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This essay recovers a socialist and feminist writer previously overlooked by literary scholars. An author of five novels and numerous short stories, Alice Beal Parsons published for both mainstream and progressive audiences. Of particular note is her membership in the Communist Labor Party and her renunciation of a bourgeois identity. The archival discovery "Cross Purposes" is a good representation of her commitment to radicalism. Most likely composed in the 1920s or 1930s, the short story is a unique examination of a wealthy woman's role in the oppression of the women who work for her. Included with a full transcription of the story is a bibliography of Parsons's major work.
During a 1920 court trial in Rockford, Illinois, one of America's most famous lawyers came to the defense of a wealthy housewife who was indicted for "conspiring for the overthrow of the government by force and violence" ("Rockford"). Clarence Darrow (1857-1938), who would become best known for his role in the 1925 "Monkey Trial," was the lead lawyer in this case, which shook the small city of Rockford. Of those indicted, the housewife was under particular scrutiny, as a local paper reported:
The radical utterances of Mrs. Parsons have been town talk for a long time. Her activities and associations with those inclined toward revolutionary proceedings were known to all her acquaintances and friends who deplored the situation deeply, but their admonitions and friendly counsel are said to have been of no avail. She appeared to glory in her fanaticism, they said, and to live largely for the purpose of devouring "Red" literature and apparently was saturated with the doctrines of the radical writers. ("Seeking Reds" 1)
Mrs. Parsons, the wife of a successful business owner, risked her social status for the working men and women of Rockford when she joined the Communist Labor Party-a decision that would lead to her arrest, her divorce, and the loss of her home. Today she has been largely forgotten by history, as have been so many housewives, their personal struggles and triumphs seemingly insignificant in the larger historical narrative. What makes her particular absence surprising, however, is that Parsons went on to have a career as a prolific radical writer who published fiction and nonfiction in an array...