 1932 piece that vividly portrays the plight and social constraints of unemployed women during the Depression, opening ways for confrontational female political writing.

women's povertyGreat Depressionsocial roles

Ripening: Selected Work

1993 Selected works (poetry and essays)

A selected works volume edited by Elaine Hedges, collecting poems, essays, and stories; assembled during the revival of interest in her work from the 1970s on.

women's historyspiritualityworkers' lives

Bibliography

  • The Girl (written 1930s, published 1978)
  • Salute to Spring (1940)
  • North Star Country (1945)
  • Nancy Hanks of Wilderness Road (1949)
  • Chanticleer of Wilderness Road (1951)
  • The River Road (1954)
  • Little Brother of the Wilderness (1954)
  • Crusaders (1955)
  • Conquistadores (1973)
  • Mound Builders (1974)
  • Rites of Ancient Ripening (1975, poems)
  • My People and My Home (16 mm film, 1975)
  • O.K. Baby (1982)
  • I Hear Men Talking and Other Stories (1984)
  • Word is Movement (1984, journal notes)
  • Interview (film, 1985)
  • Sparrow Hawk (1987, children's book)
  • Harvest Song (1990, collected essays and stories)
  • The Dread Road (1991)
  • Ripening: Selected Work (1993)

Adaptations

  • My People and My Home (1975, 16 mm film; later issued on DVD)
  • The Dread Road (1997, radio drama)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
proletarian literature stylereportage-like, journalistic narrationdirect, on-the-ground storytelling
Recurring Motifs
labor and exploitationwomen's lives and resistanceNative American stories and spiritualitylocal community

Legacy

Meridel Le Sueur was a prominent writer associated with 1930s proletarian literature. After being blacklisted in the 1950s, she was rediscovered in feminist contexts from the 1970s. She is known for people's histories of Minnesota and writings on women's poverty.

Museums

  • Meridel Le Sueur building (Cedar-Riverside) Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, Minneapolis

Archives

  • Meridel Le Sueur archive at the Minnesota Historical Society

In Popular Culture

  • The Indigo Girls song "Go" contains a spoken passage inspired by Le Sueur's "I Was Marching"
  • Her life was the subject of Martha Boesing's play "Hard Times Come Again No More"

Quotes

  • When the workers send for you, then you know you're really good. Sometimes they would send money to pay the bus fare.
    Source: Interviews / newspaper sources (various obituaries and interviews)
  • I tell the young writers who visit: 'Carry a notebook. That is the secret of a radical writer. Write it down as it is happening.'
    Source: Interviews / reminiscences

Trivia

  • Blacklisted in the 1950s as a communist but rediscovered in the 1970s.
  • Lived for a time in an anarchist commune with Emma Goldman in her youth.
  • Inspired a spoken passage in the Indigo Girls song "Go".
  • Taught writing classes in Minneapolis that drew aspiring writers from afar.
  • Wrote many children's books (e.g., about Davy Crockett and Johnny Appleseed).