The Liberator (magazine)

Last updated
The Liberator
The Liberator 01.pdf
Debut issue, March 1918, with cover art by Hugo Gellert.
Editor Max Eastman (1918-22)
Floyd Dell (1922)
Robert Minor (1922-24)
Staff writers Cornelia Barns
Howard Brubaker
Dorothy Day
Hugo Gellert
Arturo Giovannitti
Charles T. Hallinan
Ellen La Motte
Robert Minor
John Reed
Boardman Robinson
Louis Untermeyer
Charles W. Wood
Art Young
Categories Politics
FrequencyMonthly
First issueMarch 1918
Final issueOctober 1924
CompanyLiberator Publishing Co. (1918-1922),
Workers Party of America (1922-1924)

The Liberator was a monthly socialist magazine established by Max Eastman and his sister Crystal Eastman in 1918 to continue the work of The Masses, which was shut down by the wartime mailing regulations of the U.S. government. Intensely political, the magazine included copious quantities of art, poetry, and fiction along with political reporting and commentary. The publication was an organ of the Communist Party of America (CPA) from late 1922 and was merged with two other publications to form The Workers Monthly in 1924.

Contents

History

The Liberator focused on international news, featuring war correspondent and Communist Labor Party founder John Reed reporting on the ongoing situation in Soviet Russia; reports were filed from across post-war Europe by Robert Minor, Frederick Kuh, and Crystal Eastman.

As with The Masses,The Liberator relied heavily upon political art, including contributions from Maurice Becker, E.E. Cummings, John Dos Passos, Fred Ellis, Lydia Gibson, William Gropper, Ernest Hemingway, Helen Keller, J.J. Lankes, Boardman Robinson, Edmund Wilson, Wanda Gág, and Art Young. Each color cardstock cover of The Liberator was unique. Poetry and fiction fleshed out its pages, including work by Carl Sandburg, Claude McKay, Arturo Giovannitti, and others.

Maintaining a low price for the elaborate publication came at a huge cost, however. To economize, ultra-thin newsprint was used for the magazine's pages — cheap and high in acid content. The result was a fragile and ephemeral publication. Despite a circulation that peaked at 60,000 copies per month, [1] comparatively few specimens of The Liberator have survived.

The Liberator ran into trouble in 1922—both financial and motivational, as editor Max Eastman's interests shifted from the mundane work of editing to book writing. Eastman ceded his editorial blue pencil around January 1, 1922, with literary critic Floyd Dell taking over the job. Throughout 1922 political matters were somewhat deemphasized in favor of art and culture on Dell's watch, including the first publication of poetry by Claude McKay and the fiction of Michael Gold. When finances became tight that year, the underground Communist Party of America moved to fill the void, working with Eastman, Dell, and the core of writers behind the magazine towards a friendly takeover of the publication effective in October of that same year.

After the fall of 1922, The Liberator emerged as the de facto official organ of the CPA and its "Legal Political Party" sibling, the Workers Party of America — maintaining a similar graphic style and orientation toward fiction, albeit with a noticeable ideological narrowing of political content. Long articles began to be published by prominent Communist leaders, including C. E. Ruthenberg, John Pepper, William Z. Foster, Jay Lovestone, and Max Bedacht. Former anarchist turned Communist true-believer Robert Minor served as editor during this period, assisted by Joseph Freeman as an associate editor in charge of literary material.

In 1924 The Liberator was merged with the Workers Party's Trade Union Educational League magazine, The Labor Herald, and its "Friends of Soviet Russia" monthly, Soviet Russia Pictorial, to form a new publication. This new magazine, The Workers Monthly, was fundamentally similar to the 1923–24 vintage Liberator and continued as the Workers Party's de facto theoretical journal until 1927, at which time it was given a new form and title as The Communist. In January 1945 the name of the publication was changed to Political Affairs . In January 2008, Political Affairs ceased publication as printed paper, switching to an entirely web-based existence. It was later discontinued and aired its final issue in 2016.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Claude McKay</span> Jamaican American writer and poet (1890–1948)

Festus Claudius "Claude" McKay OJ was a Jamaican-American writer and poet. He was a central figure in the Harlem Renaissance.

<i>Daily Worker</i> 20th-century American newspaper

The Daily Worker was a newspaper published in New York City by the Communist Party USA, a formerly Comintern-affiliated organization. Publication began in 1924. While it generally reflected the prevailing views of the party, attempts were made to reflect a broader spectrum of left-wing opinion. At its peak, the newspaper achieved a circulation of 35,000. Contributors to its pages included Robert Minor and Fred Ellis (cartoonists), Lester Rodney, David Karr, Richard Wright, John L. Spivak, Peter Fryer, Woody Guthrie and Louis F. Budenz.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Proletarian Party of America</span> Political party in United States

The Proletarian Party of America (PPA) was a small communist political party in the United States, originating in 1920 and terminated in 1971. Originally an offshoot of the Communist Party of America, the group maintained an independent existence for over five decades. It is best remembered for carrying forward Charles H. Kerr & Co., the oldest publisher of Marxist books in America.

<i>Political Affairs</i> (magazine) Defunct magazine published by the Communist Party USA from 1944 to 2016

Political Affairs Magazine was a monthly Marxist publication, originally published in print and later online only. It aimed to provide an analysis of events from a working class point of view. The magazine was a publication of the Communist Party USA and was founded in 1944 upon the closure of its predecessor, The Communist, which was founded in 1927. Well-known editors of Political Affairs Magazine included V. J. Jerome, Gus Hall, Hyman Lumer, Herbert Aptheker, Gerald Horne, and Joe Sims. Other editors included Max Weiss. In 2016, the magazine stopped publishing articles and merged with People's World.

<i>New Masses</i> American Marxist magazine

New Masses (1926–1948) was an American Marxist magazine closely associated with the Communist Party USA. It succeeded both The Masses (1912–1917) and The Liberator. New Masses was later merged into Masses & Mainstream (1948–1963). With the coming of the Great Depression in 1929 America became more receptive to ideas from the political Left and New Masses became highly influential in intellectual circles. The magazine has been called “the principal organ of the American cultural left from 1926 onwards."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mike Gold</span> American writer

Michael Gold was the pen-name of Jewish American writer Itzok Isaac Granich. A lifelong communist, Gold was a novelist and literary critic. His semi-autobiographical novel Jews Without Money (1930) was a bestseller. During the 1930s and 1940s, Gold was considered the preeminent author and editor of U.S. proletarian literature.

<i>The Masses</i> American radical magazine

The Masses was a graphically innovative American magazine of socialist politics published monthly from 1911 until 1917, when federal prosecutors brought charges against its editors for conspiring to obstruct conscription in the United States during World War I. It was succeeded by The Liberator and then later New Masses. It published reportage, fiction, poetry and art by the leading radicals of the time such as Max Eastman, John Reed, Dorothy Day, and Floyd Dell.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Reed Clubs</span> Marxist organization for intellectuals

The John Reed Clubs (1929–1935), often referred to as John Reed Club (JRC), were an American federation of local organizations targeted towards Marxist writers, artists, and intellectuals, named after the American journalist and activist John Reed. Established in the fall of 1929, the John Reed Clubs were a mass organization of the Communist Party USA which sought to expand its influence among radical and liberal intellectuals. The organization was terminated in 1935.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Minor</span> American cartoonist

Robert Berkeley "Bob" Minor, alternatively known as "Fighting Bob," was a political cartoonist, a radical journalist, and, beginning in 1920, a leading member of the American Communist Party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Gropper</span> American cartoonist

William Gropper was a U.S. cartoonist, painter, lithographer, and muralist. A committed radical, Gropper is best known for the political work which he contributed to such left wing publications as The Revolutionary Age,The Liberator,The New Masses,The Worker, and Morgen Freiheit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Max Bedacht</span> German-born American revolutionary socialist

Max Bedacht Sr. was a German-born American revolutionary socialist political activist, journalist, and functionary who helped establish the Communist Party of America. Bedacht is best remembered as the long-time head of the International Workers Order, a Communist Party-sponsored fraternal benefit organization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lydia Gibson</span>

Lydia Gibson (1891-1964) was an American socialist illustrator who contributed work to The Masses,The Liberator,The Workers' Monthly,New Masses, and other radical publications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">English-language press of the Communist Party USA</span> Press

During the ten decades since its establishment in 1919, the Communist Party USA produced or inspired a vast array of newspapers and magazines in the English language.

Alexander "Alex" Bittelman (1890–1982) was a Russian-born Jewish-American communist political activist, Marxist theorist, influential theoretician of the Communist Party USA and writer. A founding member, Bittelman is best remembered as the chief factional lieutenant of William Z. Foster and as a longtime editor of The Communist, its monthly magazine.

During the nine decades since its establishment in 1919, the Communist Party USA produced or inspired a vast array of newspapers and magazines in at least 25 different languages. This list of the Non-English press of the Communist Party USA provides basic information on each title, along with links to pages dealing with specific publications in greater depth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dennis E. Batt</span> American journalist and activist

Dennis E. Batt was an American political journalist and trade union activist. Best remembered as the first editor of The Communist, the official organ of the Communist Party of America and leading member of the Proletarian Party of America, in later years Batt's political views became increasingly conservative and he ended his life as a mainstream functionary in the union movement.

Joseph Freeman (1897–1965) was an American writer and magazine editor. He is best remembered as an editor of The New Masses, a literary and artistic magazine closely associated with the Communist Party USA, and as a founding editor of the magazine Partisan Review.

<i>Rabotnitsa</i>

Rabotnitsa is a women's journal, published in the Soviet Union and Russia and one of the oldest Russian magazines for women and families. Founded in 1914, and first published on Women's Day, it is the first socialist women's journal, and the most politically left of the women's periodicals. While the journal's beginnings are attributed to Lenin and several women who were close to him, he did not contribute to the first seven issues.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Max Eastman</span> American writer (1883–1969)

Max Forrester Eastman was an American writer on literature, philosophy and society, a poet and a prominent political activist. Moving to New York City for graduate school, Eastman became involved with radical circles in Greenwich Village. He supported socialism and became a leading patron of the Harlem Renaissance and an activist for a number of liberal and radical causes. For several years, he edited The Masses. With his sister Crystal Eastman, he co-founded in 1917 The Liberator, a radical magazine of politics and the arts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James P. Cannon</span> American politician

James Patrick Cannon was an American Trotskyist and a leader of the Socialist Workers Party.

References

  1. Paul Buhle, Marxism in the USA: From 1870 to the Present Day. London: Verso, 1987; p. 172.