EARTH; Features by Ralph Chaplin, Dr. Ben L. Reitman, Frank Townshend, Frederek Cover

Wheaton, IL: Earth Publishing Company [Printed by members of the Dill Pickle Club of Chicago], 1931. First Edition. Wrappers. Near Fine. 4to (13" x 9 1/2"), orange wrappers with black lettering & ~ 4" by 2" logo of both hemispheres of the globe behind title "EARTH," includes poetry, essays, and "A Note on Contemporary Letters" by James T. Farrell, 16 pages. Price "Twenty Five Cents." RARE early appearance of author, James T. Farrell, as a critic. He is best known for the Studs Lonigan trilogy. His perspective is that of a member of the "left wing of 'collectivists', radicals, and proletarians" in contrast to the "right wing of 'individualsts,' like the literary Humanists." It's his party of Radicals versus Concervatives. His essay is articulate 30's Marxist. Among Leftist authors whom he praises are John Dos Passos, Michael Gold, and V.F. Calverton. Among disparaged Humanists, he numbers Dorothy Canfield, Eugene Jolas, Thornton Wilder, Ernest Hemingway, James Branch Cabell, John Hergesheimer, Sherwood Anderson, and Theodore Dreiser. Farrell espouses functionalism with social relevance and constructive intent vs. art for art sake, aestheticism, slice-of-life realism, and critiques of the "Puritans and [the] booboisie." His brief essay reeks of the U of C where the author briefly studied and foams with proletarian vigor. Contents: "Hot Sand" fiction by Mildred Merryman; poetry by Ralph Chaplin, Frederic Cover (2), Marie T. Garland, Frank Townshend, Lloyd Stern (2), Ernest Schelander; articles by James T. Farrell, Frederic Cover (book review of "UNREST, Rebel Poet's Anthology" about Merrill Root, Joseph Kalar, Hugh Hanley, Clement Wood, eds. Ralph Cheney & Jack Conroy); Dr. Reitman "Is Revolution Necessary?" which extrapolates from the current huge unemployment caused by the Great Depression; J. Nivers; & Jack Jones "The Guy With Guts." Earth's Editors were Ralph Chaplin, Fred Hardy, Ernest Schelander, and Jack Jones.