Editing John Reed (journalist) (section)

===War correspondent===
On August 14, 1914, shortly after [[German Empire|Germany]] declared war on France, Reed set sail for neutral Italy, on assignment for the ''Metropolitan''. He met his lover Mabel Dodge in [[Naples]], and the pair made their way to Paris. Reed believed the war was the result of imperialist commercial rivalries and felt little sympathy for any of the parties.

In an unsigned piece titled "The Traders' War", published in the September 1914 issue of ''The Masses'', Reed wrote:

{{quote|The real War, of which this sudden outburst of death and destruction is only an incident, began long ago. It has been raging for tens of years, but its battles have been so little advertised that they have been hardly noted. It is a clash of Traders...

What has democracy to do in alliance with [[Nicholas II|Nicholas]], the Tsar? Is it Liberalism which is marching from the [[Saint Petersburg|Petersburg]] of [[Father Gapon]], from the [[Odessa]] of the [[pogrom]]s?...

No. There is a falling out among commercial rivals....

We, who are Socialists, must hope—we may even expect—that out of this horror of bloodshed and dire destruction will come far-reaching social changes—and a long step forward towards our goal of Peace among Men.

But we must not be duped by this editorial buncombe about Liberalism going forth to Holy War against Tyranny.

This is not Our War.<ref>John Reed, "The Trader's War," ''The Masses'', v. 5, no. 12, whole no. 40 (Sept. 1914), pp. 16–17. The article was attributed to "a well-known American author and war correspondent who is compelled by arrangements with another publication to withhold his name."</ref>}}

In France, Reed was frustrated by wartime censorship and the difficulty of reaching the front. Reed and Dodge went to London, and Dodge soon left for New York, to Reed's relief. The rest of 1914 he spent drinking with French prostitutes and pursuing an affair with a German woman.<ref>Homberger, ''John Reed'', p. 87.</ref> The pair went to Berlin in early December. While there, Reed interviewed [[Karl Liebknecht]], one of the few socialists in Germany to vote against war credits. Reed was deeply disappointed by the general collapse in working-class solidarity promised by the [[Second International]], and by its replacement with [[militarism]] and [[nationalism]].<ref>Homberger, ''John Reed'', p. 89.</ref>

[[File:Reed-john-1917.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.7|Reed {{circa|1917}}]]

He returned to New York in December and wrote more about the war. In 1915, he traveled to Central Europe, accompanied by [[Boardman Robinson]], a Canadian artist and frequent ''Masses'' contributor. Traveling from [[Thessaloniki]], they saw scenes of profound devastation in [[Kingdom of Serbia|Serbia]] (including a bombed-out [[Belgrade]]), also going through [[Kingdom of Bulgaria|Bulgaria]] and [[Kingdom of Romania|Romania]]. They passed through the Jewish [[Pale of Settlement]] in [[Bessarabia]]. In [[Chełm]], they were arrested and incarcerated for several weeks. At risk of being shot for espionage, they were saved by the American ambassador.

Traveling to Russia, Reed was outraged to learn that the American ambassador in [[Saint Petersburg|Petrograd]] was inclined to believe they were spies. Reed and Robinson were rearrested when they tried to slip into Romania. This time the British ambassador (Robinson being a British subject) finally secured permission for them to leave, but not until after all their papers were seized in [[Kiev]]. In [[Bucharest]], the duo spent time piecing together more of their journey. At one point Reed traveled to [[Constantinople]] in hopes of seeing action at [[Gallipoli]]. From these experiences he wrote the book, ''[[The War in Eastern Europe]]'', published in April 1916.

After returning to New York, Reed visited his mother in Portland. There he met and fell in love with [[Louise Bryant]], who joined him on the East Coast in January 1916. Though happily involved, both also had affairs with others in accordance with their bohemian circle and ideas about sexual liberation. Early in 1916, Reed met the young playwright [[Eugene O'Neill]]. Beginning that May, the three rented a cottage in [[Provincetown, Massachusetts]], a summer destination on [[Cape Cod]] for many artists and writers from Greenwich Village. Not long after, Bryant and O'Neill began a romance.<ref>Homberger, ''John Reed'', p. 114.</ref>

That summer Reed covered the presidential nominating conventions. He endorsed [[Woodrow Wilson]], believing that he would make good on his promise to keep America out of the war.<ref>Homberger, ''John Reed'', pp. 112–16.</ref> In November 1916 he married Bryant in [[Peekskill, New York]]. The same year, he underwent an operation at [[Johns Hopkins Hospital]] to remove a kidney. <!-- why? --> He was hospitalized until mid-December.<ref>Homberger, ''John Reed'', p. 118.</ref> The operation rendered him ineligible for conscription and saved him from registering as a [[conscientious objector]], as had been his intention. During 1916 he privately published ''Tamburlaine and Other Verses'', in an edition of 500 copies.

As the country raced towards war, Reed was marginalized: his relationship with the ''Metropolitan'' was over. He pawned his late father's watch and sold his [[Cape Cod]] cottage to the [[birth control]] activist and sex educator [[Margaret Sanger]].<ref>Homberger, ''John Reed'', p. 120.</ref>

When Wilson asked for a declaration of war on April 2, 1917, Reed shouted at a hastily convened meeting of the People's Council in [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]]: "This is not my war, and I will not support it. This is not my war, and I will have nothing to do with it."<ref>Homberger, ''John Reed'', p. 122.</ref> In July and August Reed continued to write vehement articles against the war for ''[[The Masses]]'', which the [[United States Post Office Department]] refused to mail, and for ''Seven Arts''. Due to antiwar articles by Reed and [[Randolph Bourne]], the arts magazine lost its financial backing and ceased publication.<ref>Homberger, ''John Reed'', pp. 128–29.</ref> Reed was stunned by the nation's pro-war fervor, and his career lay in ruins.