Finkelstein, Sidney Walter, 1909-1974

Sidney Finkelstein, born in Brooklyn, New York on July 4, 1909, received his Bachelor’s degree from City College in New York in 1929 and his A.M. from Columbia University in 1932 before he became a renowned critic of music, literature, and the arts. In 1955, he earned a second master’s degree from New York University. During the 1930s he served as a book reviewer for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle and worked for the United Postal Service. In the 1940s he joined the music staff of the Herald Tribune and also served as a music reviewer for several other publications including New Masses, Masses, and Mainstream. Finkelstein became active in the Communist Party U.S.A. (CPUSA) where he served as the party’s leading musical and cultural theoretician. Finkelstein applied his interpretation of Socialist Realism in several books on arts and culture, the most famous being Jazz, a People’s Music (1948). Between 1951 and 1973 he served on the staff of Vanguard Records, a New York based record label that specialized in jazz and classical recordings. In 1957 he was called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee for his Communist party affiliation. Finkelstein died in Brooklyn, New York on January 14, 1974.

The Sidney Finkelstein Papers (1914-1974) are organized
into 3 series: Biographical (1914-1969), Correspondence
(1934-1974), and Writings (1949-1973, n.d.). Biographical
materials include legal documents, educational, military, and
personal records, financial papers and contracts,
photographs, and lecture and course notes. Correspondence
includes letters both to and from Mr. Finkelstein and
consists primarily of informal discussions of his works and
the writings of others on related topics. Finkelstein’s
writings constitute the bulk of the collection and include
original manuscripts of reviews, articles, essays and books
he wrote during his career. Finkelstein’s writings cover a
broad array of topics and include discussions of jazz,
classical music, music criticism, aesthetics, literary
criticism, profiles of the work of individual artists, and
Socialist Realism and its relevance and application to
cultural studies.

This collection is organized into three series:

• Series 1. Biographical, 1914-1969
• Series 2. Correspondence, 1934-1974
• Series 3. Writings, 1949-1973