Harvey Swados (1920–1972) was born in Buffalo, the son of a doctor. A graduate of the University of Michigan, he served in the merchant marine during World War II and published his first novel, Out Went the Candle, in 1955. His other books include the novels The Will, Standing Fast, and Celebration. His collection of stories set in an auto plant, titled On the Line (1957), is widely regarded as a classic of the literature of labor. He also penned various collections of nonfiction, including A Radical’s America. Swados’s 1959 essay for Esquire, “Why Resign from the Human Race?,” is often credited with inspiring the formation of the Peace Corps.
