May Swenson: "Work and Sleep and Drop Dead"

Sad Men Podcast

This episode explores the Great Depression writings of the great poet, May Swenson. We explore Swenson's work for the Federal Writers Project, a radical piece of New Deal legislation that put hundreds of unemployed writers back to work creating city guidebooks, cultural essays, and oral histories in the mid 1930s. Swenson joined the folklore unit of the Federal Writers Project, interviewing a series of department store workers, immigrants and factory employees at the National Biscuit Company. Photo: National Biscuit Company Building, 15th St. & 10th Ave., NYC. http://www.loc.gov/item/00650317/ You can find her collected poems at this link: https://www.loa.org/books/381-collected-poems This episode also included music by Kevin MacLeod. "Sneaky Snitch" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ "Moonlight Hall" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/