Martin Ebon (May 27, 1917 – February 11, 2006) was the pen-name of Hans Martin Schwarz, an American journalist and author of non-fiction books and articles from the paranormal to politics, particularly as an anti-communist.

Background

Hans Martin Schwarz was born on May 27, 1917, in Hamburg, Germany.

Career

During the 1930s, Schwarz published in Israelitisches Familienblatt among other German-Jewish periodicals. In 1938, Schwarz emigrated to the USA, lived in New York City from 1938 onwards, and changed his name from Hans Martin Schwartz to Martin Ebon. During World War II, he served in the U.S. Office of War Information (formed June 1942), the U.S. Department of State (as an information officer), and by 1948 had joined the staff of Partisan Review magazine. In January 1948, Ebon published his first book in English, World Communism Today. The book reviewed a century of Marxism, following the publication of the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in 1848. Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. praised the book as an "outstanding work on communist penetration and strategy." The book was cited as an expert source, e.g., 60,000 members in the Korean Communist Party as of 1949. In March 1948, he appeared on WMAL AM radio in Washington, DC, to discuss "Which Way America – Fascism, Communism, Socialism, or Democracy?" with Raymond Moley (Conservative), Norman Thomas (Socialist), and Leon Milton Birkhead (Unitarian). His July 1948 article "Communist Tactics in Palestine" in the Middle East Journal received a favorably review as "carefully documented" and "objective and non-partisan." In 1953, his book Malenkov: Stalin's Successor received mixed reviews as "short," quickly published (weeks after Stalin's death), and carefully appraising thanks to the author's previous book on world communism. It drew favorable comparison to Eugene Lyons' Our Secret Allies. Ebon held various positions in book and magazine retailing, including:

Personal life and death

Ebon married Chariklia Baltazzi; they had one son. Martin Ebon died age 82 on February 11, 2006, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Legacy

The Center for Jewish History houses articles written by Ebon between 1934 and 1938 for German-Jewish newspapers, plus reviews of his German-language books.

Works

Ebon published dozens of books on world affairs and parapsychology.