John Wesley Conroy was a leftist American writer, known as a worker-writer.
14 Facts About Jack Conroy
1.
2.
Jack Conroy was best known for his contributions to proletarian literature: fiction and nonfiction about the life of American workers during the early decades of the 20th century.
3.
From 1931 to 1941 Jack Conroy edited successively the magazines Rebel Poet, The Anvil, and The New Anvil.
4.
Jack Conroy included works by Erskine Caldwell, Langston Hughes, and William Carlos Williams, among others.
5.
Jack Conroy later edited, with Curt Johnson, a collection of these pieces, Writers in Revolt: The Anvil Anthology.
6.
Jack Conroy contributed to the New Masses magazine as writer and contributing editor; often, his work was reviewed in that magazine, too.
7.
In 1938 Jack Conroy came to Chicago, on Algren's suggestions, to work on the Illinois Writers' Project.
8.
In 1965, Jack Conroy moved from Chicago back to Moberly, Missouri, where he lived until his death.
9.
Jack Conroy continued to write into his 80s, publishing The Weed King and Other Stories in 1985.
10.
Jack Conroy died February 28,1990, in Moberly, Missouri, and was buried in Sugar Creek Cemetery.
11.
Jack Conroy has been credited with introducing the worker-writer in literature.
12.
Jack Conroy worked for 23 years as an editor of an encyclopedia sold through Sears stores and as a book reviewer for the Chicago Sun and the Daily Defender.
13.
Jack Conroy's works enjoyed more popularity in the Soviet Union: a Russian translation of The Disinherited appeared in 1935 and was warmly greeted by Soviet magazines, and in 1990 Soviet sources offered the opinion that Conroy's novels truly describe the reality of working-class America.
14.
Jack Conroy wrote a number of books with Arna Bontemps, including:.