Title:
The Messenger

Date of Publication: 
Nov. 1917 (1.11) – May/Jun. 1928 (10.5)

Place(s) of Publication: 
New York, NY

Frequency of Publication: 
Monthly and bimonthly

Circulation: 
5,000+

Publisher: 
Messenger Publishing Co. Inc., New York City

Physical Description: 
11.6″ x 8.75″ Woodpulp acid paper. Approx. 20-40 pages. Black and white.

Price: 
15 cents per issue / $1.50 per year

Editor(s): 
Originally A. Philip Randolph and Chandler Owen
George Schuyler and Theophilis Lewis

Associate Editor(s):
None

Libraries with Original Issues:
We have been unable to find a library with a complete collection. Many libraries have microfilm collections, including the New York Public Library and University of California, Berkeley.

Reprint Editions: 
University of California, Davis and Harvard University via Hathi Trust

After meeting in New York City and joining the Socialist Party of America, A. Philip Randolph and Chandler Owen formed The Messenger in 1917. Unfulfilled by the popular African American periodicals of the time, Randolph and Chandler asserted that their magazine was “the only magazine of scientific radicalism in the world published by Negroes.” This claim generated its tagline for the first half of its run – the “Only Radical Negro Magazine in America.” The editors and contributors challenged ideas of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois, whom they considered to be part of an older generation of civil rights leaders. In contrast, Randolph and Owen called themselves “New Crowd Negroes” who spoke out against wartime conscription of African Americans, encouraged self-defense by African Americans against lynchers, and considered labor exploitation a dominant component of early twentieth century racism. Because of the magazine’s outspoken race protest and socialist beliefs, the U.S. Justice Department claimed The Messenger to be one of “the most able and the most dangerous” publications of its time (Kreiger).

The Messenger published diverse topics, focusing heavily on politics, but also included poems, stories, editorials, book and theater reviews, political cartoons, illustrations, and photographs. Popular sections included “Editorials,” “Economic and Politics,” “Education and Literature,” “Who’s Who,” and “Poet’s Corner.” The weakening of the Socialist Party in the 1920s contributed to a drastic decrease in circulation of the magazine, which prompted its attempt to reinvent itself. Randolph and Owen worried that they were alienating black workers with their socialist propaganda, and instead promoted union news and artistic commentary. Owen left in 1923 to pursue newspaper editing in Chicago, and George Schuyler and Theophilis Lewis took over editorial control. Under their guidance, the magazine shifted away from politics and focused more heavily on its literary and artistic tradition. Due to lack of funding Randolph and Schuyler were forced to fold The Messenger after its May/June 1928 edition.

Halfway through the first issue of the magazine, A. Philip Randolph and Chandler Owen include a declaration of purpose:

“THE MESSENGER

IS THE ONLY MAGAZINE OF SCIENTIFIC RADICALISM IN THE WORLD PUBLISHED BY NEGROES

It is written in fine style; its matter is logically presented; its interpretations are made calmly and dispassionately – without prejudice in favor of the Negro or against the White Man.

Our aim is to appeal to reason, to lift our pens above the cringing demagogy of the times and above the cheap, peanut politics of the old, reactionary Negro leaders.

Patriotism has no appeal to us; justice has. Party has no weight with us; principle does. Loyalty is meaningless; it depends on what one is loyal to. Prayer is not one of our remedies; it depends on what one is praying for. We consider prayer as nothing more than a fervent wish; consequently the merit and worth of a prayer depend upon what the fervent wish is. Still we never forget that all wishes, desires, hopes – must be realized thru the adoption of sound methods. This requires scientific educations – a knowledge of the means by which the end aimed at may be attained.

Test us on any question. Write us letters for comment. Suggest subjects you desire to have us discuss. THE MESSENGER will take a courageous and sound position without regard to race, creed, color, sex or political party.

(Signed) THE EDITORS”

Messenger. 1.11 (November 1917): 21.

Asa Philip Randolph (Apr. 15, 1889 – May 16, 1979)
Editor

Considered one of the most influential African American leaders of the twentieth century, A. Philip Randolph was driven by his mission to unite all African Americans against workplace discrimination. Randolph was born in the small town of Crescent City, Florida to a minister and seamstress, and the family moved to Jacksonville, FL, soon after his birth. He attended the Cookman Institute in East Jacksonville, one of the few African American high schools in Florida at the time, where he excelled in literature, drama, and public speaking. He was drawn to civil rights after reading W.E.B. Du Bois’ The Souls of Black Folk and moved to New York City in 1911.

While taking classes at New York University, Randolph met Chandler Owen, who was attending Columbia University, and the two formed The Messenger. Simultaneously, Randolph worked to create a union for New York elevator operators. In 1925 he began the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Pullman Company, the largest employer of African Americans, recognized Randolph in 1935 for his efforts toward increasing wages, championing a shorter work week, and gaining overtime pay. He served President Franklin D. Roosevelt on the National Negro Congress, and founded the League for Nonviolent Civil Disobedience Against Military Segregation, which achieved integration of the military in 1948 under President Truman. Randolph led a 10,000-person March on Washington in 1941, resulting in the establishment of the Fair Employment Practices Committee, and was named the chair of the 1963 March on Washington led by Martin Luther King, Jr. President Johnson awarded Randolph the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964 for the strides Randolph made toward civil rights during the twentieth century.

Chandler Owen (Apr. 5, 1889 – Nov. 1967)
Editor

Chandler Owen was born in Warrenton, North Carolina; graduated from Virginia Union University in 1913; and soon after moved to New York City to enroll in Columbia University. Once in New York, Owen joined the Socialist Party of America and became a follower of Hubert. H. Harrison, a radical socialist writer and orator. During World War I, Owen was arrested for breaking the Espionage Act for stating in The Messenger that it was hypocritical for the United States to be fighting for freedom abroad while African American soldiers were denied rights at home.

Toward the end of The Messenger’s run, Owen grew wary of socialism and joined the Republican party. He left the magazine in 1923 and moved to Chicago to work as the managing editor of the African American newspaper, the Chicago Bee. He became a speechwriter for local Republican candidates and ran unsuccessfully for the House of Representatives in 1928. In contrast to his opposition to World War I, Owen supported World War II, and published Negroes and the War, a political tract in support of African Americans fighting, based on the argument that blacks would lose freedom if Nazi Germany won the war. He continued to write speeches for political candidates including Wendell Willkie, Thomas Dewey, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Lyndon Baines Johnson.

Shortly before his death from kidney disease in 1967, Owen wrote to Randolph, “Our long friendship, never soiled, is nearing its close. I’ve been in pain. If you were not living. I would commit suicide today.”

George Schuyler (Feb. 25, 1895 – Aug. 31, 1977)
Editor

George Schuyler was born in Providence, Rhode Island and moved to Syracuse, New York soon after his father’s death in 1898. At seventeen he enlisted in the all-black 25th US Infantry in 1912, working his way to achieve the rank of lieutenant. He encountered rampant racism in the army, and deserted his post after a Greek immigrant in Des Moines, Iowa refused to shine his shoes. He was found in Chicago and imprisoned for nine months.

After his release Schuyler joined the Socialist Party of America and the Friends of Negro Freedom. He began contributing his political commentary to The Messenger, which turned into his writing a regular column entitled “Shafts and Darts: A Page of Calumny and Satire.” He also began writing for The Pittsburgh Courier, one of the largest black newspapers in the country. When Owen left the Messenger in 1923, Schuyler and Lewis took over editorial duties. During his years of writing, Schuyler grew increasingly conservative, and by the 1960s, he openly supported Senator Joseph McCarthy and criticized social activists W.E.B. DuBois, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King, Jr. His conservatism ultimately cost him his job at The Pittsburgh Courier, and he shifted his focus to writing his autobiography, Black and Conservative, published in 1966.

Theophilis Lewis (1891 – 1974)
Editor

Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Lewis attended public school and developed a passion for theater. During World War I, he served in the American Expeditionary Force, and he moved to New York City shortly after his return to the United States. Between 1923 and 1927, Lewis served as The Messenger’s primary theatre critic and chronicled primarily African American stage productions. Due to insufficient funds Lewis was not compensated for his writing, but the magazine did purchase his theatre tickets. He worked a number of manual jobs and became a postal worker while writing for the magazine.

Lewis supported the rise of a distinctly African American theatre movement, which was part of a larger artistic movement in the 1920s to highlight an African American folk tradition. Lewis trusted that with the rise of such a movement, many racial stereotypes in theatre would disappear. Once he and Schuyler took control of the Messenger toward the end of its run, the two editors shifted its focus away from politics toward African American artistic developments.

Countee P. Cullen
Review of Chords and Dischords
“Pagan Prayer”

W. A. Domingo
“If We Must Die”
“The Brass Check: A Review”
“Socialism and Negroes’ Hopes”

Irene M. Gaines
“Colored Authors and Their Contributions to the World’s Literature”

Langston Hughes
“Bodies in the Moonlight”
“Desire”
“Formula”
“Gods”
“Grant Park”
“Minnie Sings Her Blues”
“Poem for Youth”
“Prayer for a Winter Night”
“The Little Virgin”
“The Naughty Child”
“The Young Glory of Him”

Zora Neale Hurston
“The Eatonville Anthology”
“The Hue and Cry About Howard University”

Georgia Douglas Johnson
“Africa”
“Appassionata”
“Crucifixion”
“Disenthralment”
Review of “Harlem Shadows”
“Karma”
“Loss”
“Paradox”
“Prejudice”
“Promise”
“Romance”
“To Love”
“Toy”
“Your Voice Keeps Ringing Down the Day”

Claude McKay
“Birds of Prey”
“If We Must Die”
“Labor’s Day”

Alice Dunbar Nelson
“Woman’s Most Serious Problem”

Chandler Owen
“A Voice from the Dead!”
“Black Mammies”
“Du Bois on Revolution”
“The Black and Tan Cabaret – America’s Most Democratic Institution”
“The Failure of Negro Leadership”

Chandler Owen and A. Philip Randolph
“Defense of Negro Rioters”
“The Negro – A Menace to Radicalism”
“The New Negro – What is He?”

A. Philip Randolph
“Garveyism”
“A New Crowd – A New Negro”

Willis Richardson
“Propaganda in the Theatre”

Paul Robeson
“An Actor’s Wanderings and Hopes”

George S. Schuyler
“Shafts and Darts: A Page of Calumny and Satire,” a regular column
“At the Coffee House”
“Ballad of Negro Artists”
“The Yellow Peril: One-act play”

Wallace Thurman
“A Stranger at the Gates: A Review of Nigger Heaven”
Review of Black Harvest
“Confession”
“In the Name of Purity”
“Quoth Brigham Young : This is the place”
“A Thrush at Eve with an Atavistic Wound” A Review of Flight

Eric D. Walrond
“The Black City”
“Snakes”

Dorothy West
“Hannah Byde”

Adams, Luther. “Asa Philip Randolph.” The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed. BlackPast.org, n.d. Web. 24 Sept. 2015.

Adams, Luther. “Chandler Owen.” The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed. BlackPast.org, n.d. Web. 24 Sept. 2015.

“Asa Philip Randolph.” AFL-CIO. AFL-CIO, n.d. Web. 24 Sept. 2015.

Gable, Craig. “Shafts And Darts: An Annotated Bibliography Of George S. Schuyler’s Contributions To The Messenger, 1923-1928.” Bulletin Of Bibliography 59.3 (2002): 111-119. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 18 Sept. 2015.

Hamilton, Samuel Z. “George Schuyler.” The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed. BlackPast.org, n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2015.

Huggins, Nathan Irvin. Voices from the Harlem Renaissance. New York: Oxford UP, 1976. Print.

Hutchison, George. “Mediating “Race” And “Nation”: The Cultural Politics Of The Messenger.” African American Review 28.(1994): 531-548. Humanities Full Text (H.W. Wilson). Web. 17 Sept. 2015.

Ikonné, Chidi. From Du Bois to Van Vechten: The Early New Negro Literature, 1903-1926. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1981. Print.

Kickler, Troy. “George S. Schuyler.” LewRockwell. LewRockwell.com, 27 Feb. 2007. Web. 25 Sept. 2015.

Kornweibel, Theodore,Jr. “THE ‘MESSENGER’ MAGAZINE: 1917-1928.” Diss. Yale University, 1971. Ann Arbor: ProQuest, Web. Order No. 7217134. 17 Sep. 2015.

Krieger, Caroline. “Messenger (1917-1928).” The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed. BlackPast.org, n.d. Web. 17 Sept. 2015.

Perry, Jeffrey B. “The Messenger.” History and the Headlines. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 17 Sept. 2015.

Simkin, John. “Chandler Owen.” Spartacus Educational. Spartacus Educational Publishers Ltd., n.d. Web. 24 Sept. 2015.

“Theophilus Lewis.” Online Encyclopedia. Net Industries and Its Licensors, n.d. Web. 24 Sept. 2015.

“Theophilus Lewis.” Oxford Reference. Oxford Index, n.d. Web. 24 Sept. 2015.

Wilson, Sondra K. The Messenger Reader: Stories, Poetry, and Essays from the Messenger Magazine. New York: Modern Library, 2000. Print.

Wintz, Cary D., and Paul Finkelman. “Magazines and Journals.” Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance K-Y. New York: Routledge, 2004. 763-67. Google Books. Web. 17 Sept. 2015.

“The Messenger” compiled by Leigh Chandler (Class of 2016)

Title: 
The Masses

Date of Publication: 
Jan. 1911 (1:1) – Dec. 1917 (10:2). Suspended Sept. 1911 – Jan. 1912

Place(s) of Publication: 
New York, NY

Frequency of Publication: 
Monthly

Circulation: 
Up to 14,000

Publisher: 
The Masses Publishing Co., cooperatively published by all editors

Physical Description: 
13 1/2″ x 10 1/2″. Printed on inexpensive, highly-acidic paper. Approx. 20 pages containing political cartoons. Frequent sections include “Editorial,” “The Way You Look At It,” “The-Color-of-Life,” and “Facts and Interpretations.”

Price: 
5 cents per issue (Jan. 1911 – Jan. 1912)
10 cents per issue (Feb. 1912 – Dec. 1917)

Editor(s): 
Thomas Seltzer: Jan. 1911 – April 1911
Horatio Winslow: May 1911 – Dec. 1911
Max Eastman: Jan. 1912 – Dec. 1917
Floyd Dell (Managing Editor): Jan. 1912 – Dec. 1917

Associate Editor(s): 
John Reed
Arthur Bullard
Louis Untermeyer
Mary Heaton Vorse
William English Walling
Inez Haynes Irwin (Fiction Editor)
Art Young (Art Editor)
George Bellows (Art Editor)
Boardman Robinson (Art Editor)
H. J. Glintenkamp (Art Editor)

Libraries with Original Issues: 
University of Michigan; Duke University; Library of Congress; Princeton University; Cornell University; Ohio State University; University of Miami, Florida; University of Illinois; Indiana University

Reprint Editions: 
Milwood, New York: Kraus Reprint
Washington: Library of Congress Photoduplication Services [Microform]

Digital Archives:
The Masses at Marxist Internet Archive (Marxists.org)

The Masses was founded by Piet Vlag in 1911 to campaign for the rights of the working man, but its socialist angle failed to excite a wide audience. In 1912 a group of bohemian artists from Greenwich Village, led by Art Young, selected Max Eastman to take over editorship in hopes that he could revitalize the financially burdened magazine. In his tenure the magazine offered literature of humor and wit as well as sharp social criticism on issues like racism, women’s rights, socialism, and birth control. Included in most of the issues were works by authors like Sherwood Anderson, Amy Lowell, and Carl Sandburg. The Masses also featured impressive reproductions of artwork, including, political cartoons, raw drawings of urban life from artists of the Ashcan School, and apolitical works.

With pointed attacks against the draft and the U.S.’s involvement in World War I, The Masses came under attack from anti-sedition laws, and the United States Post Office succeeded in barring the periodical from second-class mail by 1917, which drove the mailing prices too high to sustain the magazine. Later that year, the Department of Justice brought charges against Eastman, Dell, Young, and others for obstructing the draft, although they managed to escape conviction. Editors began The Liberator in an attempt to continue the spirit of The Masses.

An editorial from the first issue of The Masses unapologetically proclaimed the magazine’s aims:

“A new socialist magazine requires no apology for its appearance. The hollow pretense of fulfilling a much felt want with which every capitalist periodical enters the field is in the case of socialist publications a genuine reality. The Masses is an outgrowth of the co-operative side of Socialist activity. Its publishers believe strongly in co-operation and will teach it and preach it through the columns of this magazine … The Masses will watch closely the development of the American co-operative organization informed of its work and progress … It will be a general ILLUSTRATED magazine of art, literature, politics and science … The Masses will print cartoons and illustrations of the text by the best artists of the country, on a quality of paper that will really reproduce them … In fiction The Masses intends to maintain an equally high standard of excellence. It will publish the best that can be had, not only in the United States but in the world. It will not publish a story merely because it is original, that is, because written first in English language. A good story from a foreign tongue, we believe is preferable to a bad American story. This is partly the program of The Masses. What do you think of it?”

“Editorial.” The Masses, 1:1 (Jan. 1911): 1.

Max Eastman (Jan. 4, 1883 – Mar. 25, 1969)
Editor: Jan. 1912 – Dec. 1917

Max Eastman became an activist for women’s issues and was an early supporter of the Left Opposition. In 1912 he took over editorship of The Masses and under his tenure the publication become increasingly Leftist. When The Masses was shut down, Eastman teamed with other radical writers to publish The Liberator, a magazine which aimed to promote the same political ideas that its censored predecessor could no longer voice. He stayed with the The Liberator until it was taken over by the Communist Party in 1924.

Floyd Dell (Jun. 28, 1887 – Jul. 23, 1969)
Managing Editor: Jan. 1912 – Dec. 1917

Floyd Dell was only sixteen when he joined the Socialist Party. In 1914 he moved to New York to help Max Eastman edit The Masses, and helped publish The Liberator (1918-24). After the war Dell published a best-selling autobiographical novel, Moon-Calf (1920), and submitted to left-wing magazines like the New Masses (1924-39). Dell wrote several non-fictional works including Upton Sinclair (1927), Love in the Machine Age (1930) and an autobiography, Homecoming (1933).

Art Young (Jan. 14, 1866 – Dec. 29, 1943)
Art Editor

Artist Art Young had his first work of art accepted by The Judge magazine when he was only seventeen. Soon after this success Young moved to Chicago, where he worked with the Chicago Daily News and the Chicago Inter-Ocean. When Piet Vlag started The Masses in 1910, he asked Young to join him. Over the next few years Young published his cartoons in the magazine, and helped recruit Max Eastman to be the magazine’s new editor. Art Young continued to produce politically charged cartoons until his death in 1943, submitting to The Saturday Evening Post, The Nation, New Masses, and The New Leader.

Cornelia Barns
The Flight of the Innocents
Lords of Creation
Patriotism for Women

Dorothy Day
“Mulberry Street”

Floyd Dell
“Adventures in Anti-Land”
“The Nature of Woman”
“Criminals All”

Mabel Dodge
“The Secret of War”
“The Eye of the Beholder”
“The Quarrell”

Max Eastman
“Birth-Control”
“Revolutionary Progress”
“Revolutionary Birth-Control”

Susan Glaspell
“Joe”

Inez Haynes Irwin/Gilmore
“As Mars Sees Us”
“Do You Believe in Patriotism?”
“Shadows of Revolt”

Helen Hoyt
“Comparison”
“Golden Bough”
“Menaia”

Helen Hull
“Mothers Still”
“Till Death…”
“Usury”

Amy Lowell
“The Grocery”
“The Poem”

Elsie Clews Parsons
“Facing Race Suicide”
“Marriage: A New Life”
“Privacy in Love Affairs”

Jean Starr
“Sonya”
“Zanesville”

Mary Heaton Vorse
“The Day of a Man”
“The Happy Woman”

Emile Zola
“Germinal”

Anderson, Elliott, and Mary Kinzie. The Little Magazine in America: A Modern Documentary History. Yonkers, NY: Pushcart, 1978.

Fishbein, Leslie. Rebels in Bohemia : the radicals of the Masses, 1911-1917. Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, 1982.

Fitzgerald, Richard. Art and Politics: Cartoonists of The Masses and Liberator. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. 1973.

—. Radical illustrators of The Masses and Liberator: A Study of the Conflict Between Art and Politics. Thesis. University of California, Riverside, 1969.

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

Images. The Masses. Modernist Journals Project. Web. 14 Jun 2016.

The Masses. 1911 – 1917. Microfilm. New York: New York Public Library, 1937.

“The Masses.” American Radicalism Collection. 14 Aug. 2001. Michigan State University. 9 July 2009.

Morrison, Mark. “Pluralism and Counterpublic Spheres. Race, Radicalism, and The Masses.”  The Public Face of Modernism: Little Magazines, Audiences and Reception, 1905-1920. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2001.

O’Neill, William, ed. Echoes of Revolt: The Masses, 1911-1917. 1966. Chicago: Elephant Books-Ivan R. Dee, Inc., 1989.

Waite, John Allan. Masses 1911-1917: A study in American rebellion. Diss. 1951.

Zurier, Rebecca. Art for The Masses: A  Radical Magazine and its Graphics, 1911-1917. Philadelphia, Temple UP. 1988.

“The Masses” compiled by Simone Muller (visiting student, Davidson College)

Title:
The Liberator

Date of Publication:
Mar. 1918 – Oct. 1924

Place of Publication:
New York, NY
Chicago, IL (beginning in October 1923)

Frequency of Publication:
Monthly

Circulation:
about 10,000 subscribers

Publisher:
Liberator Publishing Co.

Physical Description:
About 8.5 inches by 10.75 inches. Cover design changes with each issue, featuring modern artwork in color. Black and white politically-themed illustrations found within the pages. Ranges from 35-55 pages of mostly social, political, and literary articles. Priced at 15-25 cents per issue.

Price:
15 cents (later raised to 20 cents)

Editor(s):
Max Eastman (predominantly) with Floyd Dell and later Robert Minor editing within the last few years of publication (after 1922).

Associate Editor(s): 
Eastman, Dell, and Minor all contributed many works to the journal while also editing other content (see “Contributors”)

Libraries with Original Issues: 
Davidson College, Harvard University, New York University, Cornell University, Brown University, California State University in Los Angeles, University of Chicago, Syracuse University, University of Washington

Reprint Editions:
Davidson College, Princeton University, Harvard University, New York University, Columbia University, Brown University, Pittsburg State University, Wayne State University, Washington University in St. Louis, Colgate University

After the Espionage Act of 1917 ended publication of The Masses, Max and Crystal Eastman started The Liberator to further the political discourse of The Masses. Building upon the concepts of freedom and liberty outlined in William Lloyd Garrison’s abolitionist newspaper (“The Liberator”), the Eastmans intentionally published their first issue on February 12, 1918, the birthday of President Abraham Lincoln.

In the first issue Max Eastman spells out the journal’s principles and intentions. He declares: “The world is in the rapids. The possibilities of change in this day are beyond all imagination. We must unite our hands and voices to make the end of this war the beginning of an age of freedom and happiness for mankind undreamed by those whose minds comprehend only political and military events.”

The journal provided first rate news coverage of the civil war in Soviet Russia.  Because The Liberator was the only source of news about the war, many European and American radicals looked to the magazine for information. In the first few volumes, war correspondent and Communist party founder John Reed provides an ongoing report of conditions in Soviet Russia. Most of the articles are political, promoting Socialism, workers rights, racial and gender equality, birth control, and progressive politics. Almost every issue begins with an editorial page in which Max Eastman provides commentary on where the journal stands in relation to current political and social events.

The magazine included art, poetry, one-act plays, and fiction pieces, but almost always ones with political themes. Artwork, mainly in the form of political cartoons or illustrations, augments certain articles but is rarely the main theme of the literature. Advertisements are found sparingly at the end of the issue and usually publicize books, other magazines, or other Socialist education materials. Before the advertisements at the end, each issue devotes several pages to long reviews of books that can be ordered from “The Liberator Book Shelf,” a book store run by the magazine.

The Liberator sought to educate and inform its readers about the events of World War I and the social and political changes occurring in America and abroad as a result of the war. Promoting progressive ideas about civil and economic liberty, the journal encouraged ways of rethinking democracy. Though it focused heavily on political and social issues, The Liberator also provided a forum for experimental freedom in art, poetry, fiction, and criticism.

Published monthly for 15 cents per issue (later increased to 20 cents), the journal ran steadily from March 1918 to October 1924 until the Worker’s Party of America ceased it. The magazine merged with two other periodicals to form The Worker’s Monthly in 1924.

In the first issue of The Liberator, Max Eastman writes:

“NEVER was the moment more auspicious to issue a great magazine of liberty. With the Russian people in the lead, the world is entering upon the experiment of industrial and real democracy. Inspired by Russia, the German people are muttering a revolt that will go farther than its dearest advocates among the Allies dream. The working people of France, of Italy, of England, too, are determined that the end of autocracy in Germany shall be the end of wage-slavery at home. America has extended her hand to the Russians. She will follow in their path. The world is in the rapids. The possibilities of change in this day are beyond all imagination. We must unite our hands and voices to make the end of this war the beginning of an age of freedom and happiness for mankind undreamed by those whose minds comprehend only political and military events. With this ideal THE LIBERATOR comes into being on Lincoln’s Birthday, February 12, 1918.

THE LIBERATOR will be owned and published by its editors, who will be free in its pages to say what they truly think.

It will fight in the struggle of labor. It will fight for the ownership and control of industry by the workers, and will present vivid and accurate news of the labor and socialist movements in all parts of the world.

It will advocate the opening of the land to the people, and urge the immediate taking over by the people of railroads, mines, telegraph and telephone systems, and all public utilities.

It will stand for the complete independence of women-political, social and economic-as an enrichment of the existence of mankind.

It will stand for a revolution in the whole spirit and method of dealing with crime.

It will join all wise men in trying to substitute for our rigid scholastic kind of education a system which has a vivid relation to life.

It will assert the social and political equality of the black and white races, oppose every kind of racial discrimination, and conduct a remorse-less publicity campaign against lynch law.

It will oppose laws preventing the spread of scientific knowledge about birth control.

THE LIBERATOR will endorse the war aims outlined by the Russian people and ex-pounded by President Wilson a peace with-out forcible annexations, without punitive indemnities, with free development and self-determination for all peoples. Especially it will support the President in his demand for an international union, based upon free seas, free commerce and general disarmament, as the central principle upon which hang all hopes of permanent peace and friendship among nations.

THE LIBERATOR will be distinguished by a complete freedom in art and poetry and fiction and criticism. It will be candid. It will be experimental. It will be hospitable to new thoughts and feelings. It will direct its attack against dogma and rigidity of mind upon what-ever side they are found,” THE EDITOR.

Max Eastman (Jan. 4, 1883 – Mar. 24, 1969)
Editor: Mar. 1918 – Aug. 1922

Max Eastman, former editor of The Masses, was The Liberator‘s founding and primary editor for the first five years of the magazine’s publication. Leading a prolific career of intellectual and political activism, Eastman published over twenty books on subjects ranging from Socialism and Soviet culture to Philosophy and Religion. One of America’s most prominent spokesmen for the Bolshevik Revolution, Eastman promoted Marxism and Socialism for most of his life. Eastman’s writings dominate the first few volumes of The Liberator; he authored the editorial page and many of the journal’s political and literary articles and advertises his other literary works. In 1922 Eastman left the magazine to go to Soviet Russia “to find out whether what [he has] been saying is true” (qtd. in Diggins 23). After his trip to Soviet Russia, Eastman’s politics began to change and he later opposed socialism. Though he gave up his executive editorial position to pursue book writing, Eastman remained on the editorial staff of The Liberator until its end.

Floyd Dell (June 28, 1887 – July 23, 1969)
Editor: 1918-1924, Executive Editor in 1922

Floyd Dell, founding associate editor of The Liberator, became an executive editor for a brief time after Eastman dropped down. As a teenager Dell joined the Socialist Party and began writing for Tri-City Workers’ Magazine, a Socialist monthly. Dell reported for the Davenport Times, wrote for the Chicago Evening Post, and edited the Post’s Friday Literary Review. In 1914 Dell moved to New York City and worked with Eastman to found The Masses. Dell played an integral role in establishing The Liberator by reading manuscripts, proofing articles, planning political cartoons, and recruiting more writers. Under Dell’s brief leadership in 1922, The Liberator favored art and culture instead of politics, publishing poems by Claude McKay and fiction by Michael Gold.

Robert Minor (Jul. 15, 1884 – 1952)
Editor: 1922 – 1924

Born in San Antonio, Texas, Minor became the highest paid cartoonist in the United States when he began working for New York World in 1911. Minor illustrated for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (1904), the New York Call (1915), The Masses (1915) and The Liberator (1918). Drawn in crayon or ink, Minor’s cartoons undermined the effort of World War I and were often controversial. The United States government partly blamed Minor’s provocative cartoons within The Masses as reason for the magazine’s violation of the Espionage Act of 1917, which ended its publication. As a former Socialist, Minor joined the underground American Communist Party in 1920 after his visit to Soviet Russia. In 1923 Minor was elected to the Executive Committee of the Worker’s Party of America. When The Liberator’s finances ran dry in 1924, the Worker’s Party of America took over the magazine, turning it into The Workers Monthly. Under Minor’s editorial control The Liberator continued in similar format, but featured articles by prominent Communist leaders such as C.E. Ruthenberg and Max Bedacht.

Max Eastman

Editorials

“Lenin: a Statesman of the New Order”

“The Trial of Eugene Debs”

“Examples of Americanism”

Crystal Eastman

“Practical Feminism”

“British Labor is Moving”

Art Giovannitti

“New York and I”

“Selecting a Perfect Jury”

John Reed

“Red Russia” (series)

“Foreign Affairs”

Robert Minor

“The Peril of Tom Mooney”

Floyd Dell

“The Story of the Trial”

“Were You Ever a Child?: a study on Education”

Alexander Trachtenberg

“International labor and Socialist News” (series of news write-ups)

Irregular Contributors:

Claude McKay

“Negro Poems”

“How Black Sees Green and Red”

“A Negro Extravaganza”

James Weldon Johnson

“What the Negro is Doing for Himself”

Carl Sandburg

“Out of White Lips”

Upton Sinclair

“The ‘Jesus-Thinkers’”

“We Got Arrested a Little”

Eugene V. Debs

“A Message From Debs”

“Russia’s Embattled Liberators”

John Dos Passos

“In Portugal”

“Farmer Strikers in Spain”

“The Caucasus Under the Soviets”

Regular Contributing Illustrators:

Art Young, Cornelia Barns, Boardman Robinson, Hugo Gellert, Robert Minor

Baggins, Brian, Tim Davenport, and David Walters. “The Liberator Workers Monthly.” Marxists Internet Archive. USA History Archive, 2009. Web. 04 Sept. 2010.

Diggins, John P. Up from Communism: Conservative Odyssesys in American Intellectual Development. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1994.

Goodman, Martin H., ed. “The Liberator 1918 – 1924 Covers.” Marxists.org. 2014. Web. 13 Jun 2016.

Liberator. Ed. Max Eastman. 1951.  Microfilm. Vols 1-7.  New York: New York Public Library.

“Minor, Robert (1884 – 1952).” The Crystal Reference Encyclopedia. West Chiltington: Crystal Semantics, 2005. Credo Reference. Web. 07 October 2010.

Simkin, John. “Floyd Dell : Biography.” Spartacus Educational – Home Page. 02 Oct. 2010. Web. 04 Oct. 2010.

Watts, Theodore F. The Liberator Index: 1918 – 1924. Periodyssey Press: Easthampton, MA, 2011. Marxists.org. Web. 13 Jun 2016.

“The Liberator” compiled by Lisle Gwynn (Class of ’11, Davidson College)