John Reed

@Harvard University, Family and Childhood ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ John Reed was an American journalist, poet, and socialist activist American Harvard University Media Personalities Journalists Poets Non-Fiction Writers Libra Celebrities John Reed was an American journalist, poet, and socialist activist whose short life as a revolutionary writer made him the hero of a generation of radical intellectuals. A member of a wealthy Portland family, he graduated from Harvard and began writing for a Socialist newspaper, ‘The Masses’. He covered the revolutionary fighting in Mexico and recorded his impressions in his book, ‘Insurgent Mexico’. He was arrested frequently for organizing strikes, and his writings were considered seditious during World War I. He became established as a radical leader and helped form the Communist Party in the United States. He covered World War I for Metropolitan magazine; and wrote of his experience in the book, ‘The War in Eastern Europe’. He became a close friend of Lenin and was an eyewitness to the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, recording this event in his best known book, ‘Ten Days That Shook the World’. It was written from the perspective of someone experiencing the revolution first-hand and was sympathetic to the Bolsheviks and their cause. He portrayed their leaders – particularly Lenin, Trotsky and Zinoviev – in a favorable light. While attending the Second Congress of the Communist International in Moscow, he died of typhus; he was subsequently buried with other Bolshevik heroes beside the Kremlin wall.

Personal Details

Birthday: October 22, 1887 Died on: October 17, 1920 Nationality: American Famous: Harvard University, Media Personalities, Journalists, Poets, Non-Fiction Writers Spouses: Louise Bryant Siblings: Crystal, Harry Universities: Harvard University Harvard University Harvard College Information Detail Birthday October 22, 1887 Died on October 17, 1920 Nationality American Famous Harvard University, Media Personalities, Journalists, Poets, Non-Fiction Writers Spouses Louise Bryant Siblings Crystal, Harry Universities Harvard University Harvard University Harvard College Notable Alumnis Harvard University Birth Place Portland, Oregon, United States Political Ideology Communist Labor Party Gender Male Father Charles Jerome Reed Mother Margaret Green Reed Sun Sign Libra Born in Portland, Oregon, United States Famous as Journalist, Poet Died at Age 32

Portland, Oregon, United States

John Reed born at Unsplash Birth Place

Reed married writer and feminist Louise Bryant, in 1916. Unsplash Personal Life

He died on October 17, 1920, due to typhus, in Moscow, and after a hero's funeral, his body was buried at the Kremlin Wall Necropolis. Unsplash Personal Life

John Reed was born on October 22, 1887, in Portland, Oregon to Margaret Green Reed, the daughter of a leading Portland citizen and, Charles Jerome Reed, the representative of an agricultural machinery manufacturer from the East. Unsplash Childhood & Early Life

He was a sickly child with a weak kidney. For much of his teenage years, he suffered recurrent attacks of pain that kept him bedridden for periods of a week or more. Unsplash Childhood & Early Life

He attended Portland Academy, a private school with younger brother Harry. He was bright enough to pass his courses but would not work for top marks, as he found school dry and tedious. Unsplash Childhood & Early Life

He entered Harvard College in 1906, and excelled in swimming and water polo, served the editorial boards of Lampoon and The Harvard Monthly, and wrote music and lyrics for the Hasty Pudding Theatricals show. Unsplash Childhood & Early Life

He graduated from Harvard College in 1910, and that summer he set out to see more of the "dull outside world," visiting England, France, and Spain before returning home to America the following spring. Unsplash Childhood & Early Life

Wanting to be a freelance journalist, he circulated essay and short stories about his six months in Europe which were accepted in The Saturday Evening Post, Collier's, The Forum, and The Century Magazine. Unsplash Career

One of his poems was set to music by composer Arthur Foote, and the editors at ‘The American’ came to see him as a contributor and begun to publish his work. Unsplash Career

In 1913, he joined ‘The Masses’, a magazine of socialist politics. He was arrested for the first time in Paterson, New Jersey for speaking on behalf of strikers in the silk mills. Unsplash Career

In 1913, he was deputed to Mexico by the Metropolitan Magazine to report the Mexican Revolution and covered Pancho Villa’s—one of the most prominent Mexican Revolutionary generals—victory over Federal forces at Torreón. Unsplash Career

When The Ludlow Massacre happened in April 1914, he arrived at the scene in Colorado and reported on the event, siding with the miners and seeing it as an example of class conflict. Unsplash Career

He wrote a series of articles about his time with Villa whom he admired. He opposed American intervention His reports were later collected together and published as Insurgent Mexico in 1914. Unsplash Major Works

His experiences in Russia were recorded in his book, ‘Ten Days That Shook the World’, published in 1919. Unsplash Major Works

Information	Detail
Birthday	October 22, 1887
Died on	October 17, 1920
Nationality	American
Famous	Harvard University, Media Personalities, Journalists, Poets, Non-Fiction Writers
Spouses	Louise Bryant
Siblings	Crystal, Harry
Universities	Harvard University Harvard University Harvard College
Notable Alumnis	Harvard University
Birth Place	Portland, Oregon, United States
Political Ideology	Communist Labor Party
Gender	Male
Father	Charles Jerome Reed
Mother	Margaret Green Reed
Sun Sign	Libra
Born in	Portland, Oregon, United States
Famous as	Journalist, Poet
Died at Age	32

John Reed

American

Oct 22, 1887

Biography

Personal Details

Portland, Oregon, United States