Jason Boog

2yr

Posted about a book

Labor Day is for writers too

Every Labor Day, I like to remember writers as we celebrate the accomplishments of American workers. Last year at this time, screenwriters were striking in Los Angeles, winning some important changes to their contracts. Throughout history, literary activists have changed the way we treat authors, screenwriters, poets, and other creators. When I wrote my book about writers during the 1930s, I realized that we’ve been fed a very old myth that authors are meant to suffer. At the height of the Great Depression, syndicated newspaper columnist Elise Robinson wrote: “No writer is worth shucks until he can take and has taken punishment ... He’s supposed to go hungry and ragged and cold, to drudge at chores he loathes, to suffer endless humiliation and rejection doing the thing he loves … It MAKES a writer, and weeds out the POSEURS.” That’s a dangerous lie. Authors, screenwriters, and journalists deserve a paycheck to support themselves and their families, and authors are workers too. I’ve collected a few books about other moments in history when writers banded together to fight for a living wage. This Labor Day weekend, let’s remember how authors have fought for their rights as workers ever since the Great Depression.