The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers

Corliss Lamont (1902-1995)

Philosopher, poet, and author, Corliss Lamont chaired the National Council of Soviet Friendship following World War II. Educated at Harvard and Columbia, Lamont took a keen interest in the political history of the Soviet Union and, consequently, became a prime target of Joseph McCarthy's supporters in the early 1950s who were convinced that his sympathy for state-sponsored socialism made him dangerously "un-American." Lamont helped focus anti-leftist agitation against members of the academic elite, becoming a popular target for those who believed that American universities were a breeding ground for subversive politics. An ardent champion of civil liberties, he believed that McCarthy's crusade against left-wing liberals represented a dangerous attempt to regulate speech. He served as the director of the American Civil Liberties Union and as chairman of the National Emergency Civil Liberties Committee, eventually winning the Gandhi Peace Award in 1981 for his work. He died in 1995 at his home in New York.

Sources: Anna Rothe, ed., Current Biography: Who's News and Why, 1946 (New York: The H. W. Wilson Company, 1947), pp. 320-321; "Obituary: Corliss Lamont." University of Waterloo. Internet on-line. Available From http://www.math.uwaterloo.ca/~kerrlaws/Santayana/Bulletin/s7_95.htm.

Published by the Model Editions Partnership

Recommended citation: Eleanor Roosevelt, John Kennedy, and the Election of 1960: A Project of The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, ed. by Allida Black, June Hopkins, John Sears, Christopher Alhambra, Mary Jo Binker, Christopher Brick, John S. Emrich, Eugenia Gusev, Kristen E. Gwinn, and Bryan D. Peery (Columbia, S.C.: Model Editions Partnership, 2003). Electronic version based on unpublished letters. .

For more information, visit The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers home page at https://erpapers.columbian.gwu.edu/.

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