The Liberator (magazine)
Encyclopedia
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 from late 1922 and was merged with two other publications to form The Workers Monthly in 1924.
reported the ongoing situation in Soviet Russia; major reports were filed from across tumultuous post-war Europe by Robert Minor
, Hiram K. Moderwell, Frederick Kuh, and Crystal Eastman
. Pivotal conventions of political parties and labor unions were covered in depth by intelligent participants. The great political trials of the day were reported in detail with perception. Speeches and articles by sundry revolutionary leaders of the world found space on its pages.
As with The Masses, The Liberator relied heavily upon political art, including contributions from some of the finest talents of the day. Among the artists and writers who contributed to the publication were 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
and Art Young
. Each color cardstock cover of The Liberator was unique and distinctive, a miniature work of art, again echoing its illustrious predecessor. Poetry and fiction fleshed out its pages, including work by Carl Sandburg
, Claude McKay
, Arturo Giovannitti
, and others. The magazine was, in short, a monthly intellectual banquet for the American radical intelligentsia, available on newsstands for just two thin dimes.
Maintaining a low cost of the elaborate publication for its readers came at a huge price, however. To economize, ultra-thin newsprint was used for the magazine’s pages — cheap and terrible, high in acid content. The result was predictable, a publication as fragile and ephemeral as a spring wildflower. Nine decades after the fact, the few surviving copies of The Liberator, (particularly from the years 1918-1923) are inevitably browning and brittle, whisked by worried librarians from the general stacks of research libraries into the far less accessible special collections departments. Thus a great irony: the most important of American radical magazines of the early 1920s, The Liberator, is at the same time among the least readily available.
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 the first of January 1922, with literary critic Floyd Dell taking over the job. Throughout 1922 political matters were somewhat deemphasized in favor of art and culture under Dell’s watch, including the first publication of poetry by the likes of 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. This magazine continues today, known since 1946 as Political Affairs
.
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
magazine established by Max Eastman
Max Eastman
Max Forrester Eastman was an American writer on literature, philosophy and society, a poet, and a prominent political activist. For many years, Eastman was a supporter of socialism, a leading patron of the Harlem Renaissance and an activist for a number of liberal and radical causes...
and his sister Crystal Eastman
Crystal Eastman
Crystal Catherine Eastman was a lawyer, antimilitarist, feminist, socialist, and journalist. She is best remembered as a leader in the fight for women's right to vote, as a co-editor of the radical arts and politics magazine The Liberator, and as a co-founder of the Women's International League...
in 1918 to continue the work of The Masses
The Masses
The Masses was a graphically innovative magazine of socialist politics published monthly in the U.S. from 1911 until 1917, when Federal prosecutors brought charges against its editors for conspiring to obstruct conscription. It was succeeded by The Liberator and then later The New 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 from late 1922 and was merged with two other publications to form The Workers Monthly in 1924.
History
The Liberator’s international news coverage was first-rate. Legendary war correspondent and Communist Labor Party founder John ReedJohn Reed
-Arts, letters, and entertainment:* John Reed , New York novelist and author* John Reed , actor and singer with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company* John Reed , Australian critic and art patron...
reported the ongoing situation in Soviet Russia; major reports were filed from across tumultuous post-war Europe by Robert Minor
Robert Minor
Robert Berkeley "Bob" Minor was political cartoonist, a radical journalist, and a leading member of the American Communist Party.-Early life:...
, Hiram K. Moderwell, Frederick Kuh, and Crystal Eastman
Crystal Eastman
Crystal Catherine Eastman was a lawyer, antimilitarist, feminist, socialist, and journalist. She is best remembered as a leader in the fight for women's right to vote, as a co-editor of the radical arts and politics magazine The Liberator, and as a co-founder of the Women's International League...
. Pivotal conventions of political parties and labor unions were covered in depth by intelligent participants. The great political trials of the day were reported in detail with perception. Speeches and articles by sundry revolutionary leaders of the world found space on its pages.
Maurice Becker
Maurice Becker was a radical political artist best known for his work in the 1910s and 1920s for such publications as The Masses and The Liberator.-Early years:...
, E.E. Cummings, John Dos Passos
John Dos Passos
John Roderigo Dos Passos was an American novelist and artist.-Early life:Born in Chicago, Illinois, Dos Passos was the illegitimate son of John Randolph Dos Passos , a distinguished lawyer of Madeiran Portuguese descent, and Lucy Addison Sprigg Madison of Petersburg, Virginia. The elder Dos Passos...
, Fred Ellis
Fred Ellis
Fred C. Ellis was an American editorial cartoonist. He is best remembered as one of the leading radical artists of the 1920s and 1930s as an artist for various publications of the Communist Party, USA , including stints on the staff of the CPUSA's daily newspaper.-Early years:Fred Ellis was born...
, Lydia Gibson
Lydia Gibson
Lydia Gibson was an American socialist illustrator who contributed work to The Masses, The Liberator, The Workers' Monthly, The New Masses, and other radical publications.-Early years:...
, William Gropper
William Gropper
William Victor "Bill" 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 The Morning...
, Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economic and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the...
, Helen Keller
Helen Keller
Helen Adams Keller was an American author, political activist, and lecturer. She was the first deafblind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree....
, J.J. Lankes, Boardman Robinson
Boardman Robinson
Boardman Robinson was a Canadian-American artist, illustrator and cartoonist.-Early years:Boardman Robinson was born September 6, 1876 in Nova Scotia, Canada. He spent his childhood in England and Canada, before coming to Boston in the first half of the 1890s...
, Edmund Wilson
Edmund Wilson
Edmund Wilson was an American writer and literary and social critic and noted man of letters.-Early life:Wilson was born in Red Bank, New Jersey. His father, Edmund Wilson, Sr., was a lawyer and served as New Jersey Attorney General. Wilson attended The Hill School, a college preparatory...
and Art Young
Art Young
Arthur "Art" Young was an American cartoonist and writer. He is most famous for his socialist cartoons, especially those drawn for the left wing political magazine The Masses between 1911 and 1917.-Early Years:...
. Each color cardstock cover of The Liberator was unique and distinctive, a miniature work of art, again echoing its illustrious predecessor. Poetry and fiction fleshed out its pages, including work by Carl Sandburg
Carl Sandburg
Carl Sandburg was an American writer and editor, best known for his poetry. He won three Pulitzer Prizes, two for his poetry and another for a biography of Abraham Lincoln. H. L. Mencken called Carl Sandburg "indubitably an American in every pulse-beat."-Biography:Sandburg was born in Galesburg,...
, Claude McKay
Claude McKay
Claude McKay was a Jamaican-American writer and poet. He was a seminal figure in the Harlem Renaissance and wrote three novels: Home to Harlem , a best-seller which won the Harmon Gold Award for Literature, Banjo , and Banana Bottom...
, Arturo Giovannitti
Arturo Giovannitti
Arturo M. Giovannitti was an Italian-American union leader, socialist political activist, and poet. He is best remembered as one of the principal organizers of the 1912 Lawrence Textile Strike and as a defendant in a celebrated trial ensuing from that event.-Early years:Arturo Giovannitti was born...
, and others. The magazine was, in short, a monthly intellectual banquet for the American radical intelligentsia, available on newsstands for just two thin dimes.
Maintaining a low cost of the elaborate publication for its readers came at a huge price, however. To economize, ultra-thin newsprint was used for the magazine’s pages — cheap and terrible, high in acid content. The result was predictable, a publication as fragile and ephemeral as a spring wildflower. Nine decades after the fact, the few surviving copies of The Liberator, (particularly from the years 1918-1923) are inevitably browning and brittle, whisked by worried librarians from the general stacks of research libraries into the far less accessible special collections departments. Thus a great irony: the most important of American radical magazines of the early 1920s, The Liberator, is at the same time among the least readily available.
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 the first of January 1922, with literary critic Floyd Dell taking over the job. Throughout 1922 political matters were somewhat deemphasized in favor of art and culture under Dell’s watch, including the first publication of poetry by the likes of Claude McKay
Claude McKay
Claude McKay was a Jamaican-American writer and poet. He was a seminal figure in the Harlem Renaissance and wrote three novels: Home to Harlem , a best-seller which won the Harmon Gold Award for Literature, Banjo , and Banana Bottom...
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
Workers Party of America
The Workers Party of America was the name of the legal party organization used by the Communist Party USA from the last days of 1921 until the middle of 1929. As a legal political party the Workers Party accepted affiliation from independent socialist groups such as the African Blood Brotherhood,...
— 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
John Pepper
John Pepper, also known as József Pogány, born József Schwartz was a Hungarian-Jewish Communist politician, active in the radical movements of both Hungary and the United States. He later served as a functionary in the Communist International in Moscow, before being cashiered in 1929...
, William Z. Foster
William Z. Foster
William Foster was a radical American labor organizer and Marxist politician, whose career included a lengthy stint as General Secretary of the Communist Party USA...
, Jay Lovestone
Jay Lovestone
Jay Lovestone was at various times a member of the Socialist Party of America, a leader of the Communist Party USA, leader of a small oppositionist party, an anti-Communist and Central Intelligence Agency helper, and foreign policy advisor to the leadership of the AFL-CIO and various unions...
, and Max Bedacht
Max Bedacht
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...
. 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
Trade Union Educational League
The Trade Union Educational League was established by William Z. Foster in 1920 as a means of uniting radicals within various trade unions for a common plan of action. The group was subsidized by the Communist International via the Communist Party of America from 1922...
” magazine, The Labor Herald, and its “Friends of Soviet Russia
Friends of Soviet Russia
The Friends of Soviet Russia was formally established in the United States on August 9, 1921 as an offshoot of the American Labor Alliance for Trade Relations with 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. This magazine continues today, known since 1946 as Political Affairs
Political Affairs Magazine
Political Affairs Magazine is a monthly, online Marxist publication. It aims to provide an analysis of events from a working class point of view. Political Affairs Magazine is a publication of the Communist Party USA. It was founded in 1944 upon the closure of its predecessor, The Communist, which...
.