Calvin Fixx

Calvin Fixx, born Calvin Henry Fix (August 1, 1906 – March 3, 1950), was an American journalist and editor, lifelong friend of Robert Cantwell and friend of Whittaker Chambers, both fellow editors at Time magazine. All three were either Marxist or communist during the 1920s and 1930s but had become anti-communists by 1939.

Background

Calvin Fixx was born Calvin Henry Fix in Lyman, Idaho, on August 1, 1906, the son of Henry Martin Fix (1883–1971) and Maggie Priscilla Smith Fix (1888–1958). He had two brothers, Ford and Harley, and a sister, Georgia.

Career

In 1927, Fixx hitchhiked cross-country to New York City. He took a part-time job in a Greenwich Village bookshop and wrote freelance book reviews. He took other jobs, such as secretary to author Lyle Saxon. At this time, he added a second "x" to his surname because, he said, "a verb cannot be a name." He began to act informally as Cantwell's agent and helped him publish his first major short story. In 1929, he encouraged Robert Cantwell to come to New York City and they shared a flat in Greenwich Village.

In early 1939, Fitzgerald resigned. In April 1939, Chambers was hired by Henry Luce, and Fixx joined Chambers in the Books section. In 1940, William Saroyan lists Fixx among "contributing editors" at Time in Saroyan's play, Love's Old Sweet Song.

In October 1942, while working in Time's "Back of the Book" section with Chambers, Fixx suffered a "severe heart attack", most probably brought on by the routine he and Chambers had adopted of "work[ing] a day and a half nonstop, stimulating themselves with six packs of cigarettes and a continual stream of coffee". Luce gave him a year's leave and salary to recover. (Allen Weinstein notes that the FBI had visited Chambers in May 1942 to question him about his communist activities. )

Upon Fixx's return, in 1943, he gave up editorial work for "special projects" (as did Chambers).

Personal life and death

On October 31, 1930, Fixx married Marlys Virginia Fuller (1906–2004) of Detroit, Michigan, a graduate of the 1929 class at Northwestern University. They lived at 3328 81 Street, Jackson Heights, Queens, New York. When son Jim Fixx died, he left his estate to her, worth several million dollars.

Calvin Fixx died age 43 on March 3, 1950, of a second heart attack, in an Atlantic City hospital. Surviving him were his wife, both parents, son James, daughter Catherine, brothers Ford and Harley, and sister Georgia.

Colleagues

Fixx's death at age 43 profoundly affected his close friends. His death helped take away all motivation in Cantwell to write. Chambers took his son John to Fixx's funeral.

Communism and the Hiss case

In the 1930s during the popular front years, Fixx was either a member of the Communist Party USA or supportive of Marxism. By 1939 with the Hitler-Stalin Pact, he started toward anti-communism, following Cantwell and Chambers. David Cort rewrote his own account: A ghoulish episode occurred, instigated by that plausible Cagliostro on Time magazine, Whittaker Chambers. His totally unnecessary routine of working his foreign department through every night on black coffee reduced one willing colleague, Calvin Fixx, to a heart attack. Subsequent writers repeated this charge, often near-verbatim from Cort.

Works

Time did not give bylines during Fixx's tenure, but he also published elsewhere, including these in The New Republic:

"King Cole by W.R. Burnett" (1936) "The House of Tavelinck by Jo van Ammers-Kuller" (1938) "Dynasty of Death by Taylor Caldwell" (1938) "Meek Heritage by F.E. Sillanpaa" (1938) "Horns for our Adornment by Aksel Sandemose" (1938) "The Monument by Pamela Hansford Johnson" (1938)