Please see disambiguation page for Left Front

Left Front (disambiguation)

Left Front may refer to various leftist organizations:* Left Front , an alliance of Indian leftist parties* Left Front of the Arts...

Left Front Magazine (1930?-1935) was an American magazine published by the Chicago chapter of the John Reed Club

John Reed Club

The John Reed Club was an American, semi-national, Marxist club for writers, artists, and intellectuals, named after the American journalist, activist, and poet, John Reed.-Founding:...

, itself a Marxist club for writers, artists, and intellectual

Intellectual

An intellectual is a person who uses intelligence and critical or analytical reasoning in either a professional or a personal capacity.- Terminology and endeavours :"Intellectual" can denote four types of persons:...

s, named after the American journalist, activist, and poet, John Reed. The magazine is most famous for being a major early publishing venue of American author Richard Wright.

Richard Wright

In 1933, Richard Wright

Richard Wright (author)

Richard Nathaniel Wright was an African-American author of sometimes controversial novels, short stories, poems, and non-fiction. Much of his literature concerns racial themes, especially those involving the plight of African-Americans during the late 19th to mid 20th centuries...

 joined the Chicago chapter of the John Reed Club at the urging of friend Abraham Aaron. The same year, he is elected executive secretary of the chapter. By early 1934, Wright began writing poetry for the chapter's magazine, Left Front. He published poems "A Red Love Note" and "Rest for the Weary" in the January–February 1934 issue and became co-editor of the magazine at the same time. "Everywhere Burning Waters Rise" appeared in the May–June 1934 issue of Left Front.

Demise

While some sources say the CPUSA shut down the magazine in 1935, its demise most likely came in August 1934 during a Midwest Writers Congress, when publisher Alexander Trachtenberg

Alexander Trachtenberg

Alexander "Alex" Trachtenberg was an American publisher of radical political books and pamphlets and activist in the Socialist Party of America and later the Communist Party USA...

 proposed replacement of the John Reed Club with a new (i.e., Party-sanctioned) organization called the First American Writers Congress.

See also

• New Masses: magazine associated with the John Reed Club's New York chapter
• Daily Worker
  Daily Worker
  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, some attempts were made to make it appear that the paper reflected a...
  
  : newspaper published by the CPUSA from headquarters in Chicago

External links

• Partial text of "I Tried to be a Communist", by Richard Wright
• Yale University Press: Artists on the Left by Andrew Hemingway