Letter to Will Lissner, 18th April 1955

April 18, 1955

Dear Will:

It has been ages since I have written and I have been in NY [New York] twice without finding time to see you. The reason for all this may shock you - it certainly did me. But ever since the first of the year when a certain listing was made the attack came from rather unexpected quarters - the man I have been associated with for some 14 years - J. R. Johnson or CLR James. He chose to open attack at the time the bourgeoisie did and while I was consulting with lawyers to make sure that this in no way affects the freedom of the press in the form of CORRESPONDENCE his adherent who happened to have legal title to the paper walked off with it - not that I think he will publish it at all. Some people, scare easily. In any case, the inevitable split had me all tied up and, although the majority of the workers are with me and have this past weekend in conference decided to issue a new workers paper, the majority are few enough and to start all over again will occupy me even more than heretofore. The new is that for the first time to my knowledge a group that started along radical lines actually did have a working-class majority. You will hear directly from the editor (John Zupan) and be able to judge at that point. Meanwhile, did you note the last issue (Vol. II, No. 7, dated April 2) carried an analysis and review of the Confidence Man as it appears not alone in literature but in political life. My Two Worlds column dealt with that because what Melville calls "the charm man as some East Indians call snake charmers" is a take-off on CLRJ. Be that as it may, this whole thing lost me 20 pounds and so I am back in my girlish form.

During this period I do believe one package came from you and I do want to know what is new in the "outside" world. What are you doing just now?

I did have a chance to meet with some philosophers and they were, as they put it, "fascinated" at the manner in which I plunged into Hegel's Absolute Idea and freely translated it into economic terms. What I am driving at is that I want automation and the absolute idea which I interpret as full freedom to be the absolute poles within which my work on Marxism will move. Not that I know when I will ever get down to writing that book but if we succeed in getting of the ground and starting the paper in a few months then I would have a chance to get to work on it by late fall or winter.

Did you hear any gossip about any of this? I didn't know whether any of it had gotten to NY in certain circles or not.

Now that I have gotten you reacquainted with where and why I am, drop me a note and perhaps it will not be as long before next we hear from each other.

Weaver

Note

'Will Lissner' may be Will Lissner (1908-2000) an economics journalist who worked for the New York Times and specialist in the economy of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). He was the founding editor of the American Journal of Economics and Sociology (1941).In 1969 he compiled a report for the NYT on Communist Party activity in the newspaper business in New York from the 1930's to 1950's.