George Lyman Paine, Jr. known as Lyman Paine, was an architect and radical left

Far left

Far left, also known as the revolutionary left, radical left and extreme left are terms which refer to the highest degree of leftist positions among left-wing politics...

 activist. He is known for his work with the Correspondence Publishing Committee

Correspondence Publishing Committee

Correspondence Publishing Committee was a radical left organization led by C.L.R. James and Martin Glaberman that existed in the United States from approximately 1951 until it split in 1962.-History:...

 with his wife Freddy Paine, and was closely associated with Grace Lee Boggs

Grace Lee Boggs

Grace Lee Boggs is an author, lifelong social activist and feminist. She is known for her years of political collaboration with C.L.R. James and Raya Dunayevskaya in the 1940s and 1950s. She eventually went off in her own political direction in the 1960s with her husband of some forty years, James...

.

Paine was born in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 in 1901. His father George Lyman Paine, Sr. was an Episcopal priest and a Christian Socialist, the son of philanthropist Robert Treat Paine

Robert Treat Paine (Boston)

Robert Treat Paine, Jr. was a Boston lawyer, philanthropist and social reformer and grandson of the signer of the Declaration of Independence...

. After graduating from Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

 in 1922, G. Lyman Jr. became an architect. He married Ruth Forbes of the distinguished Forbes family

Forbes family

The Forbes family is a wealthy extended American family originating in Boston. The family's fortune originates from trading between North America and China in the 19th century plus other investments in the same period. The name descends from Scottish immigrants, and can be traced back to Sir John...

 in 1926. They were divorced in 1934.

In the mid-1930s, Lyman became active in Marxist

Marxism

Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...

 politics. While working for the New York City Housing Authority

New York City Housing Authority

The New York City Housing Authority provides public housing for low- and moderate-income residents throughout the five boroughs of New York City. NYCHA also administers a citywide Section 8 Leased Housing Program in rental apartments...

, Lyman met Frances "Freddy" Drake (1912-1999), whom he married in 1939. Lyman and Freddy Paine were early members of the Johnson-Forest Tendency

Johnson-Forest Tendency

The Johnson–Forest tendency, sometimes called the Johnsonites, refers to a radical left tendency in the United States associated with Marxist theorists C.L.R. James and Raya Dunayevskaya, who used the pseudonyms J.R. Johnson and Freddie Forest respectively...

, a group within the Trotskyist

Trotskyism

Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. Trotsky considered himself an orthodox Marxist and Bolshevik-Leninist, arguing for the establishment of a vanguard party of the working-class...

 Socialist Workers Party

Socialist Workers Party (United States)

The Socialist Workers Party is a far-left political organization in the United States. The group places a priority on "solidarity work" to aid strikes and is strongly supportive of Cuba...

 which included Grace Lee Boggs

Grace Lee Boggs

Grace Lee Boggs is an author, lifelong social activist and feminist. She is known for her years of political collaboration with C.L.R. James and Raya Dunayevskaya in the 1940s and 1950s. She eventually went off in her own political direction in the 1960s with her husband of some forty years, James...

 and her husband James Boggs

James Boggs (activist)

James Boggs was an American political activist, auto worker and author. He was married to feminist activist Grace Lee Boggs for forty years until his death in 1993.-Biography:...

. The Johnson-Forest group split from the main current of the Trotskyist left at the beginning of the 1950s, setting up the Correspondence Publishing Committee

Correspondence Publishing Committee

Correspondence Publishing Committee was a radical left organization led by C.L.R. James and Martin Glaberman that existed in the United States from approximately 1951 until it split in 1962.-History:...

 which produced the newspaper Correspondence. When Johnson-Forest founder C. L. R. James

C. L. R. James

Cyril Lionel Robert James , who sometimes wrote under the pen-name J.R. Johnson, was an Afro-Trinidadian historian, journalist, socialist theorist and essayist. His works are influential in various theoretical, social, and historiographical contexts...

 left the group in 1962, the Paines remained with the Committee and the Boggses.

By his first wife, Lyman Paine was the father of two sons, Cameron and Michael. Michael's wife Ruth Paine

Ruth Paine

Ruth Hyde Paine was a friend of Marina Oswald who was living with her at the time of the JFK assassination. Lee Harvey Oswald stored the 6.5 mm caliber Carcano rifle he allegedly used to assassinate US President John F. Kennedy in her garage, unbeknownst to her and her husband, Michael Paine.-...

 befriended the wife of Lee Harvey Oswald

Lee Harvey Oswald

Lee Harvey Oswald was, according to four government investigations,These were investigations by: the Federal Bureau of Investigation , the Warren Commission , the House Select Committee on Assassinations , and the Dallas Police Department. the sniper who assassinated John F...

, and both Michael and Ruth testified before the Warren Commission

Warren Commission

The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, known unofficially as the Warren Commission, was established on November 27, 1963, by Lyndon B. Johnson to investigate the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963...

 after the assassination

John F. Kennedy assassination

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States, was assassinated at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas...

 of President Kennedy

John F. Kennedy

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....

.

Lyman Paine died in 1978 and Freddy Paine in 1999. Both are buried on Sutton Island

Sutton Island

Sutton Island, in Hancock County, Maine, is a small, private island south of Mount Desert Island, and north of Cranberry Isles, Maine. Its dimensions are roughly 2.1 km on its east-west axis by 1.1km north to south....

, Maine

Maine

Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...

where they had summered for many years.

Writings

• Towards understanding Russia. I. Report of the British Quaker mission to Moscow, 1951. II. Objective thinking on communism 1952
• Sutton Island, Maine: its houses, people, animals, weather 1963