Harry Alan Potamkin

[2] Potamkin received a BS degree from New York University in 1921 and worked as a social worker at Smith Memorial Playground in Philadelphia.

[6] In 1930, Potamkin traveled to Kharkiv for the second Congress of the International Union of Revolutionary Writers, in the American delegation along with Joshua Kunitz, William Gropper, and other members of the John Reed Clubs.

[7] His film criticism was published in a wide variety of publications, including The Daily Worker, American Cinematographer, and Hound & Horn.

[11] Due to his political viewpoint, Potamkin has been described as the first American film critic to recognize as a medium that "played an active role in shaping the society that produced it".

[13] Potamkin was also active as a poet, though Kenneth Rexroth wrote that "the character of the Left press at that time prevented him from being widely published".