“In this book, the latest publication in the HBI Series on Jewish Women, author Carole S. Kessner brings to light the fascinating legacy of Marie Syrkin. As a polemical journalist, socialist Zionist, poet, educator, literary critic, translator, and idiosyncratic feminist, Syrkin was eyewitness to and reporter on most of the major events in America, Israel, and Europe in the twentieth-century.

Beautiful as well as brilliant, she had a rich personal life as lover, wife, mother, and friend. During her lifetime, Syrkin's name was widely recognized in the world of Jewish life and letters. Syrkin's work and actions illuminate a wide range of twentieth-century literary, cultural, and political concerns. Her passions demonstrate, as Irving Howe said, "a life of commitment to values beyond the self."

Carole S. Kessner is professor emerita, Department of Comparative Studies, SUNY Stony Brook. She is the recipient of the Marie Syrkin Fellowship for 1994. The author of many essays and articles ranging from "Milton's Hebraic Herculean Hero" to "The Emma Lazarus-Henry James Connection: Eight Letters", she is the editor and contributor to The "Other" New York Jewish Intellectuals (1994).