Tess Slesinger

Tess Slesinger. An American novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter, she was a sharp chronicler of New York City intellectual life and feminism in the early 20th century. Her work, notably her satirical novel The Unpossessed, dissected the political and personal disillusionment of the American Left during the Great Depression. Her career later shifted to Hollywood, where she contributed to significant films before her untimely death.

Life and career

Born in New York City to a prosperous Jewish family, she attended the Ethical Culture Fieldston School and later graduated from Swarthmore College. She began her literary career in the vibrant milieu of Greenwich Village, working as an editor for the left-wing magazine The New Masses and marrying journalist Herbert Solow. Her early stories were published in prestigious venues like The American Mercury and Scribner's Magazine, establishing her voice. Following the publication of her novel and story collection, she moved to Los Angeles in 1935, embarking on a successful career as a screenwriter for major studios like Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and RKO Pictures. She married screenwriter Frank Davis in 1940 and was politically active, supporting causes such as the Spanish Civil War and the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League. Her life was cut short by cancer at the age of 39.

Literary works and themes

Her primary literary output consists of the novel The Unpossessed and the collected stories Time: The Present. The Unpossessed is a thinly-veiled roman à clef that satirizes the circle of intellectuals around the Memorah Journal, including figures like Elliot Cohen and Herbert Solow, exploring their failed efforts to launch a literary magazine and their tangled personal relationships. Her short fiction, such as the acclaimed "Missis Flinders," deftly explores themes of abortion, marital strife, and the constrained roles of women, predating similar treatments by later feminist writers. Throughout her work, she employed a witty, psychologically acute prose style to critique the hypocrisies of both bohemianism and bourgeois life, the gap between political idealism and action, and the specific struggles of intelligent, modern women.

Critical reception and legacy

Upon its release, The Unpossessed received significant attention, with reviews in major publications like The New York Times and The New Republic; it was praised for its incisive satire but also criticized by some on the American Left for its perceived cynicism. For decades after her death, her work was largely overlooked, but it was rediscovered and re-evaluated during the feminist movement of the 1970s. Scholars now regard her as an important precursor to later writers like Mary McCarthy and Dorothy Parker in her dissection of intellectual circles and gender politics. Her writing is studied for its contributions to the literature of the Great Depression, the history of Jewish American literature, and early feminist literature.

Film and stage adaptations

While her own fiction was not directly adapted during her lifetime, her screenwriting career involved adapting the works of others for major films. She co-wrote the screenplay for the Katharine Hepburn vehicle The Bride Wore Red for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Her most significant and acclaimed screen credit was for the adaptation of Betty Smith's best-selling novel A Tree Grows in Brooklyn for 20th Century Fox, a film directed by Elia Kazan that was nominated for Academy Awards. Posthumously, her short story "The Answer on the Magnolia Tree" was adapted into an episode for the CBS television series Camera Three in 1956.

Category:American novelists Category:American screenwriters Category:1905 births Category:1945 deaths