# James Rorty

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{{short description|American journalist}}
[[File:United States Trotskyism Slide 1.png|thumb|right|A poster advertising a mass meeting of the [American Committee for the Defense of Leon Trotsky](/source/American_Committee_for_the_Defense_of_Leon_Trotsky) at the [Old South Meeting House](/source/Old_South_Meeting_House) in [Boston, Massachusetts](/source/Boston%2C_Massachusetts), featuring [Max Shachtman](/source/Max_Shachtman), James Rorty and [Gus Tyler](/source/Gus_Tyler), {{circa}} 1937]]
'''James Rorty''' (March 30, 1890{{spaced ndash}}February 26, 1973) was a 20th-century American radical writer and poet as well as political activist who addressed controversial topics that included [McCarthyism](/source/McCarthyism), [Jim Crow](/source/Jim_Crow), American industries, advertising, and nutrition, and was perhaps best known as a founding editor of the ''[New Masses](/source/New_Masses)'' magazine.<ref name=NYTobit>
{{cite web
| title = James Rorty Papers, 1915–1972
| publisher = Archives West = Orbis Cascade Alliance
| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1973/02/26/archives/james-rorty-82-a-radigal-editor-new-masses-cofounderalso-published.html
| date = 26 February 1973
| accessdate = 10 September 2017}}</ref><ref name=Wald>
{{cite book
| first = Alan M.
| last = Wald
| authorlink = Alan M. Wald
| title = The New York Intellectuals: The Rise and Decline of the Anti-Stalinist Left from the 1930s to the 1980s
| publisher = UNC Press
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=mzlsL5s0GXYC
| pages = 11, 50, 54 (poems), 54–56 (bio), 58, 59, 61, 62, 102, 105, 271, 272–273 (McCarthy), 274, 357
| date = 1987
| isbn = 9780807841693
| accessdate = 10 September 2017}}</ref><ref name=Mass>
{{cite book
| editor-first1 = John Durham
| editor-last1 = Peters
| editor-first2 = Peter
| editor-last2 = Simonson
| title = Mass Communication and American Social Thought: Key Texts, 1919–1968
| publisher = rowman & Littlefield
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=34kSkJuYCIYC
| pages = 16
| date = 2004
| isbn = 9780742528390
| accessdate = 10 September 2017}}</ref><ref name=ArchivesWest>
{{cite web
| title = James Rorty Papers, 1915–1972
| publisher = University of Oregon
| url = https://scua.uoregon.edu/repositories/2/resources/1012
| date = 
| accessdate = 10 September 2017}}</ref><ref name=Yale>
{{cite web
| title = James Rorty Papers
| publisher = Yale University Library - Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscripts
| url = http://drs.library.yale.edu/HLTransformer/HLTransServlet?stylename=yul.ead2002.xhtml.xsl&pid=beinecke:rorty&clear-stylesheet-cache=yes
| date = 
| accessdate = 10 September 2017}}</ref><ref name=UChicago>
{{cite book
| title = Richard Rorty: The Making of an American Philopsher – James Rorty
| publisher = Archives West = Orbis Cascade Alliance
| url = http://chicago.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.7208/chicago/9780226309910.001.0001/upso-9780226309903-chapter-2
| date = 2008
| doi=10.7208/chicago/9780226309910.001.0001 | accessdate = 10 September 2017| last1=Gross | first1=Neil | isbn=9780226309903 }}</ref>

==Background==

James Hancock Rorty was born March 30, 1890, in [Middletown, New York](/source/Middletown%2C_Orange_County%2C_New_York). His parents were Irish immigrants Octavia Churchill and Richard McKay Rorty. His father was a political refugee with [Fenian](/source/Fenian) and [anarchist](/source/Anarchism) affiliations from [County Donegal](/source/County_Donegal), Ireland. In 1913, he earned a BA from [Tufts College](/source/Tufts_College). He pursued graduate studies at [New York University](/source/New_York_University) and The [New School for Social Research](/source/New_School_for_Social_Research).<ref name=NYTobit /><ref name=Wald /><ref name=ArchivesWest /><ref name=UChicago />

==Career==

In 1913, he began his career with work in the advertising industry.  He also worked in settlement houses.<ref name=Wald /><ref name=Mass />

During World War I, Rorty served as a stretcher bearer on the Argonne front, an experience that led him to become a "militant pacifist."<ref name=NYTobit /><ref name=Wald /><ref name=Mass /><ref name=ArchivesWest /><ref name=UChicago />

Rorty worked as a journalist and poet for more than sixty years. He considered himself "the last of the muckrakers," as a combatant against social injustice in America.<ref name=NYTobit /><ref name=ArchivesWest /><ref name=UChicago />

During World War I, Rorty moved to San Francisco to continue his career in advertising and to write experimental poetry.<ref name=Wald />

In 1925, Rorty moved to New York City, where he was a founding editor (with [Michael Gold](/source/Michael_Gold), [Joseph Freeman](/source/Joseph_Freeman_(writer)), [Hugo Gellert](/source/Hugo_Gellert), [John Sloan](/source/John_French_Sloan), and others) of the ''[New Masses](/source/New_Masses)'', a Communist literary magazine, which launched the following year.  However, Rorty left that next year when fellow editors rejected his publication of [Robinson Jeffers](/source/Robinson_Jeffers)'s poem "Apology for Bad Dreams."<ref name=NYTobit /><ref name=Wald /><ref name=Mass />

In 1927, Rorty was one of many arrested during protests against the execution of [Sacco and Vanzetti](/source/Sacco_and_Vanzetti).<ref name=Wald />

To earn money, he also worked as an editor, journalist, advertising copy writer, and consultant for the Tennessee Valley Authority.<ref name=ArchivesWest />

In 1932, he supported and then quit the campaign to support [William Z. Foster](/source/William_Z._Foster) ([CPUSA](/source/CPUSA)) for U.S. president.<ref name=NYTobit />

==Personal life and death==
Around 1919, Rorty married Maria Ward Lambin; they were divorced in 1928. The same year, he married writer Winifred Rauschenbush (daughter of Christian socialist [Walter Rauschenbusch](/source/Walter_Rauschenbusch)); they had one son, philosopher [Richard Rorty](/source/Richard_Rorty).<ref name=NYTobit /><ref name=Wald /><ref name=Mass /><ref name=ArchivesWest />

He suffered from depression.<ref name=UChicago />

Rorty died at age 82 on February 26, 1973, in [Sarasota](/source/Sarasota), Florida.<ref name=NYTobit /><ref name=ArchivesWest />

==Works==

In the mid-1950s, Rorty co-authored with [Moshe Decter](/source/Moshe_Decter) a book attacking [McCarthyism](/source/McCarthyism) called ''McCarthy and the Communists'', supported by the [American Committee for Cultural Freedom](/source/American_Committee_for_Cultural_Freedom).<ref name=NYTobit />

Books include:

* ''What Michael said to the census-taker'' (1922)
* ''The Intruders'' (1923)
* ''Where Life is Better: An Unsentimental American Journey'' (1923/1936/2014/2015)
* ''Children of the sun, and other poems'' (New York: Macmillan, 1926)
* ''End of Farce'' (1933)
* ''Order on the air!'' (New York: John Day Company, ca. 1934)
* ''[Our Master's Voice: Advertising](/source/Our_Master's_Voice%3A_Advertising)'' (New York: John Day Company, ca. 1934/1976)
* ''Where life is better : an unsentimental American journey'' (New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, c1936)
* ''American medicine mobilizes'' (New York, W.W. Norton, ca. 1939)
* ''Brother Jim Crow'' (New York: Post War World Council, 1943)
* ''Tomorrow's food; the coming revolution in nutrition'' N. Philip Norman MD (New York, Prentice Hall, 1947/1956)
* ''Tennessee Valley Authority: Soil ... people and fertilizer technology'' (Washington: US GPO, 1949)
* ''Engineers of world plenty'' (Washington, Public Affairs Institute, 1950)
* ''McCarthy and the Communists'' with [Moshe Decter](/source/Moshe_Decter) (Boston : Beacon Press, 1954/1972)
* ''We Open the Gates: Labor's Fight for Equality'' with [Harry Fleischman](/source/Harry_Fleischman) (1958)

Poems in ''[Harper's](/source/Harper's)'' include:
* "Bread, and the stuff we eat" (March 1950)
* "Memorandum to a tired bureaucrat" (December 1950)
* "Starting from Manhattan" (October 1951)
* "Return of the native (Donegal, April 1957)"

Articles in ''[Harper's](/source/Harper's)'' include:
* "Tortillas, beans, and bananas" (September 1951)
* "Go slow on fluoridation!" (February 1953)

==Awards==

* {{circa}}1918: Distinguished Service Cross<ref name=NYTobit />
* 1923: ''The Nation'' prize for poetry ("When We Dead Awaken")<ref name=NYTobit /><ref name=Wald />

==See also==

* [Richard Rorty](/source/Richard_Rorty)
* [New Masses](/source/New_Masses)
* [American Committee for Cultural Freedom](/source/American_Committee_for_Cultural_Freedom)
* [Moshe Decter](/source/Moshe_Decter)
* [Walter Rauschenbusch](/source/Walter_Rauschenbusch)

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External sources==

* [https://harpers.org/author/jamesrorty/ Harper's]
* [https://www.thenation.com/authors/james-rorty/ The Nation]
* {{cite web
| title = James Rorty Papers, 1915–1972
| publisher = University of Oregon
| url = https://scua.uoregon.edu/repositories/2/resources/1012
| date = 
| accessdate = 8 June 2023}}
* {{cite web
| title = James Rorty Papers
| publisher = Yale University Library - Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscripts
| url = http://drs.library.yale.edu/HLTransformer/HLTransServlet?stylename=yul.ead2002.xhtml.xsl&pid=beinecke:rorty&clear-stylesheet-cache=yes
| date = 
| accessdate = 10 September 2017}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rorty, James}}
Category:1890 births
Category:1973 deaths
Category:Writers from New York (state)
Category:American people of Irish descent
Category:Tufts University alumni
Category:American military personnel of World War I
Category:20th-century American writers
Category:20th-century American journalists
Category:American pacifists
Category:20th-century American male journalists

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [James Rorty](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Rorty) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Rorty?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.