Writer and poet (1904-1979) best known for his Studs Lonigan trilogy. Two letters by Farrell: a TLS signed in pencil, "James T. Farrell," one page both sides, 8.5 x 11, March 14, 1946, in part: "It is clear that Mr. Weeks is not concerned with letting issues be posed clearly, and one can see how he is continually evasive. The appeal to a lack of evidence, of information, of people to write objectively—this is a common evasion. I remember how we got this from The Nation in the days when we were fighting the Moscow trials, and for Trotsky's right to be heard before world opinion in answer to the charges made against him at the trials. I am struck again and again with how people drag one down to the veriest of the ABC's of methodology when they are dodging issues. Objectiv[ity] does not demand that you have no values, no point of view: it demands that one not suppress the facts, and that one be logical in using facts to support conclusions…One cannot fight Stalinism by merely appealing to decency, important as decency is. One must have a line, a position. Many of the anti-Stalinists have no position, and incline to take the negative of a positive Stalinist position…Further there is real prestige in the October revolution, and many of the anti-Stalinists articles of the present help to keep restoring that prestige to Stalinism by saying that it is Communism, it is Bolshevism, it is Leninism As long as this is done, Stalinism is really helped, especially in the backward or semi-backward countries. The point here is that the real anti-Stalinist fight must be from the left…This is abysmal Jeffersonianism. Big land owners in backward countries are not democrats, and to say that they are is to help the Stalinists here. The Stalinist land policies need to be watched and examined…The American and English government justified many of Satlin's annexations. Churchill even justified the Polish seizure. They are as little interested in decency as is Stalin…The demand should be for all…liberators to stop liberating, and if they don't they whole world will be in chains. In passing, Robespierre said: Mankind does not love armed liberators. How pertinent this is today!"; and an ALS signed "Jim Farrell," two pages, 8 x 10.5, February 12, 1970, in part: "I have begun my autobiography. I am doing two parts concurrently. From my birth-From April 15, 1932, arriving back from Paris; five days before Young Lonigan came out." In overall fine condition.
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