Carey McWilliams (journalist)
| Carey McWilliams | |
|---|---|
| Born |
December 13, 1905 Steamboat Springs, Colorado |
| Died | June 27, 1980 (aged 74) New York City, New Work |
| Occupation | Investigative journalist, author, editor |
| Alma mater | University of Southern California, School of Law |
Carey McWilliams (December 13, 1905 – June 27, 1980) was an American author, editor, and lawyer. He is best known for his writings about social issues in California, including the condition of migrant farm workers and the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. For twenty years he was the editor of The Nation magazine, during which time he was the first American journalist to reveal that the United States government was training guerrillas in preparation for the Bay of Pigs Invasion in April 1961.
He was born December 13, 1905 in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. McWilliams first came to California in 1922 following a collapse in the cattle market that ruined his father's health and his family's finances.
McWilliams attended the University of Southern California from which he obtained a law degree in 1927.
From 1927 to 1938, McWilliams practiced law in Los Angeles at Black, Hammack, and Black; taking on cases that prefigured some of the main issues of his writing career, including famously defending the rights of striking Mexican citrus laborers.
During the 1920s and early 1930s, McWilliams joined a loose network of mostly Southern California writers that included Robinson Jeffers, John Fante, Louis Adamic, and Upton Sinclair. His literary career also benefited greatly from his relationships with Mary Austin and H.L. Mencken. Mencken provided an outlet for McWilliams's early journalism and floated the idea for his first book, a 1929 biography of popular writer and sometime Californian Ambrose Bierce.
The Depression and the rise of European fascism in the 1930s radicalized McWilliams. He began working with numerous left-wing political and legal organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Lawyers Guild, and wrote for Pacific Weekly, Controversy, The Nation, and other progressive magazines. He also continued to represent workers in and around Los Angeles, helped organize unions and guilds, and served as a trial examiner for the new National Labor Relations Board.
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