Lamont became aradical in the 1930s, moved by theGreat Depression. He wrote a book about theSoviet Union and praised what he saw there: "The people are better dressed, food is good and plentiful, everyone seems confident, happy and full of spirit". He was even onetime chairman of theFriends of the Soviet Union.[3] He became critical of the Soviets over time, but always thought their achievement in transforming afeudal society remarkable, even as he attacked its treatment of political dissent and lack of civil liberties.[1] Lamont's political views wereMarxist andsocialist for much of his life.[citation needed][4]
Lamont in 1934, from theCharleston Daily Mail article "Why Rich Young Men Are Going 'Left'."
Lamont began his 30 years as a director of theAmerican Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in 1932. In 1934, he was arrested while on a picket line inJersey City, New Jersey, part of a long battle between labor and civil rights activists andFrank Hague, the city's mayor. Lamont later wrote that he "learned more about the American legal system in one day ... than in one year at Harvard Law School".[5]
In 1936, Lamont helped found and subsidized the magazineMarxist Quarterly. When theDewey Commission reported in 1937 that theMoscow trials ofLeon Trotsky and others were fraudulent, Lamont, along with other left-wing intellectuals, refused to accept the commission's findings. Under the influence of thePopular Front, Lamont and 150 other left-wing writers endorsedJosef Stalin's actions as necessary for "the preservation of progressive democracy". Their letter warned that Dewey's work was itself politically motivated and charged Dewey with supporting reactionary views and "Red-baiting".[6] Lamont wrote an introduction to the anti-Polish pamphletBehind the Polish-Soviet Break byAlter Brody.[7]
Lamont remained sympathetic to the Soviet Union well after World War II and the establishment ofsatellite communist governments in Central and Eastern Europe. He authored a pamphlet entitledThe Myth of Soviet Aggression in which he wrote:
The fact is, of course, that both the Truman and Eisenhower Administrations, in order to push their enormous armaments programs through Congress and to justify the continuation of the Cold War, have felt compelled to resort to the device of keeping the American people in a state of alarm over some alleged menace of Soviet or Communist origin.
In 1944 Lamont wrote a preface to a book byAlter Brody that popularized the Soviet falsification of theKatyn massacre in the West.[8]
When called to testify in front of SenatorJoseph McCarthy'sSenate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations in 1953, he denied ever having been a communist, but refused to discuss his beliefs or those of others, citing not theFifth Amendment but the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech.[1] The committee cited Lamont forcontempt of Congress by a vote of 71 to 3 in August 1954. Some senators questioned McCarthy's authority and wanted a federal court to rule on it.[10] In November, Lamont donated $50,000 to create a $1,000,000 Bill of Rights Fund to support civil rights advocates, citing anti-communist legislation, travel restrictions, and blacklisting in the entertainment industry.[11] The same month, he challenged the subcommittee's authority in court.[12]
The same year, he wroteWhy I Am Not a Communist. Despite his allegiance to Marxism, he never joined theCommunist Party USA, and supported theKorean War.[13]
In April 1955, Lamont withdrew from his role as a philosophy lecturer atColumbia University pending the outcome of these legal proceedings, and the university said it was Lamont's decision, made "without prior suggestion by any officer of the university".[14] JudgeEdward Weinfeld of the U.S. District Court found the indictment against Lamont was faulty, but the government, rather than seek a new indictment, appealed that ruling.[15] A unanimous panel of the Court of Appeals agreed in 1955[16] and in 1956 the government chose not to appeal to the Supreme Court.[17]
As a director of theACLU, Lamont had resisted attempts to purge the organization of communists and, in 1954, he resigned his position because he felt the ACLU had not supported him in the face of McCarthy's charges.[1] The complete record of the legal proceedings in Lamont's case against the McCarthy subcommittee was published in 1957.[18]
In 1951 and 1957, Lamont was denied a passport by theState Department, which considered his application incomplete because he refused to answer a question about membership in the Communist Party.[19] He sued the State Department in June 1957 seeking a hearing on its action.[20] He obtained his passport in June 1958 following a Supreme Court decision in another case,Kent v. Dulles, and left the U.S. for a world tour in March 1959.[21]
He ran again for the U.S. Senate from New York in1958 on theIndependent-Socialist ticket. He received more than 49,000 votes[22] out of more than 5,500,000 cast, losing to RepublicanKenneth B. Keating.[23]
In 1959, Lamont became an enthusiastic supporter ofFidel Castro and his revolutionary government inCuba.[24][25]
In 1964, Lamont sued thePostmaster General for reading and, at times, refusing to deliver his mail under the anti-propaganda mail law of 1962, passed over the objections of the Department of Justice and the Post Office, that allowed the Postmaster General to destroy "communist political propaganda" sent from outside the United States unless the addressee says he wants to receive such mail. The statute did not apply to sealed correspondence, but was aimed at published materials. He lost a 2–1 decision in U.S. District Court, after the Post Office delivered one such item of mail, and appealed to theSupreme Court, arguing that the single delivery was a subterfuge designed to moot his lawsuit while continuing to interrupt his mail service.[26] On May 24, 1965, theSupreme Court held unanimously inLamont v. Postmaster General that the law was unconstitutional.
It was the first time the Supreme Court invalidated a statute as a violation of theFirst Amendment's guarantee of freedom of speech. Lamont's attorney wasLeonard B. Boudin, who worked on many civil liberties cases.[27] He won a similar lawsuit against theCentral Intelligence Agency in federal court the same year.[1]
In 1971, after a congressman called him an "identified member of the Communist Party, U.S.A.", Lamont issued a statement that "although it is no disgrace to belong to the Communist party, I have never even dreamed of joining it."[28] The same year, he financedDorothy Day's visit to theSoviet Union and several other countries in Eastern Europe.[25][29]
In 1979, Lamont foundedHalf-Moon Foundation, Inc. Half-Moon Foundation was a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and was incorporated in the state of New York. The foundation was formed "to promote enduring international peace, support for the United Nations, the conservation of our country's natural environment, and to safeguard and extend civil liberties as guaranteed under the Constitution and the Bill of Rights."
In 1928, Lamont married Margaret Hayes Irish. They divorced in the early 1960s. In 1962, he married Helen Boyden Lamb; she died of cancer in 1975.[31] In 1986, Lamont married Beth Keehner; she survived his death.[1] He died from heart failure at home inOssining, New York, on April 26, 1995.[1]
Following the deaths of his parents, Lamont became a philanthropist. He funded the collection and preservation of manuscripts of American philosophers, particularlyGeorge Santayana, as well asRockwell Kent andJohn Masefield.[1]
He became a substantial donor to bothHarvard and Columbia, endowing the latter's "Corliss Lamont Professor of Civil Liberties."[1]
Lamont was a prolific author. He wrote, co-wrote, edited, or co-edited more than two dozen books and dozens of pamphlets, and wrote thousands of letters to newspapers, magazines, and journals on significant social issues during his lifelong campaign for peace and civil rights.
In 1935, he publishedThe Illusion of Immortality (originally published in 1932 asIssues of Immortality: A Study in Implications), which was a revised version of his doctoral dissertation. Lamont argued that people can live satisfactory lives without belief in life after death and that human life may be recognized to be more precious if it is realized that it only comes once to each man.[33]
His most famous work isThe Philosophy of Humanism (originally published in 1949 asHumanism as a Philosophy), now in its eighth edition. He also published intimate portraits ofJohn Dewey,John Masefield, andGeorge Santayana.
A Humanist Funeral ServiceISBN0-87975-090-1 (revised by Beth K. Lamont and J. Sierra Oliva and republished in a Fourth Revised Edition in 2011 asA Humanist Funeral Service and CelebrationISBN978-1-61614-409-8)
A Humanist Wedding ServiceISBN0-87975-000-6 Third Revised Edition 1981 (Previous editions: 1972, 1970) 29 pages
A Lifetime of Dissent (Buffalo, Prometheus Books, 1988, 414 pages) Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 88-15100ISBN0-87975-463-X
Freedom Is As Freedom Does: Civil Liberties in America (1956), foreword byBertrand Russell, reprint Fourth ed. 1990, Continuum Publishing Company,ISBN0-8264-0475-8; Third Printing, 1981ISBN0-8180-0350-2
Freedom of Choice Affirmed Third Revised Edition 1990 (Previous editions: 1969, 1967) Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 67-27793 (Third Revised Edition)ISBN0-8264-0476-6 (Third Revised Edition)
Remembering John Masefield Revised Edition 1991 (Previous edition: 1971) Introduction by Judith Masefield, Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 91-4429ISBN0-8264-0478-2
Russia Day by Day: A Travel Diary (Co-authored with Margaret Lamont) (New York,Covici Friede, 1933)
Illusion of Immortality, introduction by John Dewey, (1935), 5th edition 1990,Continuum Publishing Company,ISBN0-8044-6377-8 (originally published in 1932 asIssues of Immortality: A Study in Implications)
The Independent Mind: Essays of a Humanist Philosopher (New York, Horizon Press, 1951, 187 pages)
The Philosophy of Humanism, (1949), 1965 edition: Ungar Pub CoISBN0-8044-5595-3, 7th rev. edition 1990: Continuum Publishing Company,ISBN0-8044-6379-4, 8th rev. edition (with gender neutral references by editors Beverley Earles and Beth K. Lamont) 1997 Humanist PressISBN0-931779-07-3,Online version inAdobe AcrobatPDF format (originally published in 1949 asHumanism as a Philosophy)
Voice in the Wilderness: Collected Essays of Fifty Years (Buffalo, Prometheus Books, 1974, 327 pages) Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 74-75351ISBN0-87975-060-X
Yes to Life: Memoirs of Corliss Lamont (1981), Horizon Press:ISBN0-8180-0232-8, rev. edition 1991:ISBN0-8264-0477-4 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 91–4430
You Might Like Socialism: A Way of Life for Modern Man, (1939), (published with a re-introduction by Beth K. Lamont asLefties Are In Their Right Minds on May 18, 2009, by Half-Moon Foundation, Inc.ISBN978-0-578-00782-3Online PDF version
Dialogue on George Santayana (Edited by Corliss Lamont with the assistance of Mary Redmer) (New York, Horizon Press, 1959)
Dialogue on John Dewey (Edited by Corliss Lamont with the assistance of Mary Redmer) (New York, Horizon Press, 1959)
Helen Lamb Lamont: A Memorial Tribute (New York, Horizon Press, 1976)
Letters of John Masefield to Florence Lamont (Edited by Corliss Lamont andLansing Lamont) (New York, Columbia University Press, 1979,ISBN978-0231047067; New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 1980,ISBN978-0333257555)
Man Answers Death: An Anthology of Poetry With an Introduction byLouis Untermeyer (New York, Philosophical Library, 1952)
The Thomas Lamonts in America with Recollections and Poems by John Masefield (originally published in 1962 asThe Thomas Lamont Family) (Cranbury, New Jersey, A. S. Barns and Co., Inc. and London, England, Thomas Yoseloff Ltd, 1971,ISBN0-498-07882-5)
The Trial ofElizabeth Gurley Flynn by the American Civil Liberties Union (Edited and with an Introduction by Corliss Lamont) (New York, Horizon Press, 1968) (Modern Reader/Monthly Review Press, 1969)
Aside from books, over the course of more than a half-century, Corliss Lamont authored, co-authored, or edited approximately three dozen pamphlets on a variety of subjects. Prominent among these was theBasic Pamphlets series, privately published by Dr. Lamont and sold directly by him through mail order via a local post office box in New York. There were 29 numbered titles in theBasic Pamphlets series, listed below by pamphlet number.
Are We Being Talked Into War? (1952)
The Civil Liberties Crisis (1952)
The Humanist Tradition (1952, 16 pages - Second Printing, 1955)
Effects of American Foreign Policy (1952, 40 pages)
Back to the Bill of Rights
The Myth of Soviet Aggression (Second, revised edition, December 1953, 16 pages)
Challenge to McCarthy (February 1954, 32 pages)
The Congressional Inquisition (May 1954, 36 pages)
The Assault on Academic Freedom (1955)
The Right to Travel (December 1957, 44 pages)
To End Nuclear Bomb Tests [Co-authored by Margaret I. Lamont] (1958, 44 pages)
A Peace Program for the U.S.A. (1959, 24 pages - Second printing, March 1959)
My Trip Around The World (1960, 48 pages)
The Crime Against Cuba [Mary Redmer, Editor] (June 1961, 40 pages)
My First Sixty Years (1962, 52 pages - Second printing, February 1963)
The Enduring Impact of George Santayana (1964)
The Tragedy of Vietnam: Where Do We Go from Here? [Authored by Helen Boyden Lamont née Helen B. Lamb] (1964, 50 pages)
Vietnam: Corliss Lamont vs. Ambassador Lodge (1967, 32 pages)
How To Be Happy — Though Married (1973, 24 pages)
The Meaning of Vietnam and Cambodia [Co-authored by Helen Lamb Lamont] (1975)
Trip to Communist China — An Informal Report (1976, 28 pages)
Adventures In Civil Liberties (1977, 28 pages)
Immortality: Myth Or Reality? (1978, 36 pages)
Resolute Radical At 83 - later published asSteadfast Activist at 84 (1985, 40 pages)
The Right to Know: The Civil Liberties Campaign Against Secrecy in Government [Corliss Lamont, Editor] (December 1986, 40 pages)
Jesus As A Free Speech Victim: Trial by Terror 2000 Years Ago [Authored by Clifford J. Durr, Introduction by Corliss Lamont, published on behalf of the National Emergency Civil Liberties Committee (NECLC)] (Fourth Edition, 1987, 24 pages)
The Assurance Of Free Choice (September 1987, 40 pages)
Panama—Operation Injustice [Compiled and Written by Corliss Lamont and Beth Lamont] (1990, 16 pages)
Persian Gulf Crisis—UN Peace Negotiations; No To War! [Written and Edited by Corliss Lamont and Beth Lamont] (1990, 24 pages)
In addition to theBasic Pamphlets series, Corliss Lamont also wrote a number of other pamphlets, a partial list of which appears below.
On Understanding Soviet Russia (New York, Friends of the Soviet Union, 1934, 32 pages)Online PDF version
Socialist Planning in Soviet Russia (New York, Friends of the Soviet Union, 1935, 40 pages)
Soviet Russia and Religion (New York, International Pamphlets, 1936, 24 pages)
Soviet Russia versus Nazi Germany: A study in contrasts (New York, The American Council on Soviet Relations, First Edition August 1941 - Second Edition March 1942, 52 pages)
Soviet Russia and the Post-War World (New York, National Council of American-Soviet Friendship, First Edition May 1943 - Second Edition May 1944, 36 pages)
Soviet Aggression: Myth or Reality? (New York, self-published, June 1951, 16 pages)
Why I am not a Communist (New York, self-published, January 1952, 20 pages)
Author Corliss Lamont Sings For His Family & Friends, a Medley of Favorite Hit Songs from American Musicals includes 36 musical selections (Smithsonian Folkways, 1977,Stock Number FW03567)
Corliss Lamont Website sponsored by Half-Moon Foundation, Inc., an organization created to promote educational and informational activities consistent with the vision of founder Corliss Lamont, now run by his widow, Beth Keehner Lamont
Humanist Society of Metropolitan New York (HSMNY), the Corliss Lamont Chapter of the American Humanist Association (AHA)
