Judith Malina’s newly restored diaries from a critical early decade in her personal, artistic, and political development

Judith Malina’s diaries from 1947 to 1957 are brought back into print in this volume, which charts her cofounding of The Living Theatre with husband and lifelong artistic partner Julian Beck. In these diaries, she narrates her developing political commitments and her expansive collaborations and personal relationships, as well as a moving account of her time in prison with activist Dorothy Day. This new edition features Kate Bredeson’s comprehensive introduction, which offers a detailed examination of Malina’s life and work in this period, along with additional historical context of these years and never-before-published photographs from Malina’s personal archives.

The Diaries of Judith Malina is a four-volume set that publishes for the first time together the edited diaries of radical theater director, actor, and activist Judith Malina from 1947 to 1971, the most influential period of her remarkable and storied career. A committed anarchist and pacifist, Malina made theater as a way to stoke revolutionary action. Her diaries showcase her political and social observations, cultural commentary, self-reflection, and wit. This expertly prepared set invites us to recognize Malina for her accomplishments not only as an artist and an activist but as one of the great literary diarists.
 

JUDITH MALINA (1926–2015) was cofounder, with collaborator and husband Julian Beck, of The Living Theatre, a radical experimental company that rose to social and cultural prominence in New York City and internationally in the 1950s and ’60s and which she led until her death. She was a lifelong activist, artist, and diarist.

KATE BREDESON is a theater historian, translator, director, and dramaturg. She is a professor of theater at Reed College. She is the author of Occupying the Stage: The Theater of May ’68 and cotranslator with Thalia Wolff of The Inheritor, by Théâtre de l’Aquarium, both from Northwestern University Press. 
 

Introduction
Kate Bredeson
Chronology of Judith Malina and The Living Theatre, 1947–1957
Kate Bredeson
 
The Diaries of Judith Malina, 1947–1957
1947
1948
1949
1950
1951
1952
1953
1954
1955
1956
1957
 
Acknowledgments
Kate Bredeson
Index
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