August 23 – Happy Birthday, Malvina Reynolds

nPosted on August 23, 2020

Key Points

Born on this date in 1900, Malvina Reynolds was a true Turn-of-the-Century child! Her parents were Jewish socialists who immigrated to the U.S. before Malvina was born.

Reynolds was born and raised in San Francisco, California, and she wasn’t allowed to get her high school diploma because her parents were opposed to the U.S. involvement in World War I. Not getting the diploma didn’t stand in Reynolds’s way, though; she went to UC Berkeley and earned a BA and MA in English. She married a carpenter and union organizer, raised a child, and earned a Doctorate in 1939.

nBut she wasn’t able to find a job teaching at the college level, despite her PhD. She was a woman; she was Jewish; she was socialist. And the nation was suffering from the Great Depression! So….

nReynolds got a job as a social worker, wrote a column for a Marxist newspaper, worked in a factory making bombs (!), and eventually took over her father’s tailor shop.

That tailor shop was located in Southern California (Long Beach, to be exact). And Reynolds began to meet some famous people like folk singer Pete Seeger. All of a sudden – in her late 40s – she launched a songwriting career!

Reynolds wrote songs recorded by amazing musicians such as Harry Belafonte, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, Judy Collins, Marianne Faithful, the Seekers, the Searchers, the Limeliters, and others. She wrote songs for Women for Peace, for the Nestle Boycott, and for a variety of sit-ins and protests.