Title: 
Decision: A Review of Free Culture 

Date of Publication: 
Jan. 1941 (1:1) – Jan.-Feb. 1942 (3:1-2)

Place(s) of Publication: 
New York, NY

Frequency of Publication: 
Monthly

Circulation: 
At no time did it exceed 2,000 subscriptions out of 5,000 copies printed.

Publisher: 
Decision Inc.; Eunice Clark, President.

Physical Description: 
23 cm. Some illustrations. Approx. 70 – 135 pages.
Apr. 1941 introduced regularly monthly columns: Theatre with Ernest Boyd, Dance with Lincoln Kirstein, Art with Christopher Lazare, Music with Leonard Amster, and Film with Erich von Stroheim and Richard R. Plant.

Price:
Unknown

Editor(s): 
Klaus Mann

Assistant Editor(s): 
Eunice Clark (1:1)
Christopher Lazare (1:2-6, 2:1-3)
Alan Hartman (1:3-6, 2:1-3)
Muriel Rukeyser (2:1-6)
Rebecca Pitts (2:5-6)
Charles Neider (3:1-2)

Libraries with Original Issues: 
New York Public Library; University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Harvard University; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Pennsylvania State University; Brown University

Reprint Editions: 
Nendeln, Liechtenstein: Kraus Reprint, 1941.

Decision: A Review of Free Culture was founded in January 1941 by Klaus Mann, a German writer who moved to America after being expatriated in 1934. Decision was heavily political and anti-Nazi in focus. Mann hoped the magazine could unite people with democratic ideologies against Nazi Germany, and he preached a “new humanism” that was designed to “transcend all national boundaries” (Decision VI: i: 6).

The seventy- to eighty-page issues circulated monthly and contained numerous critical essays, poetry, stories, paintings, and articles describing “this month in […] books, the theatre, music, movies, and art.” (Decision I:i:5). Many well-known writers contributed to the magazine, including William Carlos Williams, Eudora Welty, and W. H. Auden. Despite their contributions the magazine never gained the necessary popularity to sustain publication. Its audience never grew to more than 2000 subscriptions, and Decision collapsed due to a lack of funds after only one year of publication.

The editors of Decision offered in their inaugural issue an explanation of the magazine’s title and an outline of its goals:

“We call this magazine Decision – not because we have a clean-cut political or intellectual program. This title means rather that we have decided to seek a program, to go on, to meet the challenge of humanity’s retrogression, to overcome the general dismay with the weapons of constructive thinking. This fact that we venture, just now, on the foundation of a literary periodical – of a review of Free Culture – is in itself a gesture of protest and a gesture of hope…[the goal of Decision is] to approach the great problems of modern life, not with the perfunctory curiosity of reporters nor with the routine pathos of politicians, but with the consuming fervor a good philosopher experiences in examining the intricacies of some vitally significant moot question, a good soldier when fighting for the cause he believes in.”

“Issues at Stake.” Decision. 1:1 (Jan 1941): 7.

Klaus Mann (Nov. 18, 1906 – May 21, 1949)
Editor: Jan. 1941 – Feb. 1942

Klaus Mann, a German author and the son of Nobel Prize-winning author Thomas Mann, was the editor for Decision: a Review of Free Culture throughout its entire publication. Mann fled Germany in 1933 in protest of the Nazi regime, was expatriated in 1934, and gained U.S. citizenship in 1938 (Jonas 5-7). He expressed his protest of fascism throughout his literary career, founding two literary journals that combined literature and politics: Die Sammlung, published in 1933 in Amsterdam, and Decision, published from 1941 to 1942 in New York. Consistent with the anti-Nazi themes of Mann’s periodicals, his most well-known novel, Mephisto (1936), was a political satire that attacked Hitler’s impact on Germany (Frisch 2). Mann moved back to Europe to continue supporting harmony among democratic ideologies in 1949, but during that same year he committed suicide by overdosing on sleeping pills (Jonas 10).

Sherwood Anderson
“Girl by the Stove”
“Italian Poet in America”

W.H. Auden
“Poem”
“Symposium: Role of Intellectuals in Political Affairs,” various reviews

Ernest Boyd
“The Art and Mystery of Translation”
“International vs. Cosmopolitan”
“James Joyce: Memories”
“Theatre of the Month”

Aldous Huxley
“Dust”

Carson McCullers
“The Russian Realists and Southern Literature”
“The Twisted Trinity”

Upton Sinclair
“To the Conquered Peoples”

Eudora Welty
“A Visit of Charity”

William Carlos Williams
“Ezra Pound Lord Ga-Ga!”
“The Zoo”

Decision: A Review of Free Culture. 1941 – 1942. Nendeln, Liechtenstein: Kraus Reprints, 1969.

Frisch, Kelly. “Mann, Klaus Heinrich Thomas.” American National Biography Online. Davidson College Library. Oxford University Press, 2000. 10/23/2008.

Gregory, Dan. “June 1941, Cover.” Decision: A Review of Free Culture. Gloucester City, N.J: Between the Covers Rare Books Inc.

Hoffman, Frederick J., Charles Allen, and Carolyn F. Ulrich. The Little Magazine: A History and a Bibliography. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1947.

Jonas, Ilsedore B. “Klaus Heinrich Mann.” German Fiction Writers, 1914-1945 (Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol 56). Ed. James N. Hardin. Belmont: Thomas Gale, 1987.

Sader, Marion, ed. Comprehensive Index to English-Language Little Magazines, 1890-1970: Series One. Millwood, KY: Kraus-Thomson, 1976.

Sherbo, Arthur. “Periodical Grubbings.” Notes and Queries. v41 no3 (Sept. 1994), 266. Literature Resource Center. Web. 10/23/2008.

Shteir, Rachel. “Everybody Slept Here.” New York Times. Nov. 10, 1996. ProQuest Historical Newspapers. Davidson College Library Online. The New York Times (1851-2005). BR71.

“Decision” compiled by Ian Qua (Class of ’09, Davidson College)

Title: 
Crisis: A Record of the Darker Races

Date of Publication: 
Nov. 1910 (1.1) – Feb./Mar. 1996 (103:2)
Continued by the New Crisis, July 1997 (104:1) – Mar./Apr. 2003 (110:2)
Continued as The Crisis, May/June 2003 (110:3) – Present

Place(s) of Publication: 
New York, NY, (Nov. 1910 – Feb./Mar. 1996)
Baltimore, MD (July 1997 – Mar./Apr. 2003)

Frequency of Publication: 
Bimonthly

Circulation: 
Average monthly circulation: 10,500 (1934)

Publisher: 
NAACP: 1910 -1933
Crisis Publishing Company, Inc. (subsidiary of NAACP), New York: 1933 – 1996
Crisis Publishing Co., Inc., Baltimore, Maryland: 1997 – 2003

Physical Description:
15-35 pages of editorials, reviews of literature and theater, poetry, illustrations, photographs. Advertisements at front and back, many for universities. Frequently appearing sections include “The N. A. A. C. P.” “What to Read,” “Opinion,” “Along the Color Line.”

Price:
Unknown

Editor(s): 
W. E. B. Du Bois (Nov. 1910 – July 1934)

Associate Editor(s):
None

Libraries with Original Issues: 
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Northwestern University; Tuskegee University; University of California, Los Angeles; Library of Congress; University of Delaware; University of Georgia; Harvard University; University of Texas, Austin; University of Virginia

Reprint Editions: 
New York: Negro Universities Press, 1969
New York: Arno, 1969
Ann Arbor, Michigan: University Microfilms International [microform]

Though The Crisis: A Record of the Darker Races started as the official publication for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), it became a forum for expressing opinions on racial problem. Today it catalogues the extensive progress of African Americans while remaining a political vehicle for the civil rights of minorities.

The magazine addressed all aspects of the African American community, commentating on everything from churches, businesses, and schools, to literature and music. A notable feature of the magazine was Editor W.E.B. Du Bois’ editorial page, which stood “for the right of men, irrespective of color or race, for the highest ideals of American democracy, and for reasonable but earnest and persistent attempt to gain these rights and realize these ideals” (Du Bois).

The Crisis has undergone many challenges, from being cautioned by the United States Department of Justice for statements harmful to the war effort to being held up by the Post Office because of articles that “supposedly inspired Negro acts of violence.” Yet for more than 90 years, The Crisis has remained a journal of literary achievements, and serves as a record of the social and political history surrounding African Americans’ fight for civil rights.

W. E. B. Du Bois’ voice was ever-present when he served as editor of Crisis. Fittingly, he offered the opening issue’s editorial describing the mission of his magazine:

“The object of this publication is to set forth those facts and arguments which show the danger of race prejudice, particularly as manifested today toward colored people. It takes its name from the fact that the editors believe that this is a critical time in the history of the advancement of men. Catholicity and tolerance, reason and forbearance can today make the world-old dream of human brotherhood approach realization; while bigotry and prejudice, emphasized race consciousness and force can repeat the awful history of the contact of nations and groups in the past. We strive for this higher and broader vision of Peace and Good Will.

“The policy of THE CRISIS will be simple and well defined:

“It will first and foremost be a newspaper: it will record important happenings and movements in the world which bear on the great problem of inter-racial relations, and especially those which affect the Negro-American.

“Secondly, it will be a review of opinion and literature, recording briefly books, articles, and important expressions of opinion in the white and colored press on the race problem.

“Thirdly, it will publish a few short articles.

“Finally, its editorial page will stand for the rights of men, irrespective of color or race, for the highest ideals of American democracy, and for reasonable but earnest and persistent attempts to gain these rights and realize these ideals. The magazine will be the organ of no clique or party and will avoid personal rancor of all sorts. In the absence of proof to the contrary it will assume honesty of purpose on the part of all men, North and South, white and black.”

“Editorial.” 1:1 (Nov. 1910): 10.

W. E. B. Du Bois (Feb. 23, 1868 – Aug. 27 1963)
Editor: Nov. 1910 – July 1934

In his own words, William Edward Bughardt Du Bois was born “by a golden river and in the shadow of two great hills” in Great Barrington, Massachusetts in 1968, the year when “the freedmen of the South were enfranchised and […] took part in government” (Du Bois 8). He graduated from Fisk College in Nashville, Tennessee in 1888 and became the first African-American to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard in 1895. While teaching at Wilberforce College and Atlanta University, Du Bois published The Souls of Black Folk, a collection of essays expressing the conflicting anger and sadness of blacks in a supposedly modern America. Du Bois founded and edited two little magazines, The Moon and The Horizon, before becoming the founding editor of The Crisis, an NAACP-sponsored publication which he edited for twenty-five years. A prolific and persuasive writer, Du Bois was a caustic, active, and well-published figure during the nascent civil rights struggles in 20th century America.

Gwendolyn Bennett
“To Usward”
“Pipes of Pan.”

Otto Bohanan
“The Washer Woman”

Lyndel Bower
“The First Stone”

Charles Chesnutt
“The Doll”

Countee Cullen
“Mary Mother of Christ”

Langston Hughes
“The Negro Speaks of Rivers”
“Song for a Suicide”

Virginia Jackson
“Africa”

Roscoe Jamison
“Negro Soldiers”

Georgia Douglas Johnson
“A Sonnet: TO THE MANTLED!”
“Let Me Not Lose My Dream”
“Motherhood”
“Shall I Say, ‘My Son, You’re Branded?’”

Alfred Kreymborg
“Red Chant”

Vachel Lindsay
“The Golden-Faced People”

Claude McKay
“If We Must Die”
“The Void”
“Skeleton”

Jean Toomer
“Song of the Son”

Lew Wallace
“The Beginning of Sorrow”

Lucian Watkins
“Ebon Maid and Girl of Mine”

“About the Crisis.” The Crisis Online. NAACP. 13 July 2009.

“Du Bois: The Activist Life.” Special Collections and University Archives. 2004. W. E. B. Du Bois Library: University of Massachusetts, Amherst. 13 July 2009.

The Crisis. New York: Crisis Pub. Co, 1910 – 1966.

Marable, Manning. W. E. B. Du Bois: Black Radical Democrat. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1986.

Moon, Henry Lee. “History of the Crisis.” The Crisis: Nov. 1970. Reprinted in The Crisis Online. NAACP. 23 July 2009.

Moore, Jack. W. E. B. Du Bois. Boston: Twayne Publishing, 1981.

Rampersad, Arnold. The Art and Imagination of W. E. B. Du Bois. Massachusetts: Harvard UP, 1976.

Rudwick, Elliot. W. E. B. Du Bois: Propagandist of the Negro Protest. New York: Atheneum, 1986.

“The Crisis” compiled by Alex Entrekin & Catherine Walker (Class of ’06, Davidson College)

Title:
Contempo: A Review of Ideas and Personalities
Contempo: A Review of Books and Personalities (alternate)

Date of Publication: 
May 1931 (1.1) – Feb. 1934 (3.13)

Place(s) of Publication: 
Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Frequency of Publication: 
Semimonthly (May 1931 – Feb. 1932)
Every three weeks (Feb. 1932 – Feb. 1934)

Circulation: 
1000
William Faulkner Issue (1 Feb. 1932): 10,000

Publisher: 
Orange Printshop, Chapel Hill, NC.

Physical Description: 
Eight 11 7/16″ x 18 1/16″ pages, three wide columns: 31 May 1931 – 5 May 1932
Pamphlet sized pages, 5 1/2″ x 8″: 5 April 1933 – 15 May 1933
Eight 12″ x 9 1/2″ pages, three wide columns: 5 May 1932 – 15 Feb. 1934

Price:
Unknown

Editor(s): 
Milton Avant “Ab” Abernethy (1931 – 1934)
Anthony J. Buttitta (1931 – March 1932)
Minna K. Abernethy (Fall 1932 – 1934)

Associate Editor(s):
None

Libraries with Significant Holdings of Original Issues: 
Duke University; Stanford University; Brown University

Reprint Editions: 
Nendeln, Liechtenstein: Kraus, 1969.

From the small southern town of Chapel Hill, North Carolina arose the “audaciously edited” and left-drifting Contempo: A Review of Books and Personalities (Vickers 18). Communist Milton “Ab” Abernethy served as editor, but managed to keep the magazine’s socialist tendencies contained mostly to the advertisements, letters, and articles. The magazine itself focused on art, not on politics. One of Contempo‘s unique features was the “Authoreview,” where authors could review their own work or react to criticism. Authors interacted, conversed, and critiqued each other. Special issues allowed authors to work personally with Abernethy as guest editors; William Faulkner, James Joyce, and Bill Brown each seized the opportunity.

From the magazine’s beginning in 1931, Abernethy and Anthony J. Buttitta were listed as co-editors of Contempo. A quarrel in 1932, however, drove Buttitta to Durham, NC, where he began publishing a competing magazine under the same title. The matter was taken to court, and in March 1933 Abernethy was able to reassure readers that Contempo would continue to be published from Chapel Hill with his wife, Minna Krupsky Abernethy, joining him on the masthead.

Editor Milton Abernethy declared Contempo‘s goals in four points:

(1) Complete freedom from all cliques whatsoever
(2) Asylum for aggrieved authors
(3) Encouraging literary controversy
(4) The rapid reception of new ideas”Our Policy.” 2:1 (5 May 1932): 2.

Milton Avant “Ab” Abernethy (1911? – 1991)
Editor: May 1931 – Feb. 1934

As a sophomore at North Carolina State University Milton Abernethy published several controversial articles decrying administrative decisions and was expelled. He transferred to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in January 1931, where he would meet Anthony Buttitta. The two students established the Intimate Bookshop as a meeting place for their new magazine, Contempo. Financial hardship led the “nonthreatening and generous Communist” to take a job with the US Department of Agriculture in 1932, where he met Minna Krupsky, a Russian emigrant (Vickers 28). Krupsky and Abernethy married, and after a fallout and legal scuffle between Abernethy and Buttitta, she took over as co-editor of the magazine. After the magazine dissolved, the couple “turned their Chapel Hill bookstore […] into a moneymaker” (Hutchisson 97). Later, they moved to New York where Abernethy became a successful stockbroker.

Anthony J. Buttitta (Jul. 26, 1907 – Aug. 11, 2004)
Co-Editor: May 1931 – Mar. 1932

Originally from Monroe, Louisiana, Anthony Buttitta was an English graduate student at Chapel Hill when he met Milton Abernethy, and the two established the Intimate Bookshop and Contempo magazine. Buttitta befriended William Faulkner during the famed author’s inebriated visit to Chapel Hill, and the numerous poems Buttita collected from him eventually become part of the Faulkner issue of Contempo (Buttitta). Within a year of the magazine’s run, tensions began to rise between Abernethy and Buttitta, and in 1932 Buttitta moved to Durham where he opened his own Intimate Bookshop and began publishing his own version of Contempo. A subsequent legal battle awarded Abernethy the rights to magazine. Buttitta moved to Asheville, where he befriended author F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Samuel Beckett
“Home Olga”

Bob Brown
“Party”
“Optical Balloon Juice”

Witter Bynner
White Gardens

Max Eastman
Swamp Maple

William Faulkner
Excerpts from A Light in August
“Twilight”
“I Will Not Weep for Youth”
“Once Aboard the Lugger”
“Knew I Love Once”

Langston Hughes
“Christ in Alabama”
“Desire”

Aldous Huxley
“Lawrence in Etruria”

James Joyce
“From ‘A Work in Progress’”

D. H. Lawrence
“The Ship of Death”

Robert McAlmon
“A Poetess”

Louigi Pirandello
“Old Man God”

Ezra Pound
“The Depression Has Just Begun”

Nathanael West
Excerpts from Miss Lonelyhearts

William Carlos Williams
“Sordid? Good God!”

Buttitta, Tony. After the Good Gay Times. New York: Viking, 1974.

Contempo. North Carolina: Orange Printing, 1931-34.

Hutchisson, James M. “Nathanael West, Miss Lonelyhearts, and Contempo Magazine.” Resources for American Literary Studies 24.1 (1998): 84-100.

Vickers, Jim. “A Week or Three Days in Chapel Hill: Faulkner, Contempo, and
Their Contemporaries.” North Carolina Literary Review 1.1 (1992):
17-29.

“Contempo” compiled by Theodore Emerson & Erica Bahls (Class of ’06, Davidson College)