Her journalism has been translated into French, Italian and Spanish, but not yet published in English. Her photographs show the influence of Walker Evans and Dorothea Lang and are archived in the Swiss Literary Archives in Bern.
Schwarzenbach’s journalism appeared in Swiss newspapers and periodicals.
She spent time with activist Myles Horton in the Highlander Folk School and met the writer Carson McCullers in New York. She observed the aftermath of the Depression and Roosevelt’s New Deal in the cotton belt and mining towns of Pennsylvania.
For months there had been no newspapers without weighty economic analyses, no movie programs without weekly newsreels on the private and family lives of the presidential candidates, and in the papers hardly any column inches devoted to the Spanish Civil War, the depreciated Swiss franc, or the divorce proceedings of the American-born Mrs Simpson, about whom Americans at the moment are passionately curious, even during an election campaign.Īnnemarie Schwarzenbach External link (1908-1942) was a Swiss writer, reporter and photographer who travelled in the United States from 1936-1937 and again from 1940-1941. For months hardly any soothing jazz played on the radio, only Father Coughlan’s thumping demagoguery punctuated by the renegade Al Smith, former friend of President Roosevelt, ironically ridiculed, with both Coughlan and Smith castigated and factually brought to heel by elected representatives. America, entirely understandably, was suffering from election fatigue. The pundits on street corners also had scant success the public had grown used to them for weeks and, besides, by now everybody had made up their mind which way they would vote. But such songs were too traditional to ever come across as nationalistic and party-political. On other corners there was singing – lively country and western songs, used as propaganda by veterans’ and women’s leagues, and glorified by Republican committees. On many street corners people paused and gathered around to listen to speakers and then went on their way, leisurely strolling with wives and children. Most businesses and offices closed, and the metropolis gave itself a holiday. The entire city seemed flagging, almost as though citizens, harassed by the election campaign, took a welcome breather a few hours before the decision was announced – anticipated for months and for which the whole nation had been prepared. The air was warm, muggy, oppressive, and quite exhausting. Already by noon, in the canyon-like streets of New York, lights had to be switched on, and towards evening a light rain fell. The unassuming overcast November day proceeded quietly. America’s future hangs on the answer to this question. The question now is whether Roosevelt will be re-elected to his second term or whether the opposing Republican candidate, Alfred Landon, might beat him at the polls. As every citizen and voter knows, it commemorates some of the more important dates in America’s history, such as Abraham Lincoln’s election to the presidency, the end of the Civil War, and perhaps also the Declaration of Independence. Manhattan in the 1930s Albin-Guillot/Roger-Viollet