Word: reid
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...what other people have to say; then, at a remove, you write about it." Although this approach combines elements of history, sociology, and even of fiction, its main ingredient is personal involvement. "It is a very good occupation for the right hand, assuming poetry is written with the left," Reid interjected with characteristic good humor...
Because events in Spain have taken a new turn, it is very likely that Reid's right hand will soon be busier than ever. Since last spring's sweeping strikes in the mines of the north, the activities of the anti-Franquistas has increased markedly. The success of those work stoppages acted like adrenalin on the groups opposing the regime, which had passed a number of years in a wilderness of frustrated possibilities. Representing all conceivable shades of the political spectrum, they have once again begun to consider practical programs aimed at the overthrow or attenuation of the Franco government...
...strikes in Asturias made an enormous difference in the mentality of the obrero and the intellectual," Reid said. "They gave the workers a sense of consequence and led the intellectuals to see that no amount of theorizing would replace the economic realities." What seemed remarkable to everyone, he added, was that the strikes were spontaneous, that they sprang from the immediate misery of the workers, rather than from any preconceived plan of action...
...Reid admits that it was a cursory turning of life which bound him up with the Iberian peninsula. He spent his childhood and youth on Arran, an island off the western coast of Scotland. After World War II years in the East Indies, where he served "in what we call the Royal Navy," he returned to Scotland and entered the University of St. Andrew's. Then, after a number of years in France, he came to the United States, where he taught "off and on" at Sarah Lawrence. He first went to Spain in 1952, primarily to find...
Apart from his New Yorker articles, which, together with additions, will soon be published in book form, Reid has published four volumes of verse. He is presently at work on a novel; but this he declined to discuss, with a chuckle and an admonition that such was "bad luck...