Title:
Music and Poetry

Date of Publication: 
Jan. 1921 – December 1922

Place of Publication:
Chicago, IL

Frequency of Publication: 
Monthly

Circulation:
Unknown

Publisher: 
Holt Publishing Company, 4405 Prairie Avenue, Chicago, IL

Physical Description: 

61/2″ x 8 1/2.”  No. 1 is 18 pages of articles, sheet music, and poetry.  Some black-and-white photographs, but mostly text.  For No. 1, front cover design is a simple floral motif, and back cover is a full-page ad.

Price:
US (and US territories), Mexico, and Cuba: $0.25/issue or $2.50/year (and $2.75 in Canada).
International: $0.30/copy or $3.00/year.

Editor: 
Nora Douglas Holt

Associate Editor(s):
Unknown

Libraries with Original Issues: 
Emory University; Yale University (has, but is currently missing, microfilms of the first 10 issues; also has electronic version of vol. 1, no. 1)

Reprint Editions: 
Unknown

Music and Poetry was the vision of Nora Douglas Holt.  She published the first issue in January 1921 with the goals of 1) producing content for a music-loving, primarily black audience, and 2) encouraging African American participation in music.  The magazine included mentions of African American musicians’ accomplishments, publications of music scores, and educational articles about various topics in classical music.  

Holt focused on classical music and spirituals, as she “did not welcome the insurgence of ragtime, jazz and blues” (Karpf 166).  Rather, her goal was to encourage and promote the work of classically-trained African American musicians.  Holt also repeatedly printed a “Musician’s Creed” that stated, “I Will Use Something of Negro Origin on Every Program” (Music and Poetry 1: 4).  Additionally, one page in every issue is devoted to “short, traditionally styled” poetry, as “Holt did not print experimental poems” and was more interested in how the two art forms were connected (Marek 114). 

Sources conflict about the run and total number of issues of Music and Poetry.  Only the first 10 issues survive, but “A note written in the margins of the inaugural issue… and signed by Holt states that the publication ‘ran until sometime in 1922 and altogether there were twenty-four numbers’ ” (Karpf 165n111).  Its short run was likely due to the magazine’s financial dependence on the editor’s wealthy husband, George W. Holt, who died in 1922.  Nora was saddened by its end and called it “a labor of great joy” (166).

Nora Douglas Holt uses “A Letter to Our Readers,” printed in the inaugural issue of Music and Poetry, to explain its purpose:

“THIS magazine is launched with the hope of interesting all who have or anticipate accepting music as a profession, and for those who love it for the genuine happiness it brings in feeling it as an art as well as a pleasure.  And next, but quite important, of encouraging and nursing creative talent—decrying sham and vulgar apishness—awarding applause and support to all sincere artists who reveal the heart of a people through their native talent.  For art is greater than an individual and only that art endures which paints the soul of a race [the magazine mainly highlighted African American artists] through its expression.”

On the subject of poetry, Holt writes:

“Poetry, twin sister to music, will be given a page to be treated in its relativity to music, rather than attempting to collect and exploit current verse.  Poetry, like music, has rhythm, and worthy poems with decided motif and motion will be exhibited to encourage musical juxtaposition.”

These quotations taken from: Holt, Nora.  “A Letter to Our Readers.”  Music and Poetry, ed. Nora Douglas Holt, vol. I, no. 1, Holt Publishing, Jan. 1921, pp. 4.

Nora Douglas Holt (1885 or 1890 – January 25, 1974)
Editor 1921-1922

Though some details about Nora Douglas Holt, including her exact date of birth, are unclear, she was certainly famous for her adventurous behavior.  Her life involved five marriages, nude publicity pictures, attendance at lavish parties, and performance in the Everleigh Sisters’ brothel.  Carl Van Vechten, Countee Cullen, and Langston Hughes all either wrote about or based characters on her (Manheim and Schenbeck 182). Regardless of her salacious reputation, Nora was an exceptional musician and writer, and she used her gifts to advocate for and call attention to African American achievements in classical music among both men and women.

Nora was born Lena James Douglas in Kansas City.  After earning a B.A. at Western University, where she was the valedictorian, she moved to Chicago and began writing for the Chicago Defender (Manheim).  She was its first music editor and its first female staff writer (Schenbeck 180).  At the same time, she studied at the Chicago Musical College, where she earned a second B.A. in 1917 and then a master’s in 1918.  Both of these degrees were in music; she was likely the first African American to hold a master’s degree in the field (Manheim). While in Chicago, she also co-founded the Chicago Music Association and the National Association of Negro Musicians (Schenbeck 172).

Though the death of Nora’s fourth husband, George M. Holt, in 1921 brought about the end of Music and Poetry, it also left Nora financially independent.  She traveled extensively, living in Europe, Shanghai, California, and New York City.  Unfortunately, when Nora left Chicago, her over 200 compositions were stolen from storage. “Negro Dance,” which had been published in Music and Poetry‘s inaugural volume, is her only surviving work.  After settling in New York City in the 1940s, Nora wrote for Amsterdam News and the New York Courier and hosted her own radio show.  She eventually retired to Los Angeles after the radio show ended in 1964, but in 1966 she took a trip to Senegal to serve as a committee member for the First World Festival of Negro Arts (Manheim).

Maud Cuney-Hare
“The Kreutzer Sonata and Beethoven’s Mulatto Friend”

Harrison Emanuel
“Violin Department: Violin Technic” (Jan. 1921)

Helen Hagan
“The Late Horatio W. Parker”
Columns focusing on Claude Debussy and Camille Saint-Saëns

Nora Douglas Holt
Editorial pieces, including: “A Letter to Our Readers”
Essays, including: “Harmony Considered a Necessity in Music” (Jan. 1921), “The Chronological History of the NANM” (July 1921)
Her own (and only surviving) composition: “Negro Dance” (Jan. 1921)

Georgia Douglas Johnson
Poetry

Thorvald Otterstrom
Musical composition contribution (Apr. 1921)

J.A. Rogers
“Music and Poetry—The Noblest of Arts” (Jan. 1921)

Louis Victor Saar
“Harmony and Composition: From the Workshop of the Composer” (Jan. 1921)

Hilbert Earl Stewart
Composed a song (lyrics by Paul Lawrence Dunbar)

Other Contributors Include: Melvin Charlton, Cleota Collins, B. Consuelo Cook, Carl Diton,Roland Hayes, Kemper Herrald, Edward Francis Hill, Mildred Bryant Jones, Charles E. King, Clarence Cameron White

Karpf, Juanita.  “The Early Years of African American Music Periodicals, 1886-1922: History, Ideology, Context.”  International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music, vol. 28, no. 2, 1997, pp. 165–167. JSTOR.

Manheim, James M. “Holt, Nora 1885(?)–1974.” Contemporary Black Biography, ed. by Ashyia N. Henderson, vol. 38, Gale, 2003, pp. 86-88. Gale Virtual Reference Library.

Marek, Jayne.  “Chapter 6: Women Editors and Little Magazines in the Harlem Renaissance.”  Little Magazines and Modernism: New Approaches, ed. Suzanne W. Churchill and Adam McKible, Ashgate, 2007, pp. 113-117.

Music and Poetry.  Ed. Nora Douglas Holt, vol. I, no. 1, Holt Publishing, Jan. 1921.

Schenbeck, Lawrence.  “Nora Douglas Holt and her World.”  Racial Uplift and American Music: 1878-1943, UP of Mississippi, 2012, pp. 171-208.

Compiled by Casey Margerum (Davidson College, Class of ’19).

Title: 
Mother Earth

Publication Date: 
Mar. 1906 – Aug. 1917

Place(s) of Publication: 
New York, NY

Frequency of Publication: 
Monthly

Circulation:
Unknown

Publisher:
Unknown

Physical Description: 
21 cm.

Price: 
10 cents per issue / $1.00 per year

Editor(s): 
Emma Goldman (Mar. 1906 – Oct. 1908; Apr. 1915 – Apr. 1918)
Alexander Berkman (Nov. 1908 – Mar. 1915)

Associate Editor(s):
Unknown

Libraries with Complete Original Issues: 
Cornell University; Columbia University; Ohio State University

Reprint Editions: 
New York: Greenwood Reprint Co., 1968
Full searchable PDF of April 1911 issue available online at Brown University’s Modernist Journals Project.
Full images of February 1915 issue available online at PBS’s American Experience.

Emma Goldman, a renowned anarchist and acclaimed orator, published the first issue of Mother Earth in March 1906. In Mother Earth Goldman advocated radical political causes, labor agitation, and even opposition to the U.S. government in a number of issues. Goldman envisioned a magazine of not only criticism but of verse. However, during its twelve-year run, Goldman drew upon her favorite realist writers such as Ibsen and Emerson to fulfill the literary component of the magazine. The magazine is not frequently associated with the up-and-coming radical and experimental poets of the time as much as it is considered a collection of Goldman’s anarchist writings. Friend and ally Alexander Berkman joined the project after his release from prison in May of 1908. Goldman’s lecture circuit, which at times led to her arrest, furnished the revenue to allow the dup to publish 136 consecutive issues of Mother Earth.

In June of 1917 Woodrow Wilson signed the Espionage Act, which set penalties for aiding the U.S.’s enemies, interfering with the draft, or encouraging disloyalty in the armed forces. Later that day officials raided the Mother Earth office and arrested Goldman and Berkman. The confiscated documents included letters, magazine subscription lists, and membership lists for the No-Conscription League. With Mother Earth barred from the postal system, Goldman and Berkman released their first issue of the Mother Earth Bulletin in September of 1917. Its opening number blasted the government, describing how “the Postmaster General has become the absolute dictator over the press” and explaining that because “MOTHER EARTH will not comply with these regulations and will not appear in an emasculated form, it prefers to take a long needed rest until the world has regained its sanity.” Goldman and Berkman continued to release the Mother Earth Bulletin in the magazine’s stead until April 1918.

The following manifesto outlines Emma Goldman and Max Baginski’s beliefs on the relationship between mankind and mother earth. The concluding paragraph details the goals the editors have for their magazine.

HERE was a time when men imagined the Earth as the center of the universe. The stars, large and small, they believed were created merely for their delectation. It was their vain conception that a supreme being, weary of solitude, had manufactured a giant toy and put them into possession of it.

“When, however, the human mind was illumined by the torch-light of science, it came to understand that the Earth was but one of a myriad of stars floating in infinite space, a mere speck of dust.

“Man issued from the womb of Mother Earth, but he knew it not, nor recognized her, to whom he owed his life. In his egotism he sought an explanation of himself in the infinite, and out of his efforts there arose the dreary doctrine that he was not related to the Earth, that she was but a temporary resting place for his scornful feet and that she held nothing for him but temptation to degrade himself. Interpreters and prophets of the infinite sprang into being, creating the “Great Beyond” and proclaiming Heaven and Hell, between which stood the poor, trembling human being, tormented by that priest-born monster, Conscience.

“In this frightful scheme, gods and devils waged eternal war against each other with wretched man as the prize of victory; and the priest, self-constituted interpreter of the will of the gods, stood in front of the only refuge from harm and demanded as the price of entrance that ignorance, that asceticism, that self-abnegation which could but end in the complete subjugation of man to superstition. He was taught that Heaven, the refuge, was the very antithesis of Earth, which was the source of sin. To gain for himself a seat in Heaven, man devastated the Earth. Yet she renewed herself, the good mother, and came again each Spring, radiant with youthful beauty, beckoning her children to come to her bosom and partake of her bounty. But ever the air grew thick with mephitic darkness, ever a hollow voice was heard calling: “Touch not the beautiful form of the sorceress; she leads to sin!”

“But if the priests decried the Earth, there were others who found in it a source of power and who took possession of it. Then it happened that the autocrats at the gates of Heaven joined forces with the powers that had taken possession of the Earth; and humanity began its aimless, monotonous march. But the good mother sees the bleeding feet of her children, she hears their moans, and she is ever calling to them that she is theirs!”

“To the contemporaries of George Washington, Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson, America appeared vast, boundless, full of promise. Mother Earth, with the sources of vast wealth hidden within the folds of her ample bosom, extended her inviting and hospitable arms to all those who came to her from arbitrary and despotic lands–Mother Earth ready to give herself alike to all her children. But soon she was seized by the few, stripped of her freedom, fenced in, a prey to those who were endowed with cunning and unscrupulous shrewdness. They, who had fought for independence from the British yoke, soon became dependent among themselves; dependent on possessions, on wealth, on power. Liberty escaped into the wilderness, and the old battle between the patrician and the plebeian broke out in the new world, with greater bitterness and vehemence. A period of but a hundred years had sufficed to turn a great republic, once gloriously established, into an arbitrary state which subdued a vast number of its people into material and intellectual slavery, while enabling the privileged few to monopolize every material and mental resource!”

“During the last few years, American journalists have had much to say about the terrible conditions in Russia and the supremacy of the Russian censor. Have they forgotten the censor here? a censor far more powerful than him of Russia. Have they forgotten that every line they write is dictated by the political color of the paper they write for; by the advertising firms; by the money power; by the power of respectability; by Comstock? Have they forgotten that the literary taste and critical judgment of the mass of the people have been successfully moulded to suit the will of these dictators, and to serve as a go od business basis for shrewd literary speculators? The number of Rip Van Winkles in life, science, morality, art, and literature is very large. Innumerable ghosts, such as Ibsen saw when he analyzed the moral and social conditions of our life, still keep the majority of the human race in awe!”

“MOTHER EARTH will endeavor to attract and appeal to all those who oppose encroachment on public and individual life. It will appeal to those who strive for something higher, weary of the commonplace; to those who feel that stagnation is a deadweight on the firm and elastic step of progress; to those who breathe freely only in limitless space; to those who long for the tender shade of a new dawn for a humanity free from the dread of want, the dread of starvation in the face of mountains of riches. The Earth free for the free individual!”

“Mother Earth.” 1:1 (Mar. 1906): 1.

Emma Goldman (Jun. 27, 1869 – May 14, 1940)
Editor: Mar. 1906 – Oct. 1908; Apr. 1915 – Apr. 1918

“Red Emma” was a Russian-born sexual revolutionist and an outspoken anarchist. While working in New York factories she befriended Alexander Berkman, and together they founded Mother Earth magazine to dispense their anarchist philosophies. She flirted with jail time throughout the first two decades of the 20th century, as her lengthy lecture circuits regarded such taboos and illegalities as birth control, anarchism, refusal to join the draft, and riot-mongering. She was even arrested as an accessory to the assassination attempt of President McKinley, although the case was dropped for lack of evidence. Goldman’s No Conscription League finally doomed her anarchism career in the United States: the same day that Woodrow Wilson signed the Espionage Act, the Mother Earth offices were raided, Goldman and Berkman were sent to jail, and as soon as they had finished their two years in prison, they were deported to Soviet Russia. She expressed extreme dissatisfaction with the Bolsheviks and tried in vain to regain citizenship in the United States. She later lived in England and France and continued lecturing and writing memoirs and autobiographies, including Living My Life. She died in Canada at the age of 70.

Alexander Berkman (Nov. 21, 1870 – Jun. 28, 1936)
Editor: Nov. 1908 – Mar. 1915

Rebellious even as a child, Alexander Berkman emigrated to New York City in 1887 after being expelled from his Russian school for submitting an essay espousing atheism. There he became active in anarchism, speaking out on behalf of the perpetrators in the Haymarket Bombing. He found a kindred spirit in Emma Goldman, with whom he became a lover and co-founder of Mother Earth. Later, he published his own magazine, The Blast. A wild attempt on the life of notorious industrialist Henry Clay Frick in 1892 conferred him a 22-year sentence in jail, of which he served 14 years. After his release, he published the celebrated Prison Memoirs, reflecting on his time in jail, but his hand in the No Conscription League returned him to prison until his deportation to Russia in 1919. Like Goldman, he was distraught by Russia’s state, and published The Bolshevik Myth to outline the problems with Communism. He moved to France in 1925 and spent the rest of his life there until the pain associated with a prostrate condition drove him to shoot himself in 1936.

Max Baginski
“Without Government”

Frances Wauls Bjorkman
“Vive le Roi”

Emma Goldman
“On the Road”

Hippolyte Havel
“An Immoral Writer”

H. Kelly
“Socialism and Fatalism”

Rudyard Kipling
“The Cry of Toil”

Peter Kropotkin
“Brain Work and Manual Work”

Emma Lee
“The Law of the ‘Survival of the Fittest’”

Wim C. Owen
“Marx v. Nietzsche”

Grace Potter
“Try Love”

Alvan F. Sanborn
“The Revolutionary Spirit in French Literature”

Leo Tolstoy
“The Power of the Plutocrat”

“Alexander Berkman – Biographical Material.” Anarchy Archives. 12 Feb. 2000. Pitzer College. 6 July 2009.

Brennan, Carol. “Emma Goldman.” Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit, Gale 2000. Literature Resource Center. Davidson College Lib., Davidson, NC. 1 July 2009.

“Emma Goldman.” American Experience. PBS. 13 July 2009.

Goldman, Emma and Max Baginski. “Mother Earth.” Mother Earth. 1 (1906): 1-3. 1 May 2007.

Goldman, Emma.  “What I Believe.” Red Emma Speaks: An Emma Goldman Reader. Ed. Alix Kates Shulman. New York: Schocken Books, 1983.

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

Images, Feb. 1915 issue. “Mother Earth Magazine.” American Experience: Emma Goldman. 11 Mar. 2004. PBS. 21 July 2009.

Image, handbill. “Emma Goldman and Free Speech.” 2 July 2003. Berkley Digital Library SunSITE. 13 July 2009.

Images, June 1912 issue. “Mother Earth.” Modernist Journals Project: 1910 Collection. Brown University. 21 July 2009.

Image, police photograph. “Index of /bleed/Encyclopedia/GoldmanEmma.” Recollection Books. 13 July 2009.

Monk, Craig.  “Emma Goldman, Mother Earth, & The Little Magazine Impulse in Modern America.” ‘The Only Efficient Instrument’ American Women Writers & the Periodical, 1837-1916. Eds. Aleta Feinsod Cane and Susan Alves. Iowa City: Iowa UP, 2001.

“People & Events: Henry Clay Frick (1849 – 1919).” American Experience: Emma Goldman. 11 Mar. 2004. PBS. 6 July 2009.

“Timeline: Anarchism and Emma Goldman.” American Experience: Emma Goldman. 11 Mar. 2004. PBS. 6 July 2009.

“Mother Earth” compiled by Kristen Psaki (Class of ’07, Davidson College)

Title:
The Midland: A Magazine of the Middle West (1915 – 1929)
The Midland: A National Literary Magazine (1930 – 1933)

Date of Publication:
Jan. 1915 (1:1) – May/Jun. 1933 (20:2/3)

Place(s) of Publication:
Iowa City, IA (1915 – 1933)
Moorhead, MN (1917 – 1919)
Glennie, MI (1919 – 1921)
Pittsburgh, PA (1922-1923)
Chicago, IL (1930 – 1933)

Frequency of Publication:
Monthly (1915 – 1917; 1923 – 1927)
Bimonthly (1918 – 1919; 1928 – 1933)
Monthly and bimontly (1920 – 1922)

Circulation:
200-500 until it moved to Chicago; 1,200-2,000 in Chicago

Publisher:
John Springer at Economy Advertising Company in Iowa City, IA

Physical Description:
23-28 cm in height.  Issues around 30 pages in length. Tan cover.  Water-marked, deckle-edged octavo pages. Published mostly short fiction, but also poetry and essays.

Price:
Unknown

Editor(s):
John T. Frederick (1915 – 1933)
Frank Luther Mott, co-editor, (1925-1930)

Associate Editor(s):
C.F. Ansley
Edwin Ford Piper
Ival McPeak
Roger Sergel
Esther Paulus (wife of John T. Frederick)
Roy Tower
Mary Grove Chawner
Nelson A. Crawford
Hartely Alexander

Libraries with Original Issues:
Iowa State University, University of Iowa, University of Michigan, University of Minnesota, Harvard University; Searchable PDF of select volumes available at the Hathi Trust Digital Library

Reprint Editions:
New York: Kraus Reprint Corporation, 1967.

The Midland “encourage[d] the making of literature in the Middle West” (Frederick 1:1). It sought to question the legitimacy of the Northeast’s power in the publication of literature and to encourage young writers stay in their region and write about it. Showcasing writers from the region located between the Allegheny and Rocky Mountain ranges, The Midland became one of the most influential regional little magazines. The Midland emphasized the regional diversity of the country and the special worldview found in the Midwest, especially the rural areas (Reigelman 44). Meant to be a non-commercial enterprise, The Midland depended on subscriptions to support its publication, though it did print advertisements for other literary magazines.

In the first three years of its publication, The Midland divided its space equally to essays, poetry and short fiction. By 1918, however, it had moved to featuring mostly short fiction, the arena in which it gained the most fame from critics such as Edward J. O’Brian, the editor of the Best Short Stories series (200). Another change was in the regional scope of the magazine: by 1930 only two-thirds of contributions came from Midwestern states. This precipitated the change in subtitle of the magazine from “A Magazine of the Middle West” to “A National Literary Magazine” (31).

John T. Frederick, the editor and founder of the magazine, used The Midland both to fight against and to gain access to academia and big New York publishers. The style of social realism and main themes of The Midland, including the family, rural lifestyles, and the war, reflected his tastes. The Midland debuted in Iowa City just after Frederick finished at the University of Iowa, and though he edited the magazine from several different locales due to his various career moves, it was printed in Iowa City by John Springer’s firm throughout its run. Frederick and Springer carefully designed and printed The Midland in order to contrast intentionally more cheaply made commercial magazines (5). Frederick was supportive of new writers from the region, and responded personally to every submission and letter to the magazine (24). Frederick’s high expectations came crashing down when his large amount of debt forced Frederick to ask the editor of The Frontier to combine the magazines.

“The First Person Plural” by John T. Frederick

The Midland is not a commercial enterprise, and it is not endowed. Its publishers, editors and contributors receive no payment for their work. Obviously, miscellaneous advertising is not sought or accepted. Possibly subscriptions will meet the only expenses of the magazine, — the cost of printing and mailing. With that faint hope its commercialism ends.

The magazine is merely a modest attempt to encourage the making of literature in the Middle West. The region is already renowned for certain material products and for financial prosperity; but the marker of its literary and other artists has commonly been beyond the mountains, and the producers have commonly gone to their market. Possibly the region between the mountains would gain in variety at least if it retained more of its makers of literature, music, pictures, and other expressions of civilization. And possibly civilization itself might be with us a somewhat swifter process if expression of its spirit were more frequent. Scotland is none the worse for Burns and Scott, none the worse that they did not move to London and interpret London themes for London publishers.

Makers of art do not moralize; yet they are artists because they have something to say. They have the faith of Saint Francis in something above the material, and for it they must at least have the will to take poverty as bride. So it happens that the Middle West has a few publishers, editors and writers who wish to do some of their work strictly in the amateur spirit. They will try to make and print some literature.

It is all an experiment, of course; but everybody who works at it will have some pleasure in the work and will hope to lighten and brighten life, even if slightly, for the Gentle Reader who may indeed wish to share also the joy of the work.

Dying, the Venerable Bede repeated the words of Saint Ambrose: “I have not lived so as to be ashamed to live among you; nor do I fear to die.” When The Midland dies, late or soon, may it die unashamed and leave pleasant memories.

from The Midland 1:1 (January 1915), pages 1-2.

John T. Frederick (Feb. 1, 1893 – Jan. 31, 1975)
Editor: 1915 – 1933

John T. Frederick, born in 1893 near Corning, Iowa, studied at the State University of Iowa (now the University of Iowa). Contemporary American literature was his academic focus. He began publishing his Midwestern-focused magazine at the end of his senior year of college when he was only 21 years old. C.F. Ansley, the head of the English Department at the time who believed in the importance of regionalism, helped him find contributors and subscribers. The magazine was shaped by Frederick’s “modest personality and literary preferences,” and he edited it while teaching and lecturing at universities in Iowa City, IO; Moorhead, MN; Pittsburg, PA; Chicago, IL; and also his stint farming in Glennie, MI for two years (Reigelman 200). Despite his career as a professor, it remained important to Frederick throughout The Midland’s run to keep it independent from academic affiliation, perhaps due to the common view at universities at the time that American literature was not worth studying (17).

Frank Luther Mott (Apr. 4, 1886 – Oct. 23, 1964)
Co-Editor: 1925 – 1930

Also born in Iowa, Frank Luther Mott studied at University of Chicago and Columbia University before taking a faculty post at University of Iowa. He was a contributor to The Midland before becoming Frederick’s co-editor in 1925. Mott complimented Frederick’s modesty with energy and aggressiveness. Frederick and Mott worked well together, and alternated writing the book reviews in the magazine (Reigelman 22).

William Ellery Leonard

“A Cycle of Love-Lyrics”

“Flower-Lyrics”

“Above the Battle: 1616-1916 and Thereafter”

Howard Mumford Jones

“Drigsby’s Universal Regulator”

“Love Divided: A Sequence of Sonnets”

Edwin Ford Piper

“The Land of the Aiouswas”

“The Movers”

“The Well”

Lizette Woodworth Reese

“Lilac Dusk”

“Cupboards”

Maxwell Anderson

“Despair”

“Autumn Again”

Vincent Starrett

“God’s Riding”

“Poetry”

Grace Stone Coates

“Crickets”

“Black Cherries”

Raymond Weeks

“How I Burned for Heloise”

“The Fat Woman of Boone”

Allen, Charles. “Regionalism and the Little Magazines.” College English.7.1 (Oct. 1945): 10-16.

Campbell, Douglas S. “The Midland: Magazine of the Middle West.” Regional Interest Magazines of the United States. Sam G. Riley and Gary W. Selnow, eds. Greenwood Press: New York, 1991. Web. 14 Jun 2016.

Chielans, Edward. The Literary Journal in America, 1900-1950: A Guide to Information Sources. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1977.

Hathi Trust Digital Library. “The Midland.” University of Michigan. Web. September – October, 2010.

Hoffman, Frederick J., Charles Allan, and Carolyn F. Ulrich. The Little Magazine: A History and a Bibliography. 2nd ed. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1947.

Lutz, Tom. “The Cosmopolitan Midland.” American Periodicals: A Journal of History, Criticism, and Bibliography. 15.1 (2005): 74-85.

Lutz, Tom. “The Cosmopolitan Midland and the Academic Writer.” Little Magazines and Modernism: New Approaches. Ed. Suzanne W. Churchill and Adam McKible. Hampshire and Burlington: Ashgate, 2007.

Reigelman, Milton M. “The Midland.” American Literary Magazines. 199-203

Reigelman, Milton M. The Midland: A Venture in Literary Regionalism. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1975.

“The Midland” compiled by Rachel Andersen (Class of ‘11, Davidson College)

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]

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)