Editing Irving Howe

{{Short description|American writer, literary and social critic and socialist activist}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2024}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
| name = Irving Howe
| image = Irving Howe (1968).png
| imagesize = 200px
| caption = Howe during his year as writer in residence at [[University of Michigan]], 1967-1968
| birth_name = Irving Horenstein
| birth_date = {{birth date|1920|6|11}}
| birth_place = New York City, U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|1993|5|5|1920|6|11}}
| death_place = New York City, U.S.
| occupation = Writer, public intellectual
| alma_mater = [[City College of New York]]
| notable_works = ''[[World of Our Fathers]]'' (1976)
| genre =
| spouse = {{ubl|{{marriage|Anna Bader|end = divorced}}|{{marriage|Thalia Phillies|end = divorced}}|{{marriage|Arien Mack|end = divorced}}|Ilana Wiener}}
| children = 2, including [[Nicholas Howe|Nicholas]]
| subject =
}}

'''Irving Howe''' (né '''Horenstein'''; {{IPAc-en|h|aʊ}}; June 11, 1920 &ndash; May 5, 1993) was an American author, literary and social critic, and a key figure in the [[Democratic socialism|democratic socialist]] movement in the U.S. He co-founded and served as longtime editor of ''[[Dissent (American magazine)|Dissent]]'' magazine. In 1976, he wrote the [[National Book Award]]-winning ''[[World of Our Fathers]]'', a history of East European Jews who immigrated to America. 

==Early life and career==
Howe was born '''Irving Horenstein''' in [[The Bronx]], [[New York City|New York]] in 1920. He was the son of [[Bessarabian Jews|Jewish]] immigrants from [[Bessarabia]], Nettie (née Goldman) and David Horenstein, who ran a small grocery store that went out of business during the [[Great Depression]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Politics and the Intellectual: Conversations with Irving Howe |editor-last1=Rodden |editor-first1=John |editor-last2=Goffman |editor-first2=Ethan |location=West Lafayette, IN |publisher=Purdue University Press |isbn=1557535515 |page=xv |chapter=Chronology |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DCwaO17isQMC&dq=Irving+Howe+Horenstein&pg=PR15 |year=2010}}</ref> Irving's father became a peddler and eventually a presser in a dress factory. His mother was an operator in the dress trade.<ref name=NYT/><ref>{{cite book |last=Howe |first=Irving |title=A Margin of Hope: An Intellectual Autobiography |publisher=Harcourt Brace Jovanovich |year=1982 |page=7 |isbn=0151571384}} Re: the family store's bankruptcy in 1930 when he was ten, Howe later wrote: "We were dropping from the lower middle class to the proletarian—the most painful of all social descents. This unsettled my sense of things: I was driven inward, toward book and dream."</ref>

Irving attended [[DeWitt Clinton High School]] in northwest Bronx, where he was already a left-wing activist.{{sfn|Howe|1982|pp=28–29}} He then matriculated to [[City College of New York]] (CCNY) in 1936.{{sfn|Rodden|Goffman|2010|p=xv}} He graduated alongside [[Daniel Bell]] and [[Irving Kristol]] in 1940.<ref name=NYT/> By summer of that year, he had changed his surname from Horenstein to Howe for political (as distinct from official) purposes.<ref>Edward Alexander, ''Irving Howe - Socialist, Critic, Jew'' ([[Indiana University Press]], 1998; {{ISBN|0253113210}}), p. 10.</ref> While in college, he was constantly debating socialism, Stalinism, fascism, and the meaning of Judaism.

During [[World War II]], Howe served four years in the U.S. Army, stationed mostly at [[Fort Richardson (Alaska)|Fort Richardson]] near [[Anchorage, Alaska]].{{sfn|Howe|1982|p=91}} Upon his return to New York, he began writing literary and cultural criticism for ''[[Partisan Review]]'' and was a frequent essayist for ''[[Commentary (magazine)|Commentary]]'', ''[[Politics (magazine 1944-1949)|Politics]]'', ''[[The Nation]]'', ''[[The New Republic]]'', and ''[[The New York Review of Books]]''.{{sfn|Howe|1982|pp=113–122}} He then worked for several years as one of the resident book reviewers for ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine.{{sfn|Howe|1982|pp=123–127}} In 1954, he co-founded the intellectual quarterly ''[[Dissent (American magazine)|Dissent]]'', which he edited until his death.<ref name=NYT/> In the 1950s, Howe taught English and [[Yiddish]] literature at [[Brandeis University]]. His anthology ''A Treasury of Yiddish Stories'' (1954), co-edited with Eliezer Greenberg, became a standard text in college courses.<ref name = Wisse/> Howe's research and translations of Yiddish literature occurred at a time when few were appreciating or spreading knowledge about it in American universities.

==Political activist==
Since his high school and CCNY days, Howe was committed to [[left-wing politics]]. A professed [[democratic socialism|democratic socialist]] throughout his life, he was a member of the [[Young People's Socialist League (1907)|Young People's Socialist League]] (YPSL), joining it in the 1930s when it was under the influence of the [[Trotskyist]] [[Socialist Workers Party (United States)|Socialist Workers Party]].{{sfn|Howe|1982|pp=33–34}} He remained with YPSL in 1940 when it became the youth organization of [[Max Shachtman]]'s [[Workers Party (US)|Workers Party]], where Howe served in a leading capacity and for a while edited its paper, ''Labor Action''. He continued his activist role in the Workers Party when it morphed into the [[Independent Socialist League]] in 1949.{{sfn|Howe|1982|pp=80–87}} He left the organization in 1952, deeming it too [[Sectarianism#Political sectarianism|sectarian]].<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Cohen |first=Mitchell |title=Irving Howe: A Socialist Life |url=https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/irving-howe-a-socialist-life/ |date=Fall 2020 |magazine=[[Dissent (American magazine)|Dissent]]}}</ref>

At the request of his friend [[Michael Harrington]], Howe helped form the [[Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee]] (DSOC) in the early 1970s and served on its national board. After DSOC merged into the [[Democratic Socialists of America]] (DSA) in 1982, Howe became an Honorary Chair of the DSA.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=DSA Convention Report 1989 |last=Kleniewski |first=Nancy |magazine=Democratic Left |volume=18 |number=1 |date=January 1990 |pages=8–9 |url=https://dlarchive.dsausa.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/DL_1990_V018_01_final.pdf}}</ref>

He was a vociferous opponent of both Soviet [[totalitarianism]] and [[McCarthyism]]. He called into question [[orthodox Marxism|standard Marxist doctrine]], and came into conflict with the [[New Left]] after he criticized their brand of radicalism.<ref name=NYT/> In later years, his socialist politics gravitated towards a more pragmatic approach to [[foreign policy]], a position he espoused in the pages of ''[[Dissent (American magazine)|Dissent]]'' magazine.

He had a few famous run-ins with people on political matters. In 1969 while at [[Stanford University]], he was verbally attacked by a group of young [[Students for a Democratic Society|SDS]] radicals, who claimed that Howe was no longer committed to the revolution and had become ''status quo''. Howe turned to the leader of the group and said, "You know what you're going to end up as? You're going to end up as a ''dentist''!"<ref name=NYT/>{{sfn|Howe|1982|p=306}}

==Author, editor, translator==
Known for [[literary criticism]] as well as for his [[Social activism|social]] and [[political activism]], Howe wrote critical biographies of [[Thomas Hardy]], [[William Faulkner]], and [[Sherwood Anderson]]; a book-length examination of the relation of politics to fiction; and theoretical essays on Modernism, the nature of fiction, and [[Social Darwinism]]. He was among the first to reevaluate the works of [[Edwin Arlington Robinson]] and to help establish Robinson's reputation as a great 20th century poet.

Howe authored numerous books including ''Decline of the New'', ''[[World of Our Fathers]]'', ''Politics and the Novel'', and his autobiography, ''A Margin of Hope''. He also wrote a biography of [[Leon Trotsky]], who was one of his childhood heroes. Howe's writing often expressed his disapproval of [[Capitalism|capitalist America]].

His exhaustive multidisciplinary history of the Jewish immigrant experience, ''[[World of Our Fathers]]'' (1976), is considered a classic of [[social analysis]] and general scholarship. The book examines the dynamic of [[Eastern European Jewry|Eastern European Jews]] and the culture they created in New York. It explores the once-thriving Jewish socialism of the [[Lower East Side]]—the intellectual milieu from which Howe emerged.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Hanson |first=Matt A. |title=Irving Howe's Socialist Reflections on Jewish Life in the US |magazine=[[Jacobin (magazine)|Jacobin]] |date=6 January 2025 |url=https://jacobin.com/2025/01/irving-howe-jewish-culture-socialism}}</ref> ''World of Our Fathers'' reached #1 on [[The New York Times]] bestseller list for non-fiction in April 1976.<ref>{{cite web |publisher=Hawes Publications |url=https://www.hawes.com/1976/1976-04-18.pdf |title=The New York Times Best Seller List – April 18, 1976 - Non-Fiction}}</ref> The following year it won the [[National Book Award]] [[List of winners of the National Book Award#History|in History]],<ref name=nba1977>[https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-1977 "National Book Awards – 1977"]. National Book Foundation. Retrieved March 17, 2012.</ref> the [[Francis Parkman Prize]], and the [[National Jewish Book Award]] in the History category.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Past Winners |publisher=Jewish Book Council |url=https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/awards/national-jewish-book-awards/past-winners?category=30765 |language=en |access-date=July 1, 2022}}</ref>

Howe edited and translated many [[Yiddish]] stories and commissioned the first English translation of [[Isaac Bashevis Singer]] for ''[[Partisan Review]]''.<ref name="NYT" /> In his assessments of Jewish-American novelists, Howe was critical of [[Philip Roth]]'s early works, ''[[Goodbye, Columbus|Goodbye Columbus]]'' and ''[[Portnoy's Complaint]]'', as philistine and vulgar caricatures of Jewish life that pandered to the worst [[anti-Semitic stereotypes]].

In 1987, Howe was a recipient of a [[MacArthur Fellowship]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.macfound.org/fellows/class-of-1987/irving-howe |title=Irving Howe - Literary and Social Critic - Class of 1987 |publisher=MacArthur Foundation |date=1 January 2005}}</ref>

==Personal life and death==
After marriages to Anna Bader, Thalia Phillies, and Arien Mack ended in divorce, Howe married Ilana Wiener, who co-edited the anthology ''Short Shorts'' with him. From his marriage to Phillies, a classicist, he had two children, Nina and [[Nicholas Howe|Nicholas]] (1953-2006).<ref name = Wisse>{{cite news|url = https://mosaicmagazine.com/observation/israel-zionism/2019/03/contention-or-my-disputes-with-irving-howe-yiddish-academia-and-holocaust-memorials/|title = Contention; or, My Disputes with Irving Howe, Yiddish Academia, and Holocaust Memorials|last = Wisse|first = Ruth R.|authorlink = Ruth Wisse|date = March 27, 2019|access-date = August 20, 2024|magazine = [[Mosaic (magazine)|Mosaic]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=In Memoriam: Nicholas Howe |year=2006 |url=http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/senate/inmemoriam/nicholashowe.htm|publisher=[[University of California]] |access-date=January 12, 2013 |archive-date=November 11, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111111075415/http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/senate/inmemoriam/nicholashowe.htm}}</ref><ref name = Rosenheim>{{cite news |title = Obituary: Irving Howe |url = https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-irving-howe-2321405.html|last = Rosenheim|first = Andrew|date = May 6, 1993 |access-date = August 20, 2024 |newspaper = [[The Independent]]}}</ref>

Howe died from [[cardiovascular disease]] at [[Mount Sinai Hospital (Manhattan)|Mount Sinai Hospital]] in [[Manhattan]] on May 5, 1993, at the age of 72.<ref name=NYT>
Bernstein, Richard (May 6, 1993). [https://www.nytimes.com/1993/05/06/obituaries/irving-howe-72-critic-editor-and-socialist-dies.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm "Irving Howe, 72, Critic, Editor and Socialist, Dies"]. Page D22. ''The New York Times''. Retrieved January 27, 2012.</ref>

==Legacy==
Howe had strong political views that he would ferociously defend. [[Morris Dickstein]], a professor at Queens College, referred to him as a "counterpuncher who tended to dissent from the prevailing orthodoxy of the moment, whether left or right, though he himself was certainly a man of the left."<ref name=NYT/>

[[Leon Wieseltier]], literary editor of ''The New Republic'', said of Howe: "He lived in three worlds, literary, political and Jewish, and he watched all of them change almost beyond recognition."<ref name=NYT/>

American philosopher [[Richard Rorty]] dedicated ''[[Achieving Our Country]]'' (1998)—a book about the development of 20th century American leftist thought—to Irving Howe's memory.

Howe appeared as himself in [[Woody Allen]]'s [[mockumentary]] ''[[Zelig]]'' (1983).

==Works==

===Books===
'''Authored'''
*[https://archive.org/details/SmashTheProfiteers ''Smash the Profiteers: Vote for Security and a Living Wage'']. New York: Workers Party Campaign Committee, 1946.
*[https://archive.org/details/DontPayMoreRent ''Don't Pay More Rent!''] Long Island City, NY: Workers Party Publications, 1947. Printed for the [[Workers Party of the United States]].
*[https://archive.org/details/uawwalterreuther00howe ''The UAW and Walter Reuther'']. Co-authored with [[B. J. Widick]]. New York: [[Random House]], 1949.
*[https://archive.org/details/sherwoodanderson00howe ''Sherwood Anderson'']. New York: [[William Milligan Sloane III|Sloane]], 1951.
*[https://archive.org/details/williamfaulknerc0000howe ''William Faulkner: A Critical Study'']. New York: [[Random House]], 1952.
*''[https://archive.org/details/cpusahowecoser The American Communist Party: A Critical History, 1919-1957]''. Co-authored with [[Lewis Coser]], with the assistance of [[Julius Jacobson]]. Boston: [[Beacon Press]], 1957.
*[https://archive.org/details/politicsnovel00howe/ ''Politics and the Novel'']. New York: Horizon Press, 1957.
*''The Jewish Labor Movement in America: Two Views''. Co-authored with Israel Knox. New York: [[Jewish Labor Committee]], 1957.
*[https://archive.org/details/edithwhartoncoll00howe ''Edith Wharton: A Collection of Critical Essays'']. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: [[Prentice-Hall]], 1962.
*''T. E. Lawrence: The Problem of Heroism''. [[The Hudson Review]], Vol. 15, No. 3, 1962.
*[https://archive.org/download/worldmoreattract00howe/worldmoreattract00howe.pdf ''A World More Attractive: A View of Modern Literature and Politics'']. New York: Horizon Press, 1963.
*''Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio''. Washington, D.C.: [[Voice of America]], 1964. American Novel Series #14
*''New Styles in "Leftism"''. New York: [[League for Industrial Democracy]], 1965.
*''On the Nature of Communism and Relations with Communists''. New York: [[League for Industrial Democracy]], 1966.
*[https://archive.org/details/steadyworkessays00howe ''Steady Work: Essays in the Politics of Democratic Radicalism, 1953-1966'']. New York: [[Harcourt, Brace & World]], 1966.
*[https://archive.org/details/thomashardy00howe ''Thomas Hardy'']. New York: [[Macmillan Publishers|Macmillan]], 1967.
*''The Idea of the Modern in Literature and the Arts''. New York: Horizon Press, 1967.
*''Literary Modernism''. Greenwich, CT: [[Fawcett Publications]], 1967.
*''Student Activism''. Indianapolis: [[Bobbs-Merrill]], 1967.
* [https://archive.org/details/declineofnew0000howe_r3o6 ''Decline of the New'']. New York: [[Harcourt, Brace & World]], 1970.
*[https://archive.org/details/literatureofamer00how_sb8 ''The Literature of America'']. Co-authored with [[Mark Schorer]] & Larzer Ziff. New York: [[McGraw-Hill]], 1971. {{ISBN|9780070305717}}
*[https://archive.org/details/criticalpointonl00howe ''The Critical Point: On Literature and Culture'']. New York: Horizon Press, 1973.
*[https://archive.org/details/worldofourfather00irvi ''World of Our Fathers: The Journey of the East European Jews to America and the Life They Found and Made'']. New York: [[Harcourt Brace Jovanovich]], 1976.
*''New Perspectives: The Diaspora and Israel''. Co-authored with Matityahu Peled. New York: [[Harcourt Brace Jovanovich]], 1976
* [https://archive.org/details/leontrotsky00howe ''Trotsky'']. London: [[Fontana Modern Masters]], 1978.
*[https://archive.org/details/leontrotsky00howe ''Leon Trotsky'']. New York: [[Viking Press]], 1978
*[https://archive.org/details/celebrationsatta00howe ''Celebrations and Attacks: Thirty Years of Literary and Cultural Commentary'']. New York: Horizon Press, 1979. {{ISBN|0818011769}}
*''The Threat of Conservatism''. Co-authored with [[Gus Tyler]] & [[Peter Steinfels]]. New York: Foundation for the Study of Independent Social Ideas, 1980.
*''The Making of a Critic'', Bennington, VT: [[Bennington College]], 1982. [[Ben Belitt]] lectureship series, #5.
*[https://archive.org/details/marginofhopeint00howe ''A Margin of Hope: An Intellectual Autobiography'']. [[Harcourt Brace Jovanovich]], 1982. {{ISBN|0151571384}}
*[https://archive.org/details/socialismamerica00howerich ''Socialism and America'']. San Diego: [[Harcourt Brace Jovanovich]], 1985. {{ISBN|0151835756}}
*[https://archive.org/details/americannewnessc00howe ''The American Newness: Culture and Politics in the Age of Emerson'']. Cambridge, MA: [[Harvard University Press]], 1986. {{ISBN|0674026403}}
*''American Jews and Liberalism''. Co-authored with [[Michael Walzer]], [[Leonard Fein]] & [[Mitchell Cohen]]. New York: Foundation for the Study of Independent Social Ideas, 1986.
*''The Return of Terrorism''. Bronx, NY: [[Lehman College]] of the [[City University of New York]], 1989. [[Herbert H. Lehman]] memorial lecture, [[Lehman College]] publications, #22.
*''Selected Writings, 1950-1990'' San Diego: [[Harcourt Brace]], 1990.
*[https://archive.org/details/criticsnotebook00howe ''A Critic's Notebook'']. Edited and introduced by [[Nicholas Howe]]. New York: [[Harcourt Brace]], 1994.
*"The End of Jewish Secularism". New York: [[Hunter College]] of the [[City University of New York]], 1995. A lecture by Howe that became the first in a Hunter College series entitled [https://search.worldcat.org/title/32259005 Occasional Papers in Jewish History and Thought].<ref>{{cite web |title=Occasional Papers in Jewish History and Thought 1994-2007 - Finding Aid |url=https://library.hunter.cuny.edu/sites/default/files/documents/archives/finding_aids/Jewish%20Social%20Studies%20Program%20of%20Hunter%20College%2C%201994-2007.pdf |date=June 2013 |editor-last=Sherby |editor-first=Dr. Louise S. |publisher=The Jewish Social Studies Program of Hunter College}}</ref>

'''Edited'''
*[[George Gissing|Gissing, George]]. ''[[New Grub Street]]''. Boston: [[Houghton Mifflin]], 1962.
*[https://archive.org/details/povertyviewsfrom0000larn ''Poverty: Views from the Left''], co-edited with [[Jeremy Larner]]. New York: Apollo, 1962.
*[https://archive.org/details/basicwritings0000trot/ ''The Basic Writings of Trotsky'']. New York: [[Random House]], 1963.
*''The Radical Papers''. New York: [[Doubleday (publisher)|Doubleday]], 1966.
*''Shoptalk: An Instructor's Manual for Classics of Modern Fiction: Eight Short Novels''. New York: [[Harcourt, Brace & World]], 1968.
*[https://archive.org/details/beyondnewleft0000howe_u0x1 ''Beyond the New Left'']. New York: [[McCall Corporation|McCall Publishing Co.]], 1970. {{ISBN|0841500215}}
*[https://archive.org/details/newconservatives00lewi ''The New Conservatives: A Critique From the Left''], co-edited with [[Lewis A. Coser]]. New York: [[Quadrangle/The New York Times Book Company|Quadrangle/The New York Times Book Co.]], 1974. {{ISBN|0812904184}}
*[https://archive.org/details/yiddishstoriesol0000howe ''Yiddish Stories: Old and New''], co-edited with Eliezer Greenberg. New York: [[Avon Books]], 1977. {{ISBN|978-0380008872}}
*[https://archive.org/details/bestofsholemalei00shol ''The Best of Sholem Aleichem''], co-edited with [[Ruth Wisse|Ruth R. Wisse]]. Washington: [[The New Republic|New Republic Books]], 1979. {{ISBN|0915220482}}
*[https://archive.org/details/howweliveddocume00howe ''How We Lived: A Documentary History of Immigrant Jews in America, 1880-1930''], co-edited with [[Kenneth Libo]]. New York: R. Marek, 1979.
*[https://archive.org/details/portablekipling00kipl_0 ''The Portable Kipling'']. New York: [[Viking Press]], 1982.
*[https://archive.org/details/beyondwelfaresta00howe ''Beyond the Welfare State'']. New York: [[Schocken Books]], 1982.
*[https://archive.org/details/shortshort00irvi ''Short Shorts: An Anthology of the Shortest Stories''], co-edited with Ilana Wiener Howe. Boston, MA: D.R. Godine, 1982.
*[https://archive.org/details/1984revisitedtot00howe/ ''1984 Revisited: Totalitarianism in Our Century'']. New York: [[Harper & Row]], 1983. {{ISBN|0060151587}}

'''Contributed'''
*"Introduction". ''[[New Grub Street]]'', by [[George Gissing]]. Boston: [[Houghton Mifflin]], 1962.
*[https://archive.org/download/notesonthewelfarestatebyirvinghowe/Notes%20on%20the%20Welfare%20State%2C%20by%20Irving%20Howe.pdf "Notes on the Welfare State".] [https://archive.org/details/povertyviewsfrom0000larn ''Poverty: Views from the Left''], co-edited with [[Jeremy Larner]]. New York: Apollo, 1962, pp.&nbsp;293–314.
*"Introduction". [https://archive.org/details/basicwritings0000trot/ ''The Basic Writings of Trotsky''], edited by Irving Howe. New York: [[Random House]], 1963.
*[https://archive.org/download/afterword.anamericantragedybytheodoredreiser/Afterword.%20An%20American%20Tragedy%2C%20by%20Theodore%20Dreiser.pdf "Afterword".] [https://archive.org/details/americantragedy00theo/ ''An American Tragedy''], by [[Theodore Dreiser]]. New York: [[Signet Classic]], 1964.
*[https://archive.org/download/areamericanjewsturningtowardtherightbybernardrosenbergirvinghowe/Are%20American%20Jews%20Turning%20Toward%20the%20Right%3F%2C%20by%20Bernard%20Rosenberg%20%26%20Irving%20Howe.pdf "Are American Jews Turning to the Right?"] [https://archive.org/details/newconservatives00lewi ''The New Conservatives: A Critique From the Left''], edited by Daniel Bell & [[Lewis A. Coser]]. New York: [[Quadrangle/The New York Times Book Company|Quadrangle/The New York Times Book Co.]], 1974. {{ISBN|0812904184}}
*"Introduction". [https://archive.org/details/shortshort00irvi ''Short Shorts: An Anthology of the Shortest Stories''], co-edited with Ilana Wiener Howe. Boston, MA: D.R. Godine, 1982.

'''Translated'''
* [[Leo Baeck|Baeck, Leo]]. ''The Essence of Judaism'', translated by Irving Howe and Victor Grubwieser. New York: [[Schocken Books]], 1948.

===Articles and introductions===
*''A Treasury of Yiddish Stories'', co-edited with [[Eliezer Greenberg]], New York: [[Viking Press]], 1954.
*''Modern literary criticism: An anthology'', editor, Boston: Beacon Press, 1958.
* "New York in the Thirties: Some Fragments of Memory," ''Dissent,'' vol.{{nbsp}}8, no.{{nbsp}}3 (Summer 1961), pp.&nbsp;241–250.
*''The Historical Novel'' by [[Georg Lukacs]], preface by Irving Howe, Boston: [[Beacon Press]], 1963
*''[https://archive.org/details/orwells1984 Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four: Text, Sources, Criticism]'', editor, New York: [[Harcourt, Brace and World]], 1963. (Second edition 1982)
*''The Merry-Go-Round of Love and selected stories'' by Luigi Pirandello, trans. Frances Keene and Lily Duplaix, with a foreword by Irving Howe, New York: The New American Library of World Literature, 1964.
*''[[Jude the Obscure]]'' by [[Thomas Hardy]], edited with an introduction by Irving Howe, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1965.
*''Selected writings: stories, poems and essays'' by Thomas Hardy, edited with an introduction by Irving Howe, Greenwich, Conn.: [[Fawcett Publications]], 1966.
*''Selected short stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer'', edited with an introduction by Irving Howe, New York: [[Modern Library]], 1966.
*''The Radical Imagination: An Anthology from Dissent Magazine'', editor, New York: [[New American Library]], 1967.
*''A Dissenter's Guide to Foreign Policy'', editor, New York: [[Praeger Publishers|Praeger]], 1968.
*''Classics of modern fiction; eight short novels'', editor, New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1968.
*''A Treasury of Yiddish Poetry'', co-edited with Eliezer Greenberg, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1969.
*''Essential works of socialism'', editor, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1970.
*''The Literature of America: Nineteenth Century'', editor, New York: [[McGraw-Hill]], 1970.
*''Israel, the Arabs, and the Middle East'', co-edited with [[Carl Gershman]], New York: [[Quadrangle Books]], 1970.
*''Voices from the Yiddish: Essays, Memoirs, Diaries'', co-edited with Eliezer Greenberg, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1972.
*''The Seventies: Problems and Proposals'', co-edited with [[Michael Harrington]], New York: Harper & Row, 1972.
*''The World of the Blue-Collar Worker'', editor, New York: Quadrangle Books, 1972.
*''Yiddish stories, old and new'', co-edited with Eliezer Greenberg, New York: [[Holiday House]], 1974.
*''[[Herzog (novel)|Herzog]]: Text and Criticism'' by [[Saul Bellow]], editor, New York: Viking Press, 1976.
*''Jewish-American stories'', editor, New York: New American Library, 1977.
*''Ashes Out of Hope: Fiction by Soviet-Yiddish writers'', co-edited with Eliezer Greenberg, New York: Schocken Books, 1977.
*''Literature as Experience: An Anthology'', co-edited with [[John Hollander]] and [[David Bromwich]], New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1979.
*''Twenty-five years of Dissent: An American tradition'', compiled and with an introduction by Irving Howe, New York: [[Methuen Publishing|Methuen]], 1979.
*''1984 revisited: Totalitarianism in Our Century'', editor, New York: Harper & Row, 1983.
*''Alternatives, proposals for America from the democratic left'', editor, New York: Pantheon Books, 1984.
*''We lived there, too: in their own words and pictures—pioneer Jews and the westward movement of America, 1630-1930'', editor with [[Kenneth Libo]], New York: St. Martin's/Marek, 1984.
*''The Penguin book of modern Yiddish verse'', co-edited with [[Ruth Wisse]] and [[Chone Shmeruk]], New York: Viking Press, 1987.
*''[[Oliver Twist]]'' by [[Charles Dickens]], introduction, New York: Bantam, 1990.
*''[[The Castle (novel)|The Castle]]'' by [[Franz Kafka]], introduction, London: David Campbell Publishers, 1992.
*''[[Little Dorrit]]'' by [[Charles Dickens]], introduction, London: David Campbell Publishers, 1992.

==References==
{{reflist|refs=
}}

==Further reading==
'''Articles'''
* Rodden, John. "Remembering Irving Howe". ''[[Salmagundi]]'', No. 148/149, Fall 2005, pp.&nbsp;243–257.

'''Books'''
* Alexander, Edward. ''Irving Howe: Socialist, Critic, Jew.'' Bloomington, IN: [[Indiana University Press]], 1998.
* Rodden, John, (ed.) ''Irving Howe and the Critics: Celebrations and Attacks.'' Lincoln, NE: [[University of Nebraska Press]], 2005.
* Sorin, Gerald. [https://archive.org/details/irvinghowelifeof00sori ''Irving Howe: A Life of Passionate Dissent.''] New York: [[New York University Press]], 2002.

===Primary sources===
* Cain, William. [https://archive.org/download/cainwilliamandirvinghowe.aninterviewwithirvinghowe.americanliteraryhistoryvol.1n/Cain%2C%20William%2C%20and%20Irving%20Howe.%20%22An%20Interview%20with%20Irving%20Howe.%22%20American%20Literary%20History%2C%20Vol.%201%2C%20No.%203%20%28Autumn%201989%29%20554-564%20JSTOR%20489718.pdf "An Interview with Irving Howe."] ''[[American Literary History]]'', Vol.{{nbsp}}1, No.{{nbsp}}3 (Autumn 1989): 554-564.
* Howe, Irving. ''Politics and the Intellectual: Conversations with Irving Howe''. [[Purdue University Press]], 2010. Interviews during the previous fifteen years.
* Libo, Kenneth. "My Work on ''World of Our Fathers''". ''[[American Jewish History]]'', Vol.{{nbsp}}88, No.{{nbsp}}4 (2000): 439-448. [https://muse.jhu.edu/article/596 Online]. Memoir by his research assistant.
* Rodden, John (ed.) ''Irving Howe and the Critics: Celebrations and Attacks''. [[University of Nebraska Press]], 2005. Essays and reviews written by his critics.

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
*[https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/writers/howe/index.htm Irving Howe Archive] at [[marxists.org]]
*[https://www.dissentmagazine.org/ ''Dissent''], the quarterly Howe founded and edited
*[https://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/wald-on-howe.html from ''The New York Intellectuals''] by [[Alan M. Wald]]
*[https://www.pbs.org/arguing/ ''Arguing the World''], 1998 [[Public Broadcasting Service|PBS]] documentary film featuring [[Nathan Glazer]], [[Irving Kristol]], [[Daniel Bell]], and Howe
*[https://lccn.loc.gov/n78096893 Irving Howe] at [[Library of Congress]] Authorities — with 110 catalog records

{{New York Intellectuals}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Howe, Irving}}
[[Category:1920 births]]
[[Category:1993 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American historians]]
[[Category:20th-century American male writers]]
[[Category:American Marxists]]
[[Category:American Trotskyists]]
[[Category:American communists]]
[[Category:American literary critics]]
[[Category:American male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:American people of Moldovan-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:Brandeis University faculty]]
[[Category:City College of New York alumni]]
[[Category:Historians from New York (state)]]
[[Category:Historians of anarchism]]
[[Category:Historians of communism]]
[[Category:Historians of socialism]]
[[Category:Jewish American activists]]
[[Category:Jewish American historians]]
[[Category:Jewish socialists]]
[[Category:MacArthur Fellows]]
[[Category:Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters]]
[[Category:Members of the Democratic Socialists of America from New York (state)]]
[[Category:Members of the Workers Party (United States)]]
[[Category:National Book Award winners]]
[[Category:Writers from the Bronx]]
[[Category:Writers from Manhattan]]