NEW:
Eleanor Roosevelt - an essay by Phillip Bonosky

Books by Phillip Bonosky

Burning Valley.
Masses & Mainstream Publishers, 1953; University of Illinois Press, 1997: Taking place in a Pennsylvania steel city, this novel places the development of a Lithuanian-American boy, Benedict, in the context of social and working conditions in the steel industry of the 1920s. His growing awareness of the need for a union, and of the forces mounted against it by powerful institutions is traced with sensitivity to the social, family, and religious traditions of immigrants as they come to grips with new and decisive dilemmas.
Buy Burning Valley at Amazon.com or here or here

“I love very much the novel (Burning Valley): it is rare to find a good book about the working class written by one of them.” – Simone de Beauvoir

"...it is beautiful, it is truth, it is simplicity, it is decency and dignity and honor and righteousness. Burning Valley is a peoples' story, and the people in the story are peoples' people..." - William Saroyan


Brother Bill McKie: Building the Union at Ford.
International Publishers, 1953; International Publishers, 2000: With an introduction by legendary labor organizer and Communist William Z. Foster, this book details the life of a heroic union organizer in the car industry of the 1930s and 1940s. In spite of the fact that the Ford Motor Company opposed the unionization of its work force with a ferocity that perhaps surpassed the anti-union drives of the other automobile manufacturers, people of courage and skill succeeded in bringing about the collective effort of working people to building the United Auto Workers.
Buy Brother Bill McKie: Building the Union at Ford at Amazon.com


The Magic Fern.
International Publishers, 1961: Explores the impact of automation on the submerged working world, with special attention to the steel mills. By illustrating the intricate connections and tensions of class, race, gender, community, and politics which shape the struggles of labor, Magic Fern was ahead of its times.
Buy The Magic Fern
 

Dragon Pink on Old White.
Marzani & Munsell, 1963: A pioneering, but critical, eyewitness account of the art, culture, and social psychology of China: areas which were then, and still are today, widely neglected by most American reporters.
Buy Dragon Pink on Old White at Amazon or here or here


Beyond the Borders of Myth: From Vilnius to Hanoi.
Praxis Publishers, 1967: A pathbreaking study of life in two small nations, written in the early stages of the Vietnam war. In showing how far the two nations had come in their progress, while under the pressure of war and tradition, Bonosky analyzes the interaction of social, economic, and political influences. Includes a rare interview with legendary Vietnamese resistance leader, Ho Chi Minh.
Buy Beyond the Borders of Myth: From Vilnius to Hanoi at Amazon or here

“All Lithuanians whom I met exemplified freedom. I also met author Phillip Bonosky who had already been in Lithuania before. He would hardly come to meet slaves.” – Jean-Paul Sartre.


Are Our Reporters Giving Us the Facts About the USSR?
 Progress Publishers, 1981: An insightful glance into the conflict between truth and reality in the manner in which Western correspondents reported news about the Soviet Union in the Cold War.
Buy Are Our Reporters Giving Us the Facts About the USSR?


Washington’s Secret War Against Afghanistan.
International Publishers, 1985; International Publishers, 2001: The result of two visits in the early 1980s, Bonosky’s book reveals with foresight how U.S. decision-makers provided support, arms, and organization to the forces which eventually created the Taliban and Al Quaida.
Buy Washington’s Secret War Against Afghanistan
 

A Bird in Her Hair and Other Stories.
International Publishers, 1987: Featuring three drawings made by noted artist Alice Neel expressly for this book. Covering a range of life situations from childhood to adulthood, ranging in subject from sports to strikes, Bonosky’s stories are among the highlights of his literary work.
Buy A Bird in Her Hair and Other Stories
 

Stories Included in Anthologies

The Wishing Well, in Robert S. Gold, editor, Point of Departure: 19 Stories of Youth and Discovery, Dell Publishing Co., 1967

The Experts, in Joseph Gaer, editor, Our Lives: 32 Short Stories About American Labor, Boni and Gaer, 1948.

The Wishing Well, in Harvey Granite et. al., editors, Vibrations, Houghton Mifflin, 1971.

The Wishing Well, in Hans P. Guth, editor, Discovering Your World, D.C. Heath, 1981.

The First Robin in the World, in Jay S. Blanchard and Ursula Casonova, editors, Modern Fiction About School Teaching,  Allyn and Bacon, 1996.


Selected short stories published in the literary magazines Masses & Mainstream and Mainstream (Bonosky was an editor of both)

Masses & Mainstream

The Picnic, Vol. 1, No. 1 (March 1948)

A Quiet Summer’s Day, Vol. 1, No. 6 (August 1948)

Johnny Cuco’s Record, Vol. 2. No. 1 (January 1949)

Dickie and the Fat Lady, Vol. 3, No. 6 (June 1950)

And of the Son, Vol. 4, No. 5 (May 1951)

Wildcat, Vol. 5, No. 1 (January 1952)

The Life and Death of a Steel Worker, Vol. 5, No. 4 (April 1952)

Smog, Vol. 6, No. 10 (October 1953)

Charity Ward, Vol. 7, No. 8 (August 1954)


Mainstream


Margin for Maneuver, Vol. 9, No. 10 (November 1956)

The Seasons on Mulberry Street, Vol. 11, No. 9 (September 1958)

The Meeting in the Church, Vol. 14, No. 3 (March 1961)

The Return: A Story, Vol. 15, No. 1 (January 1962)

On the Bowery, Vol. 15, No. 6 (June 1962)

Chinaman’s Chance, Vol. 15, No. 9 (September 1962)

The Soft Touch Vol. 15, No. 11 (November 1962)

Anatomy of a Mine Disaster, Vol. 16, No. 6 (June 1963)