Defending HUAC : Rebecca West and her American critics

When students of modern politics recall the great critics of Soviet and western communism, Rebecca West (1892–1983) is unlikely to figure in their gallery of notables. This is not because the British writer is forgotten. An International Rebecca West Society promotes her work through conferences and newsletters. Three biographies attest to her importance as an artist and critic. Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (1941), West’s Yugoslavian travelogue, bears the imprimatur of Penguin Classics. West is a digital presence too. Open Road Integrated Media makes available as ebooks all of her major novels and much of her literary criticism and early feminist polemic.