David Karsner

David Fulton Karsner (1889–1941) was an American journalist, writer, and socialist political activist. Karsner is best remembered as a key member of the editorial staff of the New York Call and as an early biographer of Socialist Party of America leader Eugene V. Debs.

Biography

Early years

David Karsner was born March 13, 1889, at Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Cecil J. and Anita Karsner. The elder Karsner worked as an official at the Port of Baltimore.

Both of Karsner's parents died when David was still young and he wound up in a Baltimore orphanage and school for underprivileged boys. While in Chicago Karsner made the acquaintance of a number of socialist intellectuals, including Upton Sinclair, Jack London, and Carl Sandburg.

Disaffected from the increasingly conservative Socialist Party, Karsner turned to writing non-fiction, authoring biographies of President Andrew Jackson and radical abolitionist John Brown.

Another of Karsner's biographical works, a 1932 book on Colorado businessman and politician H.A.W. Tabor was made into a motion picture by Warner Brothers. The film starred Edward G. Robinson in the lead role and debuted in December 1932.

Footnotes

Works "Carrying the Banner," International Socialist Review, vol. 12, no. 11 (May 1912), pp. 756–759. "Horace Traubel," The Western Comrade, vol. 1, no. 11 (March 1913), pp. 366–367. Debs Goes to Prison. New York: Irving Kay Davis and Co., 1919. Debs: His Authorized Life and Letters from Woodstock Prison to Atlanta. New York: Boni and Liveright, 1919. Horace Traubel: His Life and Work. New York: E. Arens, 1919. Talks with Debs in Terre Haute (and Letters from Lindlahr). New York: New York Call, 1922. "The Passing of the Socialist Party," Current History, vol. 20, no. 2 (June 1924). Sixteen Authors to One: Intimate Sketches of Leading American Story Tellers. Illustrations by Esther M. Mattsson. New York: Lewis Copeland Co., 1928. Andrew Jackson: The Gentle Savage. New York: Brentano's, 1929. Silver Dollar: The Story of the Tabors. New York: Covici-Friede, 1932. John Brown, Terrible "Saint." Illustrated by Esther Eberson Karsner. New York: Dodd, Mead and Co., 1934.