Albert Maltz, A Long Day in a Short Life

Patrick Chura (University of Akron)

Ed. by Patrick Chura, University of Akron
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Sofia Ahlberg (Uppsala University), Patrick Chura (University of Akron), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1957

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

Save to Bookshelf

A Long Day in a Short Life,

set in the Washington D.C. jail and originally published in 1957, was boycotted by Cold War-era commercial publishers because its author was an alleged communist. Had it been embraced rather than suppressed, it might have become a canonical work in civil-rights era U.S. literature. The novel was out of print for decades before its re-release by the British publisher Alma Books in 2023, followed by an audio version from Naxos AudioBooks in 2024.

Albert Maltz’s desire to write a prison novel did not begin with his incarceration in 1950 for refusing to answer the question, “Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?” in testimony before a congressional committee. His interest in crime and punishment was formed much earlier. In 1926,

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

2382 words

Citation: Chura, Patrick. "A Long Day in a Short Life". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 13 August 2024 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=41563, accessed 21 November 2024.]

Albert Maltz, A Long Day in a Short Life

Dates

Places

Genres and Modes

Resources

Save this article

Leave Feedback