John A. Lee

John Alfred Alexander Lee ( born October 31, 1891 in Dunedin, † June 13, 1982 in Auckland ) was a New Zealand politician and writer. The radical socialist, was one of the most prominent Labour politicians in his country, but he had also earned reputation as a combative and entertaining writer.

Life and work

The son of a juggler, the little John Lee barely met, grew up in poverty. He skipped school and went through smuggling and theft the acquaintance of reformatories and prisons. Three years after his release from prison "saved " it is in the participation in the First World War. 1917 winner of the Battle of Ypres, he lost a year later his left arm. 1919 back in New Zealand, Lee first tried as a shopkeeper. His commitment (on the " left wing ") of the New Zealand Labour Party soon led him to a career as a politician. In the years 1922-28 and 1931-43 he had a seat in Parliament, temporarily he tried to prevent the passing of the crisis consequences on the little man even as a sub - Secretary of the Treasury of the Cabinet Michael Joseph Savage ( 1935-40 ). Due to its comparatively radical positions, however, he made ​​many enemies in his party, especially as he denounced the lack of inner-party democracy. 1940 to mark a journalistic attack against Lee Savage offend a few days before his death from cancer from the party, founded Lee the Democratic Labour Party, which admittedly meager section in the elections of 1943. Since Lee had lost his seat and also can hold had, in his new party to maintain those autocratic leadership style, which he had chalked up his old, he turned urgency to the writing. In this area, Lee, inspired by the books of Jack London and Upton Sinclair, had tried in 1934 successfully with his autobiographical and documentary embossed novel Children of the Poor ( Children of Poverty ). Lee had a lucky hand for characters and voltage, but lacked the aesthetic distance that would have tempered his constant interventions in the fictional action. In addition to stories, non-fiction books and articles he wrote (1963 ) his political memoirs, in which he accuses the Labour Party as a traitor to the working class. They shine at least with its title: Simple on a Soapbox.

Works

  • Children of the Poor, an autobiographical novel, 1934
  • The Hunted, autobiographical novel, 1936
  • Civilian into Soldier, 1937
  • Socialism in New Zealand, 1938
  • The Yanks are Coming, novel, 1943
  • Shining with the Shiner, 1944 ( anecdotes about the rogues Ned Slattery, continued 1964)
  • Simple on a Soapbox, memories, 1963
  • Shiner Slattery, 1964
  • The Lee Way to Public Speaking, 1965
  • Delinquent Days, 1967 ( from Lee's youth, sequel to The Hunted )
  • Mussolini 's Millions, detective novel, 1970
  • Political notebook, 1973
  • For Mine is the Kingdom, 1975 ( via the " Brewery Baron" Sir Ernest Hyam Davis, 1872-1962 )
  • Soldier, 1976
  • The Scrim -Lee Papers, 1976 ( with CG Scrimgeour and Tony Samson )
  • Roughnecks, Rolling Stones & Rouseabouts, 1977
  • Early Days in New Zealand, 1977
  • The John A. Lee Diaries 1936-1940, 1981
  • The Politician, novel, 1987 ( written 1936)
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