Fred's birth name was Fred Herz but he didn't like being considered a Jew so he changed his name. Fred was a 100% Marxist, he sounded just like Noam
Chimpsky. They both read from the same bible.
Fred was my maternal uncle and a wonderfully sweet guy. Fred was single all his life. He made millions by letting his Harvard roommate, a stock broker and investor invest his money. Phil Strauss (later a partner in Neuberger Burman) made millions for Fred. The money meant nothing to Fred who lived 40 years in the same tiny rent controlled apartment on East 96th St. in New York without a car.
Fred
loved the weekly National Guardian founded in 1948, a Marxist newspaper
with national circulation, published in New York. Fred did menial work
for the Guardian in the circulation department and kept the circulation
files under his lock and key. Which was appropriate because beginning
in the mid-1950s Fred became the sole financial supporter of the
National Guardian.
Nobody who worked for the paper knew that
Fred was the sole financial supporter. The paper would put on an
annual fund raising theater event for a nominal few dollars donation.
The piddling $1,000 take was supplemented by Fred putting in $200
thousand in cash. So nobody knew that Fred was the sole supporter.
With Fred's secret subsidy the paper lasted until Fred died in the early 1990's. It died with Fred.
The Fred Harte Type Subsidy continues in publishing. The Nation, New Republic, Mother Jones, New Criterion and most other political magazines get a Fred Harte Type Subsidy to survive. So does the S.F. Chronicle, The New Yorker and soon the New York Times.