History of the New Masses Magazine (The Masses and The Liberator Magazine)

During the the First World War, most of the people who worked for the believed that the USA should remain neutral. After the USA declared war on the Central Powers in 1917, the The Masses magazine came under government pressure to change its policy. When it refused to do this, the journal lost its mailing privileges. Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ...

In July, 1917, it was claimed by the authorities that articles by Floyd Dell and Max Eastman and cartoons by Art Young, Boardman Robinson and H. J. Glintenkamp had violated the Espionage Act. Under this act it was an offence to publish material that undermined the war effort. The legal action that followed forced The Masses to cease publication. Max Forrester Eastman (January 4, 1883–March 25, 1969) was a leftist American writer. ... The Espionage Act was passed by the 65th United States Congress on June 15, 1917, during World War I. This act made it a crime, punishable by a $10,000 fine and 20 years in jail, for a person to convey false reports or false statements with intent to interfere...

In 1918 the same people who produced The Masses, including the editor, Max Eastman, went on the publish a very similar journal, The Liberator. The journal published information about socialist movements throughout the world and was the first to break the news that the Allies had invaded Russia. Max Forrester Eastman (January 4, 1883–March 25, 1969) was a leftist American writer. ...

People who contributed to the journal included Crystal Eastman, Art Young, Claude McKay,Boardman Robinson, Roger Baldwin, Norman Thomas, John Reed, Louise Bryant, Bertrand Russell, Dorothy Day, Robert Minor, Stuart Davis, Maurice Becker, Helen Keller, Cornelia Barns, Louis Untermeyer, K. R. Chamberlain and William Gropper. This article needs cleanup. ... Claude McKay. ... Several notable persons have been named Roger Baldwin: Roger Nash Baldwin, (1884-1981), founder of ACLU Roger Sherman Baldwin, (1793-1863), US lawyer and politician ... Norman Mattoon Thomas (November 20, 1884 - December 19, 1968) was a leading American socialist, pacifist, and six-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party. ... John Reed, (1751-1831), U.S. politician John Reed, (1781-1860), U.S. politician, son of the above John Reed, (1887-1920), journalist and activist, subject of the 1981 film Reds John F. (Jack) Reed, (1949- ), U.S. politician, senator John Shepard Reed, Chairman of the New York Stock Exchange... Louise Bryant (1885-1936) was a journalist, writer, and feminist known for her Marxist writings and bohemian lifestyle. ... Dorothy Day ( November 8, 1897 - November 29, 1980), initially Marxist, became Catholic in 1927. ... There are two well-known artists named Stuart Davis. ... This article or section should include material from Weather Folklore. ... Louis Untermeyer (1885 - 1977) was a United States author, writer and editor. ...

In 1922 the journal was taken over by Robert Minor and the Communist Party. and in 1924 was renamed as The Workers' Monthly. Many of the people who contributed to the The Masses and the original Liberator, were unhappy with this development and in 1926, they started their own journal, the New Masses. A Communist party is a party which promotes Communism. ...

The New Masses

Over the years most of the well-known left-wing writers and artists produced material for The New Masses. This included Max Eastman, Upton Sinclair, Sherwood Anderson, Erskine Caldwell, Richard Wright, Ernest Hemingway, Alvah Bessie, James Agee, Ralph Ellison, Langston Hughes, John Dos Passos, Josephine Herbst, Theodore Dreiser, Floyd Dell, Art Young, William Gropper, Albert Hirschfeld, Carl Sandburg, Waldo Frank and Eugene O'Neill. The New Masses ceased publication in 1948. Max Forrester Eastman (January 4, 1883–March 25, 1969) was a leftist American writer. ... Upton Beall Sinclair (September 20, 1878 - November 25, 1968) wrote in many genres, often advocating Socialist views, and achieved considerable popularity in the early twentieth century. ... Sherwood Anderson, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1933 Sherwood Anderson (September 13, 1876 - March 8, 1941) was an American writer, mainly of short stories, most notably the collection Winesburg, Ohio. ... Categories: Stub | 1903 births | 1987 deaths ... Richard Wright is the name of several people, including: Richard Wright, African-American author Richard B. Wright, Canadian author Richard Wright, keyboard player with Pink Floyd Richard Wright, England football goalkeeper Richard Wright, American politician This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise... Ernest Hemingway, 1950. ... James Agee (November 27, 1909 - May 16, 1955) was a United States novelist, screenwriter, journalist, poet, and film critic. ... Ralph Ellison (March 1, 1914 - April 16, 1994) was an American scholar and writer. ... Langston Hughes, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1936 Langston Hughes (February 1, 1902 - May 22, 1967) was an African American poet, novelist, playwright, and newspaper columnist. ... John Roderigo Dos Passos, born January 14, 1896 in Chicago, Illinois, United States - died September 28, 1970 in Baltimore, Maryland, was a novelist and artist. ... Theodore Dreiser photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1933 Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser (July 27, 1871 - December 28, 1945) was an American naturalist author known for dealing with the gritty reality of life. ... Time magazine, December 4, 1939 Carl Sandburg (January 6, 1878 – July 22, 1967), American poet, historian, novelist, and folklorist. ... Eugene O’Neill photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1933 Eugene Gladstone ONeill ( New York City, October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953 in Boston) was an American playwright. ...

External links

• The Masses (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/ARTmasses.htm)

• The New Masses (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JmassesN.htm)

• The Liberator (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Jliberator.htm)

• Art for the Masses A Radical Magazine and Its Graphics 1911-1917 (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0877226709/qid=1113701346/sr=8-3/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i3_xgl14/103-5498761-8467058?v=glance&s=books&n=507846)