Remember the Chicago 8
(You Heard Me, Boomers, 8)

Today marks the 62nd anniversary of the death of Lucy Parsons, one of America's most influential labor activists. Born in Texas of African, Native and Mexican-American descent, she moved to Chicago in 1873 with her husband, Albert, and helped him to organize the city's workers. When Albert was named as a co-conspirator in the Haymarket Square riot of 1886, she helped mobilize his defense. Martin Duberman chose to revisit their story in his first novel, Haymarket, from which I had the pleasure of hearing him read a few weeks back.

It doesn't appear to be a good time for the historical novel, though, as Haymarket has, at least based on a prolonged Googling expedition, attracted few reviews. On the earliest front, Booklist loved it but PW doesn't seem to have even assigned a reviewer (at least, no review appears on Amazon from them, usually a sign of being completely overlooked). The Chicago Tribune covered it, but since they don't allow free access to their reviews, I couldn't tell you what they thought of his portrayal of their city's history. The Brooklyn Rail notes Duberman's keen eye for historical detail and suspenseful pacing (while acknowledging a few rough patches). At the San Francisco Chronicle, Robert Walch admires how Duberman has fleshed out the scanty information available about his heroes, but wonders if "[Albert] Parsons may be given more of the aura of a martyr than is actually merited."

Lucy, by the way, never gave up on activism. She was a founding member of the IWW, contributed to the public defense of the Scottsboro Eight and Sacco & Vanzetti, and was described as "more dangerous than a thousand rioters" by the Chicago police well into the 1930s, by which time she was actively involved with the American Communist Party (though not, until 1939, a member). She died in an accidental fire; what wasn't burned up among her personal papers and library was seized by the FBI and destroyed afterwards.