& # 8211 ; Biographical Note Essay, Research Paper
[ Biographical Note supplied by the Yale University Library,
where Jerome & # 8217 ; s documents are located. ]
Victor Jeremy Jerome, author, editor and president of the
Communist Party & # 8217 ; s Cultural Commission, was born Jerome Isaac Romain in Strykov Poland in
1896. Shortly after his birth, his parents migrated to England, go forthing Jerome with
relations in Poland. At the age of nine he joined his parents in England where he spent
the following 10 old ages. In 1915 he came to New York, where he worked at uneven occupations and started
school at City College. He left school when he married Frances Winwar, who bore him 1
kid before their matrimony ended in divorce.
His engagement with extremist political relations began in the early 1920 & # 8217 ; s when Jerome accepted a
place as a bookkeeper with the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. Possibly
because of his engagement with leftist political relations, he changed his name in 1923. In 1924
he joined the Communist Party and in the undermentioned twelvemonth married Rose Pastor Stokes. He
returned to college and in 1930 received a Bachelor of Science grade from New York
University. After Rose Pastor Stoke & # 8217 ; s decease in 1933, Jerome spent a twelvemonth in Hollywood
raising money for the Spanish Loyalists. He returned to New York and in 1935 he became
editor of The Communist ( which subsequently became Political Affairs ) and held that
place until 1955. He had risen in the Party hierarchy and in the mid-1930 & # 8217 ; s was
appointed cultural commissioner of the Communist Party. In 1937 he married Alice
Hamburger.
Between 1935 and 1965 Jerome wrote invariably. He wrote two autobiogra
phical novels A
Lantern for Jeremy ( released during the “ Foley Square Trials ” in 1952 ) and
its subsequence, The Paper Bridge ( published posthumously in 1966 ) . He besides published a
aggregation of sketchs entitled Unstill Waters ( 1964 ) . A fecund author, he
turned out short narratives, dramas, and literary and art unfavorable judgment. Victor Jerome is best
known, nevertheless, for his political and cultural essays. Among these are “ The
Intellectuals and the War ” ( 1940 ) , “ The Negro in Hollywood Films ” ( 1950 ) ,
and “ Culture in a Changing World ” ( 1948 ) .
A1952 booklet & # 8212 ; “ Grasp the Weapon of Culture ” & # 8212 ; which Jerome presented as
a study to the Communist Party, became the “ open act ” under which Victor
Jerome was prosecuted and convicted under the Smith Act. Indicted with 16 other
Communist leaders in 1951, he was accused of “ confederacy to learn and recommend the
overthrow by force and force ” of the U.S. authorities. Following a nine month test
in New York & # 8217 ; s Foley Square Courthouse & # 8212 ; Jerome passed the long hours in tribunal authorship
poesy and reading page cogent evidence of A Lantern for Jeremy & # 8212 ; Jerome was convicted and
in 1953 sentenced to three old ages at Lewisburg Penitentiary. He served the sentence between
1954 and 1957.
Following his release from prison, Jerome toured Eastern Europe. He spent 1958 in
Poland, and for the following two old ages worked in Moscow as an editor of a aggregation of
Lenin & # 8217 ; s works. He returned to the United States in 1962 to go on work he had begun on a
novel based on the life of Spinoza.
He died in 1965 at the age of 68.
