Exerpt from Exile's Return by Malcolm Crowley

There were several features of the case that stirred the intellectuals profoundly.  First of all ther was the situation of two men tried unjustly and sentenced to death, the old story of innocence endangered.  There was the fact that these men were radicals and had been arrested during the Palmer Raids, when the intellectuals had also been threatened.  There was the high smugness of the Massachusetts officials, some of whom turned themselves into caricatures of eveything that artists hate in teh bourgeoisie.  There were the international echoes of the case:  the riots in Paris, Berlin and London, the general strikes in Rosario and Montevideo, the bombs exploded in Sofia, Nice,  Basel and Buenos Aires.  Then, overshadowing all other issues, there were the personalities of two men who had spent seven years betweeen life and death, seven years of being threatened, praised, lied about and continually tortured with hope.  Most prisoners would have broken down or developed illusions of grandeur.  These two- little, impulsive, confiding Sacco and big, mustachioed Vanzetti- managed in their different fashions to remain skeptical and human, thanking their good friends, contriving presents for their lawyers and, incidentally, writing more eloquently than all the bigwigs who made speeches for and against them- the artists for, the politicians against.  It is no wonder that they aroused a blind hatred and a fanatical loyalty.
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