Hello everyone,thank you so much for reading and participating in this post.
I will keep trying to continue posting from time to time more examples of writers in this space for those interested. If your are new, you can look bellow on Steinbeck and Brecht and some people have mentioned other writers and examples, my deep thanks to them:
Jst5150: One author that comes to mind is Salman Rushdie. Another is the cartoonist in Denmark who got blasted for depicted the prophet Muhammed.
Dave C. Robinson: Farley Mowat was denied entrance to the US because of some of his writings.
Weren Cole: Ever seen the movie Other Peoples Lives?
Eelcat: In most of Europe, during the 1500's - 1700's everything had to be approved by local officers (who were sent to the villages by the king/queen) before it could be published. Any author thought to be writing in protest of the king/queen was executed.
Regarding some of your questions and/or objections:
It is not humanly possible for me in terms of time to cover the whole world and the whole century, or even the full details of each writer when their files are anything between 100 to 2000 pages each. Please do not cry “Evidence! Evidence!” I am not here to convince anyone. Just to share what I have found and maybe some of you also know of interesting cases.
Please also keep in mind english is not my first language so sometimes my expressions can be vague or not as precise I would like them to be, so be leniant...
JeanneTGC: But unless you can show some other names and dates, categorizing the WWII time frame as being indicative of the entire 100 years that made up the 20th century seems a bit extreme.
I called them authors of the 20th century, since that's the century they belonged to. My research focused initially between 1930-1956 and expanded from 1912 - the end of the 70s. There I had to stop. It was not my subject anyway. It took me mostly through europe, russia, america and latin america. I have not been exclusively talking about america.
The amount of countries in war, dictatorship, semi-democracy etc, throughout the 20th century has been the rule and not the exception and not only during the WW2 period. One can look at staggering figures by bodies such as amnesty etc.
It tends to be that writers are always first on the list of dangerous people to be watched, arrested, their works forbidden, etc. I certainly come from a country in whose recent past to be a writer or an “intellectual” was suspect and dangerous.
Greece has had a history from the 40s until the mid 70s where a lot of literature became forbidden, suppressed or suspect, some well known greek poets were sent to jail and special detention islands, their every move watched, family history and constant intimidation of friends, families, acquaintances, guilt by association,etc. Having their books at your home, reciting their works or singing their poems could land you in prison cells, with torture and signed confessions and recantations. This makes it not so hard to imagine of similar practice in any other country in above condition.
A wonderful greek poet and painter Engonopoulos (a surrealist) after Garcia Lorca's assasination wrote : this is the century that kills poets...
Eelcat: Yes, during WWII this was going on in America, to look for spys sending "secret codes", but as far as I know that is the only time in American history that that sort of thing happened.
Regarding american writers or writers living in america from what I have seen by the amount and content of files as well as various “programs” it is not only a case of simply being watched in case they were spies or sending secret codes during war II. It starts with after the russian revolution (1912), but continues well into the cold war, vietnam war, civil rights movements, the new left, etc. I don't know what happens between 1980-2000 in america. Would really love to know if some of you do.
Now regarding it being illegal or unconstitutional, when you look at various files, the practice did go on, confidential, behind the scenes, in all sorts of programs often spending so much personnel, time, resources and funds that makes you wonder what for, not all of the writers are famous and prominent and if so they definitely were not breaking any laws or being a menace to society... Even in the 50s-70s it was not "legal" without warrants to tap people's conversations, enter their homes, search their garbage, mail, personal stuff, etc, record their political and sexual practices but this did not mean those practices did not take place. Evidence suggests otherwise however shocking or not that may be. There have been congressional reports not specifically on writers, (but for this kind of violations that touched writers too) and there is vast well documented literature regarding methods and practices of such agencies for the whole century and their involvement at home and abroad.
In general:
The watching of writers often begins because one's name comes across another person's investigation, or a plain letter of complaint or denunciation about writer's views or habits, a signed protest by the writer for something, a donor's list the writer appears for a cause, participation in a particular political party, often negative press blaming writer's view, and some times because good reviews on a writer appear by "suspect" or oppositional press, at home or abroad. “Who is praised by my enemy must be my enemy too” seems to be the logic. Sometimes even because he/she travelled to a “nasty” country, or praised it etc. The agencies also took pains to watch "suspect" writers living in other countries, for example in latin america, with results of reports posted through embassies which one would think is not what embassies are for. I didn't in any case before my book begun... There is good and vast bibliography for that in america as well as many files and archives foia released that one could look into. I am not sure if I am allowed to quote books here or if that could be considered promotion. (still new around here).
JeanneTGC: This isn't indicative of anything other than the fact that during wartime, countries get more paranoid. Spyiing on writers? Sure. Because you can send code through writing.
Pup: I don't think it has anything to do with writers in particular. Societies wax and wane more or less paranoid, and when paranoia hits, it affects anyone who might be one of the enemy and be gaining too much influence: writers, preachers, teachers, scientists, politicians, actors, musicians, etc.... As others have said, the 20th century like any century went through a number of cycles. The imagined or real "enemy" changed, the technology changed, the desire for spying changed as society became more or less worried... But I can't really see a trend unique to the whole 20th century that was also very unlike the times before or after.
Maybe you are right. Maybe the 20th century was no different than any other. Maybe the writer has no special place, maybe the writer is like any other person whose views happen to be opposite to the status quo whatever that may be.
But once you start looking at files and analyse them, and at first they might look very boring with nothing much in them, once a “logic” seems to emerge of the agencies and those doing the watching, (and again I do not speak of american only), it seems that they think, that a writer is a special category of interest. That what he writes can affect many people. That words have power... Not only that. That words are survivors... That a writer and his words of “opposition” might survive, outlive them, continue to exist after they are dead and gone, ultimately win... Antigone remains one of the first plays to be forbidden during a military regime... I can't remember exactly but a couple of years ago, Berlusconi in Italy, which is a democracy, banned an Aristophanes production because he felt threatened by it, which caused a big furor then... etc.
My intent in this post:
I do not wish to "blame" any one single time period and country and say these are the good and these are the bad guys. I am trying to understand something regarding the writer's condition and special place if there is one.
The poet Mayakovski said in a writer's meeting: fellow writers, our fate is tragic...
For me working in my book and coming upon this material has been life changing. I wondered what the experiences lived and the methods employed in the past century, whose children most of us are, might mean for us and the Writer today, at a time where the issues are again great, there is certainly a large degree of paranoia going around, not always unjustly, the violation of constitutional rights happens not only in nasty regimes but inside democracies and at the same time, the progress of surveillance methods makes the ones of the 20th century look like jokes...
I was hoping to be enlightened with other examples of writers being watched some of you might have come across from all times and places. I thought it was a good project here in AW to come to know such stories of writers through time and space.
I hope I have expressed myself better, answered some of your questions and not offended anyone of the contributing posts which is not intended.
To be continued...
Cassandra
