Dahlberg, Edward
Entry updated 19 May 2025. Tagged: Author.
(1900-1977) US author, in active service during World War One; most famous for his first book, Bottom Dogs (1929), whose transgressive frankness about modern life from below set his reputation as an advocate of the rights of the working class. His later work, though he made no convulsive Turn to the Right, became sufficiently acceptable for him to be given a Guggenheim Award in 1976. He is of some sf interest for Those Who Perish (1934), which seems unspecifically set in the increasingly grim Media Landscape of a Near Future mid-1930s America failing to combat fascism; Jews have been fleeing Germany for some time; as President Roosevelt's New Deal seems non-existent, the Great Depression continues to deepen. Though not a Hitler Wins tale, Those Who Perish adumbrates a world in which that outcome seems imminent. [JC]
Edward Dahlberg
born Boston, Massachusetts: 22 July 1900
died Santa Barbara, California: 27 February 1977
works (highly selected)
- Those Who Perish (New York: The John Day Company, 1934) [hb/nonpictorial]
links
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