He is best remembered as a longtime editor of New Masses, a literary and artistic magazine closely associated with the Communist Party USA (CPUSA).
[7] Following graduation, and with an interest in writing and journalism, Jacob Soifer landed a series of cub reporter jobs on Pennsylvania newspapers such as The Chester Times.
[2] On May Day 1929, while reporting on a free speech demonstration organized by the International Labor Defense (ILD) in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, he was clubbed by police and thrown in jail.
[14] During his tenure at the magazine, and in his travels and reporting as a foreign correspondent, North came in contact with many notable writers and artists.
His 1958 memoir, No Men Are Strangers, describes encounters he had with people such as Theodore Dreiser, Lincoln Steffens, Edmund Wilson, Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Wolfe, Dorothy Parker, Louis Aragon, and Charlie Chaplin.
[16] In a similar vein, North recounted an incident in the Spanish Civil War when he and Hemingway were holed up together in a room in Madrid during an artillery barrage from a Nazi battery:After the third drink, he [Hemingway] began to laud the Lincoln Brigade, their courage about which he had frequently written.
"[18] Despite these barbs, Hemingway wrote a complimentary Foreword to North's 1939 pamphlet, Men in the ranks, the story of 12 Americans in Spain.
In his decades as a Daily Worker columnist, North developed a writing style that mixed humor with serious commentary.
[20]For several years starting in the late 1940s, North lectured at the Jefferson School of Social Science,[14] which was included on the Attorney General's List of Subversive Organizations.
He invoked the Fifth Amendment and refused to answer questions pertaining to his CPUSA membership, or his alleged contacts with Soviet intelligence in World War II.
While in Cuba in April 1961, he accompanied Prime Minister Fidel Castro's forces when they repelled the U.S.-backed Bay of Pigs Invasion.
During the last four of his sixteen months covering the Spanish Civil War, she was in Spain also, working in the medical service.
On numerous occasions, she had to assume the breadwinner role since Joseph's job as a journalist did not provide enough income to support the family, and he was often abroad on assignments.
[7] Joseph North died of leukemia on December 20, 1976, at a hospital in San Juan, Puerto Rico while on a visit to the island.