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Louis Fischer (29 February 1896 - 15 January 1970) was a Jewish-American journalist of the 1950s. Among his works were a contribution to the ex-Communist treatise The God that Failed, as well as a biography of Mahatma Gandhi entitled The Life of Mahatma Gandhi. This book was used as the basis for the Academy Award-winning film Gandhi. Fischer's wife, Markoosha Fischer, was also a writer.

Early life

Louis Fischer, the son of a fish peddler, was born in Philadelphia on 29 February, 1896. After studying at the Philadelphia School of Pedagogy from 1914 to 1916 he became a schoolteacher.

In 1917, Fischer joined the Jewish Legion, a military unit based in Palestine. On his return to the United States, Fischer took up work at a news agency in New York City. In 1921, Fischer went to Germany and began contributing to the New York Evening Post as a European correspondent. The following year, he moved to Moscow, and in 1923 began working for The Nation.

While in the Soviet Union, Fischer published several books including Oil Imperialism: The International Struggle for Petroleum (1926) and The Soviets in World Affairs (1930). He also covered the Spanish Civil War and for a time was a member of the International Brigade fighting General Francisco Franco.

In 1938, Fischer returned to the United States and settled in New York. He continued to work for The Nation and wrote his autobiography, Men and Politics (1941).

Fischer left The Nation in 1945 after a dispute with the editor, Freda Kirchway, over the journal's sympathetic reporting of Joseph Stalin. His disillusionment with Communism, although he was never a member of the Communist Party, was reflected in his contribution to The God That Failed (1949). Fischer began writing for anti-Communist liberal magazines such as The Progressive. Louis Fischer taught about the Soviet Union at Princeton University until his death on January 15, 1970.

Works

• Oil Imperialism: The International Struggle for Petroleum (1926)
• The Soviets in World Affairs (1930)
• Men and Politics (autobiography) (1941)
• The God that Failed (contribution) (1949)
• The Life of Mahatma Gandhi (1950)
• Stalin (1952)
• Lenin (1964).
• The Essential Gandhi (editor) (1962).

References

• Articles lacking sources from October 2007
• 1896 births
• 1970 deaths
• American Jews
• People from Philadelphia