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Meridel Le Sueur (February 22, 1900, Murray, Iowa – November 14, 1996, Hudson, Wisconsin) was an American writer associated with the proletarian movement of the 1930s and 1940s. Born as Meridel Wharton, she assumed the name of her mother's second husband, Arthur Le Sueur, the former Socialist mayor of Minot, North Dakota. ==Life and career== Le Sueur, the daughter of William Winston Wharton and Marian "Mary Del" Lucy, was born into a family of social and political activists. Her grandfather was a supporter of the Protestant fundamentalist temperance movement, and she "grew up among the radical farmer and labor groups ... like the Populists, the Farmers' Alliance and the Wobblies, the Industrial Workers of the World." Le Sueur was heavily influenced by poems and stories that she heard from Native American women. "After a year studying dance and physical fitness at the American College of Physical Education in Chicago, Illinois, Meridel moved to New York City, where she lived in an anarchist commune with Emma Goldman and studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts." She dropped out of high school and attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She worked in Hollywood as an extra in The Perils of Pauline and Last of the Mohicans, as a stuntwoman in silent movies, and as a writer and journalist.〔 Starting in her late teens, she wrote for liberal newspapers about unemployment, migrant workers, and the Native American fight for autonomy. By 1925, she had become a member of the Communist Party. Like other writers of the period such as John Steinbeck, Nelson Algren, and Jack Conroy, Le Sueur wrote about the struggles of the working class during the Great Depression. She published articles in the ''New Masses'' and ''The American Mercury.'' Her best known books are ''North Star Country'' (1945), a people’s history of Minnesota, and the novel ''The Girl'', which was written in the 1930s but not published until 1978. In the 1950s, Le Sueur was blacklisted as a communist, but her reputation was revived in the 1970s, when she was hailed as a proto-feminist for her writings in support of women’s rights.〔 She also wrote on Goddess spirituality in a poetry volume titled ''Rites of Ancient Ripening,'' which was illustrated by her daughter. During the 1960s, she traveled around the country, attending campus protests and conducting interviews.〔( Meridel Le Sueur archive finding aid ), Minnesota Historical Society〕 An occasional actor in films, in her later years Le Sueur lived in St. Paul, MN, and wrote popular children’s biographies, including ''Nancy Hanks of Wilderness Road'', ''The Story of Davy Crockett'', and ''The Story of Johnny Appleseed''. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Meridel Le Sueur」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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