#I understand why the original poster didn't include the full section on antisemitism and capitalist assimilation/infighting

[oliveroctavius]

Reposting this thread by historical nonfiction writer Sean Howe from Twitter, because god damn:

"People would later talk about the "Superman curse," but this newly unearthed 1951 letter from Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel— mailed with mysterious white powder—actually invokes it. Siegel sent the letter to Harry Donenfeld and Jack Liebowitz of DC Comics (then officially National Comics Publications) in December 1951. The first Superman movie, SUPERMAN AND THE MOLE MEN (starring George Reeves) had just opened and was currently in theaters."

The letter, fully transcribed:

On the occasion of this Christmas Season, when you have turned deaf ears and cold hearts upon the man you deliberately ruined I put on you a curse: May you become subject to all of the horrible maladies that beset mankind: disease, fire, flood, gas, tragedy, self-destruction, ropes, and sharp and heavy instruments. May God crash doom down on the bones, and flesh, and blood of you and yours. I see by the current Sunday SUPERMAN strip that SUPERMAN, famous big-hearted do-gooder, is helping a young lad. How kind and humane! This touched me until I recalled that SUPERMAN's owners stole SUPERBOY from his creator while he was in the Army. Then I began to laugh—laugh at SUPERMAN's owners, who SELL Superman's goodness for money, while wiping off the blood from the knife they stuck into his creator's back. Imagine--THIEVES controlling SUPERMAN, the greatest battler for Justice in the world! HA-HA-HA!!! I have created what I call the 'Identification Game.' You reads 'em ... and let your conscience identify 'em: (1) PHILAND RING DRUNKEN RUNT (2) A HUNK OF FOUL KOSHER ROUMANIAN PASTRAMI (3) 'PHILANTHROPIC' PHONY (4) FAT RAT (5) SADISTIC SWINE You are herewith invited to grab this, as you grabbed my other creations. Like yourself, I am a Jew. I have read of your wonderful philanthropic work on behalf of the Jews and am writing to you for help as one Jew to another. You see, some Jews have given me a rough time--snatched away my creations, and slyly deprived me of an income from them. As a gladiator who fights in behalf of downtrodden Jew--whether they come from Roumania or anywhere else, I appeal to the hope that you will do something about these clever Jews. They have cut off pounds of my flesh. With their Jewish lawyers, they have deprived a fellow Jew from earning a living with his phenomenal creations. How can you battle the so-called "International Jew" legends as depicted in the Protocols of Zion when Jews like the above are permitted to stick a knife in the economic back of another Jew, facing him with the necessity of having to go on relief? Millions for these cunning grasping money-lusting jews, and poverty for the Jew they ruined! I have placed a bitter curse on these Jews, and they and theirs will suffer under the curse for all time. I spit on them and hope it won't be long before they rot in hell. - When SUPERMAN goes on television, if not earlier, the story of his birth will be unfolded. Jerry Siegel ROTTEN PROFITEERS MAKE MILLIONS WHILE SUPERMAN'S CREATOR IS POVERTY-STRUCK

"(The publishers sent the white powder out to a lab for testing; it was corn starch.)"