Frederic Ewen Papers

Frederic Ewen (1899-1988) was an author, educator, and champion of the individual's right to self-expression and intellectual freedom. A popular lecturer at Brooklyn College, where he was Professor of English Literature, he dedicated his final book to his former students, who for him had made "teaching a privilege and learning a joy." Dr. Ewen's commitment to freedom of thought, as well as his political activism during the 1930s, led to his becoming a victim of the academic witch hunts of McCarthy Era, and his forced resignation from Brooklyn College in 1952.

Frederic Ewen was born on October 11th, 1899 in Lemberg, Austria, the son of Isaac and Helen (Kramer) Ewen. He was brought by his family to the United States in 1912 and became a naturalized citizen that same year. Ewen grew up in Brooklyn and then attended City College, where he graduated in 1921. He then entered Columbia University, where he received his M.A. in 1925 and his Ph.D. in English and Comparative Literature in 1932. While studying at City College, he began his career as a teacher, with an appointment as an instructor of English in 1923. In 1930 he became assistant professor of English at Brooklyn College.

In addition to his teaching, Dr. Ewen was a noted author. His first book, The Prestige of Schiller in England, was published by the Columbia University Press in 1932. His Bibliography of Eighteenth-Century English Literature was issued by the same publisher in 1935. With his brother David Ewen, he wrote Musical Vienna, published by Whittlesey House in 1939. The Poetry and Prose of Heinrich Heine, by Citadel, followed in 1948.

Within a few years after he joined Brooklyn College's faculty, Dr. Ewen became involved in the two strong political currents of the day, speaking out against the rise of fascism in Europe and against the inequality of suffering during the Great Depression. He became an active member of the Teachers Union, which organized faculty in all the city colleges and sought to end discrimination on city campuses. He was also active in the campaign to support the Spanish Republicans during the Spanish Civil War.

In 1940 the New York State Legislature's Joint Committee to Investigate Procedure and Methods of Allocating State Moneys for Public School Purposes and Subversive Activities, known as the Rapp-Coudert Committee, began to investigate allegations of subversive activities in the City's public schools and colleges. Along with seven other teachers from Brooklyn College, Dr. Ewen refused to testify publicly before the panel; in private testimony he called the investigation an "attack on the things that the system stands for and had fought in the last 20 years to obtain." Although Dr. Ewen and the Brooklyn College professors were spared the fate suffered by their colleagues at City College who were investigated by the committee--and dismissed by their school--Dr. Ewen and the other progressive teachers at Brooklyn could not escape a renewed assault during the McCarthy Era. After refusing to cooperate with the McCarran Committee in 1952, Dr. Ewen accepted early retirement and a small pension rather than be fired from Brooklyn College. The loss of his teaching position at the early age of 53 was a bitter blow, as he had dedicated his life to his students.

He married Miriam Gideon, a composer and an adjunct professor at Brooklyn College, in 1949. She lost her Brooklyn position in 1954. Frederick Ewen began to organize lectures and readings in union halls, theaters, and other venues. Gathering a team of blacklisted actors who were also in need of work, among them Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, and John Randolph, Ewen lectured on literature and drama, and the actors would read excerpts from selected works. With Phoebe Brand and John Randolph, Ewen adapted James Joyce's novel, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, which was then produced off-Broadway at the Martinique Theater from 1962-1963. Other adaptations with Brand and Randolph include Thomas Mann's "Magic Mountain," produced at Brandeis University in 1967. Television adaptations by Dr. Ewen include "Two Jewish Stories" in 1966, the "Unknown Chekhov" in 1967, and Chekhov's "Ward Number 6" in 1968, all for CBS.

In 1967, Citadel Press published Dr. Ewen's very highly regarded Bertolt Brecht: His Life, His Art, and His Times. He then began to work on his most ambitious project, a three-volume review of the literature and politics of the mid-nineteenth century entitled A Half-Century of Greatness, the first volume, Heroic Imagination: The Creative Genius of Europe from Waterloo to the Revolution of 1848, was published by Citadel in 1984. In October of 1988, Citadel published The Collected Short Stories of Maxim Gorky, which featured an introduction by Dr. Ewen. Shortly before the Gorky book was released, Brooklyn College formally apologized to Dr. Ewen and the other professors dismissed by the college during the McCarthy Era, and in 1988 a lecture series was established at Brooklyn College bearing his name. Frederic Ewen died on October 18, 1988 in Manhattan.

Frederic Ewen Bibliography:

Bertolt Brecht : His Life, His Art, and His Times. New York : Citadel Press, 1967. 573 pp.Bibliography of Eighteenth-Century English Literature. New York: Columbia University Press, 1935. 28 pp.Heroic Imagination : the Creative Genius of Europe from Waterloo (1815) to the Revolution of 1848. Secaucus, NJ: Citadel Press, 1984. 742 pp.Musical Vienna. London: Whittlesey House, 1939. 321 pp.The Prestige of Schiller in England, 1788-1859. New York: Columbia University Press, 1932. [and New York: AMS Press, 1973]. 287 pp.The Poetry and Prose of Heinrich Heine, selected and edited with an introduction by Frederic Ewen. New York: Citadel Press: 1948. 874 pp.