Agnes Smedley

Agnes Smedley (1892–1950) was an American journalist, author, and political activist known for reporting on China and for her autobiography, Daughter of Earth.

Zhu De: A Chinese communist military leader who helped found the People's Liberation Army. Smedley met Zhu De in Yan'an and later wrote a biography based on his life.
Daughter of Earth: Agnes Smedley’s 1929 autobiographical novel about a woman’s poverty, education, and political awakening. This autobiographical novel is Smedley’s best-known account of her early life and radicalization.
Born in Missouri: Agnes Smedley was born in Osgood, Missouri, in 1892. Her rural Missouri childhood supplied material for the poverty described in Daughter of Earth.
Yan'an: A city in Shaanxi Province that served as the Chinese Communist Party’s base from 1937 to 1947. Smedley reported from Yan'an and described communist leaders and wartime society there.
Edgar Snow: An American journalist whose books and reporting introduced China’s communist movement to Western audiences. Like Smedley, Snow reported from China and made its revolutionary politics accessible to Western readers.
The Great Road: Agnes Smedley’s biography of Chinese communist leader Zhu De, published in 1956. Smedley’s biography presents Zhu De’s life and the Chinese revolution she witnessed.
Daughter of Earth and the American working class: A social history of working-class poverty and mobility in the United States reflected in Smedley’s autobiography. Smedley’s account transforms her family’s economic hardship into a critique of class inequality.
Chinese Communist Revolution: The political and military struggle that brought the Chinese Communist Party to power in 1949. Smedley’s China reporting documented people and events connected to the revolutionary movement.
Helen Foster Snow: An American journalist and writer who reported on China and documented its revolutionary movements. Her reporting on China overlapped with Smedley’s work and the same expatriate journalistic circles.
Battle Hymn of China: Agnes Smedley’s 1943 account of China’s resistance to Japanese invasion. The book draws on her reporting from China during the war against Japan.

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