Ira Wolfert published a powerful wartime novel about organized crime, Tucker’s People (1943). I admire this book so much that I decided to edit a new edition of it—and wrote a long introduction to it. Wolfert’s idea is that organized crime is capitalism as fascism. In 1993, with Alan Wald, I interview the elderly Wolfert at length, and recently I’ve made that interview available, unedited, in two audio files. You can find some information about Wolfert, including links to photographs and links to the interview HERE. Here are two links to the new edition of the novel: 1 | 2 .
Al Filreis is Kelly Professor, Faculty Director of the Kelly Writers House, Director of the Center
for Programs in Contemporary Writing, Co-Director of PennSound, and Publisher of Jacket2—all at the University of Pennsylvania. Among his books are Secretaries of the Moon,
Wallace Stevens & the Actual World, Modernism from Left to Right, and Counter-Revolution of the Word: The Conservative Attack on Modern Poetry, 1945-60. He is currently writing a book on the art & avant-garde of 1960. He has taught a massive open online course, "ModPo," to 165,000 participants in 192 countries since 2012.PROJECTS:
Founder/Faculty Director, Kelly Writers House—intro video ][ events calendar
Convener/teacher, “ModPo.” an open online course on modern & contemporary U.S. poetry—overview of the course ][ intro video
Publisher of Jacket2 magazine—my Jacket2 commentary series ][ "First Readings"
Producer/host, PoemTalk podcast series—co-sponsored by Kelly Writers House & the Poetry Foundation
Director of the Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing—Critical Writing ][ Creative Writing ][ RealArts internships ][ Fellow in Poetics & Poetic Practice
Co-founder & co-director of PennSound—50,000 files ][ 12 million downloads annually
Teacher & host, "Kelly Writers House Fellows"—since 1999 ][ Susan Sontag, John Ashbery, Jamaica Kincaid, Laurie Anderson, Adrienne Rich, Joan Didion, John Edgar Wideman & more
Teacher, "Representations of the Holocaust"—a course on survivor testimony ][ my holocaust site
Filreis, “Counter-Revolution of the Word: The Conservative Attack on Modern Poetry”
Click on the image for more information.