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"Here we read of how a bewitching young woman, fired with every sort of idealism, became a Trotskyist militant in the Fresno area in the hot period of the 1930s and later the lover of that movement's most brilliant and charismatic member, the late C.L.R. James." —Los Angeles Times
An extraordinary memoir of political activism, high-fashion glamour, and life with C. L. R. James.
Constance Webb led a remarkably full life as a committed political activist, a fashion model and actress, a writer whose works include the first biography of her friend Richard Wright, and the wife and confidante of one of the foremost intellectuals of the twentieth century, C. L. R. James.
Raised in Fresno, California, Webb became an ardent Trotskyist while still a teenager. After moving to Los Angeles, she remained politically active and met James on his first US tour when he visited the city to speak. He fell in love instantly with her and established an epistolary relationship, offering advice and support during her two short-lived marriages, the launching of her modeling career, an ill-fated affair with a well-known actor, and her move to New York City in the early 40s.
In New York, where she continued to model and act, she became a member of the inner circle of James’s Johnson-Forest Tendency, and eventually James’s wife. She also established an enduring friendship with novelist Richard Wright and championed his work. Despite a sometimes-rocky marriage, James and Webb had a son together, but when James finally left the United States for England (under threat of deportation), Webb did not accompany him.
Webb offers a candid memoir of political, sexual, and social awakening at a pivotal time in twentieth-century America. Politically committed, she was nevertheless repelled by the misogyny and petty feuds that often marred the actions of the Left. She was able to earn her living by using her beauty, but she was compelled to live a double life because of the virulent racism that surrounded her working days. Through James, before their marriage, she became a close friend of Wright, Ralph Ellison, Chester Himes, and James Baldwin. Webb provides vivid, first-hand portraits of the radical left, the African-American literary scene, and especially, the intimate daily life and thoughts of C. L. R. James.
"Webb reminisces on a life in which she nursed California migrant farm workers, posed for Dali and organized for the Socialist Worker's Party. She financed these activities by working as an actress and model, mingling with people like Walter Winchell and James Baldwin. But the author, who is white, is perhaps best known for her relationships with intellectual black activists and writers Richard Wright and C.L.R. James . . . Webb is a good storyteller . . . Clearly, [she] took risks, yet she describes how, as a young woman, she also conformed to norms."—Publishers Weekly
"[Webb] was clearly trusted by [Richard Wright], and by Ralph Ellison and Chester Himes, who feature prominently in her life in the late 1940s and early 50s . . . She reveals interesting and . . . valuable anecdotal material about the private lives of all three . . . Not Without Love is at its most convincing, at times poignantly so, when it details the problems of living across the colour line and being a partner in an interracial marriage in supposedly 'liberal' New York just after the Second World War. The burden that this placed on her relationship with James, and the manner in which it fed James's ambivalence about his ability to follow his heart (which she had undoubedtly captured) as opposed to his destiny . . . form the emotional centre of the book . . . James indulged in many [affairs], and seems to have been torn between love and duty in a way that Webb uncovers both judiciously and, after all these years, with great sympathy . . . The most moving moment in the memoirs occurs when a young Constance Webb confronts James with the evidence of her own internalized racism, and declares this to be the reason why she should not marry him. James's loving and supportive response shows them both at their best."—Times Literary Supplement
"Her skills as a memoirist are imposing, for she has the capacity to vividly recreate scenes of meetings and discussions that occured nearly seventy years ago . . . For readers previously well-versed in the history of the Trotskyist movement in general, and the political tendency led by C.L.R. James and Raya Dunayevskaya in particular, the narrative will insert many new details. Moreover, sundry individuals whose names are today known mainly as the authors of documents and articles will be fleshed out a bit and placed in the history of the organization . . . Webb's memoir furthermore provides vivid details about her work as a model and aspiring actress, as well a harrowing narrative of her visit to Monroe, North Carolina, to cover the famous "Kissing case," a major civil rights case that involved NAACP militant Robert F. Williams . . . There are also descriptions of Webb's passionate love affairs with comedian Jack Gilford, a devoted Communist, and 'Militant' editor Jules Geller."—Against the Current
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CONSTANCE WEBB (1919-2005) is author of Richard Wright: A Biography (1969) and co-author of the original Indignant Heart (1952). C. L. R. James’s letters to Webb, written over the course of a decade, have been collected as Special Delivery: The Letters of C. L. R. James to Constance Webb, 1939–1948 (1996).
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