[ book tip by Michael Boyle ] 'The most notorious figure in the Southern California Communist Party, she had already made her mark as an agitator while in her teens. Steinbeck fashioned one of his farm labor organizer characters in In Dubious Battle directly from Dorothy's real-life persona.'

http://zmagsite.zmag.org/Sep2006/cooper0906.html

[ book info ] Ray Healey,Dorothy and Isserman, Maurice, : California Red (A Life in the American Communist party). Oxford University Press, New York, 1990 . ISBN: 0-252-06278-7.