author
Charles Allan Madison
1895–1985
An editor-turned-author with a long view of American ideas, labor, and publishing, he wrote accessibly about public figures and literary culture. His work also helped bring Yiddish literature to wider English-speaking readers.
1 Audiobook
Emma Goldman: Biographical Sketch
by Charles Allan Madison
About the author
Born in Kiev in 1895, he came to the United States with his family in 1906 and grew up in Detroit. After studying at the University of Michigan, he earned an MA in comparative literature from Harvard in 1922.
He then built a long career in publishing, first at American Book Company and then at Henry Holt and Company, where he worked for decades before retiring in 1962. Alongside his editorial work, he wrote books on labor leaders, liberal and progressive politics, publishing history, and Jewish subjects.
Among his best-known books are American Labor Leaders, Book Publishing in America, and Yiddish Literature: Its Scope and Major Writers. That range gives a good sense of his appeal: he was interested not just in books themselves, but in the people, movements, and traditions that shaped modern cultural life.