Mike Gold (1893-1967) was a literary writer, critic, journalist, and political activist. A lifelong communist, he advocated for civil rights and labor empowerment. He is known for pioneering proletarian literature, a literary movement exemplified by his semi-autobiographical novel Jews Without Money (1930). Following the success of his novel, he wrote a long-running column "Change the World!" for the Daily Worker, a newspaper founded by communists, socialists, union members, and activists. Gold also edited periodicals such as New Masses, which helped develop a radical, working-class literature. Gold's commitment to the Communist cause in the United States came at a personal cost. The loss of friendships and professional afficiliations is documented in Gold's correspondence, writings, and autobiographical materials.

Throughout his life, he used name variants including Michael Granich, Irving Granich, and Mike Gold. He was known as Irwin (sometimes Irving) Granich until the early 1920s, after which he adopted the name Mike Gold. At the time of his death in 1967, his legal name was Michael Granich.

Gold was deeply involved in the political and literary movements of his time. He had been exposed to the socialist movement through his younger brothers who were active in the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Yet it was in April 1914, while attending an unemployment demonstration in Union Square, when Gold directed his life at revolutionary politics. Gold was active in the anarchist movement from around 1914 to 1919 before aligning himself with the Communist movement, with which he remained connected for the rest of his life.

Gold wrote poems for The Masses in 1914 and the New York Call in 1916-1917. In 1918, Gold resided in Mexico where he had fled to avoid the draft. He returned to New York in 1919. In 1920-1921, Gold joined the editorial board of Masses successor, The Liberator. By late 1922, Gold moved from New York to California where he worked as a journalist in Oakland for the Post Enquierer and for the San Francisco Call.

In 1925, he toured Europe and visited the Soviet Union where his first book, a collection of his stories, was published. At this time his enthusiasm for theater was sparked, and by 1927 he was instrumental in setting up radical theatrical groups, including the New Playwrights' Theatre. His activism and writing took him abroad on several occassions, including stays in France (June-July 1935), Mexico (April-June 1937), Cuba and Puerto Rico (February-April 1939, 1940).

In 1926, Gold and other Communist editors undertook an experimental revamp of the struggling New Masses magazine. They shifted its focus to feature contributions from working-class individuals rather than professional writers, aiming to create authentic proletarian literature. Michael Folsom, in Mike Gold: A Literary Anthology, noted "Gold was instrumental in sustaining the impulse of radical literature. As the Depression deepened and radicalism became imperative once again and a newcrop of professional writers came leftward, the New Masses was ready to hand, a vehicle for the expression of a reborn leftwing literary movement."

The new New Masses lasted until the summer of 1933 and reappeared in January 1934 as a weekly until its final issue in 1949, at the onset of the Cold War. Later it became a quarterly, Masses and Mainstream, which lasted into the mid-1950s.

In the 1920s, Gold began crafting a series of sketches that he later reworked into the finished novel, Jews Without Money. In 1930 the semi-autobiographical novel was published and was an immediate success. Despite starting numerous manuscripts, plays, and novels, his focus remained in journalism. From 1933 almost until his death, Gold contributed a regular column, "Change the World!", to the Daily Worker.

The late 1940s and early 1950s saw Gold and his family living in France, returning to the U.S. during the McCarthy era. The Red Scare tarnished Gold's reputation and Jews Without Money faced censorship. Both Gold and his wife, Elizabeth Granich--a Sorbonne-trained lawyer--could only get custodial and factory work, placing a financial strain on the couple as they raised their two sons, Nicholas and Carl.

In 1957, Gold retired to San Francisco where he resumed writing weekly for People's World. He continued working on his memoirs and announced his retirement from journalism in 1966. Over the following year, he collaborated with Michael Folsom, an English professor from the Masachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), on his memoirs. In April 1967, he died in San Francisco.

Sources: Dorrell, T. (2023, January 25). Michael Gold: Red Scare Victim. JSTOR Daily. https://daily.jstor.org/michael-gold-red-scare-victim/

FBI FOIA file, Michael (Mike) Gold Papers, 1994-2000, larc.ms.0439, Labor Archives and Research Center, San Francisco State University.

Folsom, M. (Ed.). (1972). Mike Gold: A Literary Anthology. International Publishers.

Tuerk, R. (2023). Michael Gold. In Salem Press Biographical Encyclopedia. https://research-ebsco-com.ezproxy.sfpl.org/linkprocessor/plink?id=9570e88e-997d-3080-ac52-7e52a720f98c

University of Michigan. (2001). Mike Gold and Michael Folsom Papers (Finding Aid). University of Michigan, Special Collections Library. https://findingaids.lib.umich.edu/catalog/umich-scl-goldfolsom