Tom McGrath: A Personal and Political Memoir

Lubka’s is the memoir of a communist militant who in the early 1970s struck a late and enduring friendship with McGrath. Lubka details the common ground—both personal and political—that laid down the solid basis for their friendship. He emphasizes the continuity and consistency of McGrath’s political commitment, encouraging readers not to water down the poet’s never-flagging faith in Marxism. The memoir spans a period which saw McGrath take an active part in protests against the Vietnam War, visit Portugal in the wake of the Carnation Revolution, lead a reading circle focusing on the Marxist-Leninist classics, and write the third and fourth parts of Letter to an Imaginary Friend. Lubka gives his account of those moments and times in McGrath’s life of which he was a first-hand witness.