In July 1940, the Left Book Club selection was, unusually, a novel.
Swastika Night, by a reclusive but respected writer called Murray Constantine, was originally published by Victor Gollancz in 1937, but was reissued by the Left Book Club in what the editorial referred to as “these difficult summer months” as a distraction for readers in need of an analysis of fascism which might offer some hope of its eventual defeat.
Swastika Night, like Constantine's previous novel for Gollancz,
Proud Man(1934), presented, in fictional form, an argument for pacifism along with a searing indictment of 'the cult of masculinity' which led some commentators at the time to suggest that he might, in fact, be a woman writing under a pseudonym. It was not until 1985 that an American academic, Professor…
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Citation: Shaw, Debra Benita. "Katharine Burdekin". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 17 July 2001 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=643, accessed 23 November 2024.]
