Page:History of Oregon Literature.djvu/665

Rh through a microscope and John Reed through a telescope; and what their gaze encompassed was alike obscure to their neighbors of ordinary sight. Neither is now much remembered at home but both left international reputations, and John Reed, outside the state itself, earned a fame equaled by that of few who ever lived in Oregon.

He was author of The Pageant of the Patterson Strike, 1914, and of the following books: Sangar, a poem, privately printed, 1912; The Day in Bohemia, 1913; Insurgent Mexico, 1914; Tamburlaine and Other Poems, privately printed, 1916; The War in Eastern Europe, 1916; Red Russia, 1919; Ten Days That Shook the World, 1919.

Curious are the origins of genius, and sometimes in striking contrast to its fostering environment are its manifestations. From a wealthy and prominent Portland family and out of a city eschewing radical opinion, came this young man who was arrested many times, who was indicted for sedition and who was being sought by Government secret service agents all over the United States at the very time he was making speeches in Moscow. What kind of evidence does such a brilliant but variant case afford for regional literature?

He was born in Portland on October 22, 1887. He attended the Portland Academy and then went to Harvard, where, "tall, handsome and light-hearted", he was a yell leader, a member of clubs and an associate of wealthy and socially prominent young men. The story is told that when he had been on the campus only a few days as a freshman he proposed to a student