David Fulton Karsner (1889–1941) was an American journalist, writer, and socialist political activist. Karsner is best remembered as a key member of the editorial staff of theNew York Call and as an early biographer ofSocialist Party of America leaderEugene V. Debs.
David Karsner was born March 13, 1889, atBaltimore, Maryland, the son of Cecil J. and Anita Karsner. The elder Karsner worked as an official at thePort of Baltimore.[1]
Both of Karsner's parents died when David was still young and he wound up in a Baltimoreorphanage and school for underprivileged boys.[1]
Karsner's journalistic career began about 1907 when he went to work for a newspaper in the city ofChicago.[2] While in Chicago Karsner made the acquaintance of a number ofsocialist intellectuals, includingUpton Sinclair,Jack London, andCarl Sandburg.[2] His discussions with these led Karsner himself to become an advocate of socialism and to join theSocialist Party of America.
Karsner's journalistic career took him toPhiladelphia, where he joined the staff of thePhiladelphia Ledger, and toNew York City, where he worked for theNew York Tribune and theNew York Post.[2]
In 1911 Karsner married theRomanian-born socialist Rose Greenberg (1889–1968).[1] The pair had a daughter, Walta Karsner, named after radical poetWalt Whitman.[2] Following the dissolution of their marriage,Rose Karsner marriedJames P. Cannon, regarded as the founder of AmericanTrotskyism, while David Karsner remarried to Esther Eberson.[2]
Karsner joined the editorial board of the New York socialist daily, theNew York Call, editing that publication's weekend magazine section before gaining position of managing editor of that publication.[2]
One of the major stories covered by Karsner during his time atThe Call was the 1918 mass trial of 166 members of theIndustrial Workers of the World held in Chicago before JudgeKenesaw Mountain Landis.[2]
In April 1923 Karsner resigned from the financially strugglingCall in protest over the paper's decision to publish a critique ofSoviet Russia written by Francis McCullaugh, a member of the British secret service.[3]
Disaffected from the increasingly conservative Socialist Party, Karsner turned to writing non-fiction, authoring biographies of PresidentAndrew Jackson and radicalabolitionistJohn Brown.
Another of Karsner's biographical works, a 1932 book on Colorado businessman and politicianH.A.W. Tabor was made into a motion picture byWarner Brothers.[4] The film starredEdward G. Robinson in the lead role and debuted in December 1932.[4]
David Karsner died of a heart attack on February 20, 1941.[2] He was 51 years old at the time of his death.
His papers reside at theTamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Archives atNew York University in New York City as collection TAM 430.[2] Additional material is held byNew York Public Library.[5]
