Published by The Liberator Publishing Company, New York, 1919
Seller: Singularity Rare & Fine, Baldwinsville, NY, U.S.A.
First Edition
Single Issue Magazine. Condition: Good. First Edition. New York: The Liberator Publishing Company, 1919. First Edition of the February, 1919 issue. Quarto, 49 numbered pages. Covers and first adjacent pages loose; age-toned throughout. Good plus. Boardman Robinson cover, a portrait of Abraham Lincoln (an a propos Lincoln quote lies within as well); contributions by Stuart Davis, Max Eastman, Howard Brubaker, William Bross Lloyd, Upton Sinclair, Jean Sterling, Louis Untermeyer, Charles W. Wood, Lydia Gibson, Art Young, Inez Haynes Irwin, Jean Starr Untermeyer, Alexander Trachtenberg, and others. The Liberator was a famed - to a degree, even at the time - and seminal creation of Max Eastman and his sister Crystal Eastman intended to pick up the flag from The Masses, which had been shut down by the U.S. Government on the basis of postal regulations. A socialist publication like The Masses, The Liberator had, in addition to ideological commentary, a variety of art, poetry and short fiction, including many covers and other interior artwork by Robinson, Hugo Gellert and others of note. Inexpensively made at the time and fragile now, but trenchant and already enshrined in American political publishing history. l-lng2.
Published by The Masses Publishing Co, New York, 1916
Seller: Lorne Bair Rare Books, ABAA, Winchester, VA, U.S.A.
First Edition
First Edition. Large quarto (35cm); pictorial wrappers, stapled; 34pp; illus. Two very faint vertical bends, a few tiny tears to wrapper extremities, else an uncharacteristically fresh, very Near Fine copy. Contents include contributions by Max Eastman, Louis Untermeyer, John Reed, Austin Lewis, Sara Bard Field, and others. Illustrations throughout by Art Young, Arthur B. Davies, K.R. Chamberlain, Elias Goldberg, and others, with cover art and a large centerfold spread by Boardman Robinson.
Published by The Masses Publishing Company, New York, 1917
Seller: Singularity Rare & Fine, Baldwinsville, NY, U.S.A.
First Edition
Soft cover. Condition: Fair. Arthur B. Davies; K.R. Chamberlain; Boardman Robinson; Arthur Young; Maurice Sterne; Cornelia Barns (illustrator). 1st Edition. New York: The Masses Publishing Company, 1917. The April, 1917 issue (Volume IX, Number 6, whole number 70). Quarto, illustrated stapled wraps, 42 pp.; this is a scarce survivor of the smaller-format issues (i.e., no longer folio size) which were issued late in the life The Masses. 1917 was the last year of publication, and by the time of this issue, there were only months left. Just Fair, due to the absence of the front cover and the separation of the first page from the remaining textblock with rear cover - all of which is itself in Very Good condition, by any periodical standard. As the very inexpensively-produced budget-of-the-heart icon The Masses was, it no doubt deserves its own grading standard, but there is none such. Some small scale chipping on page 3 and rear cover, modest toning to the remarkably healthy contents. See scans. Certainly one of the most seminal socio-political American publications of the last 200 years, The Masses was a collection of ideological art, opinion and reporting - usually contributed with little or no compensation - which strongly represented socialist / marxist values, but in a larger sense was representative of labor, women's rights, and radical left issues in general as those were at that time. Famous names of the era often contributed work, but the names of the regulars are themselves all now in history books. The now-timeless publication was officially shut down by the U.S. Government in 1918, ostensibly on the basis of postal regulations (though it had already suspended publication in late 1917), following two intense and ideologically-charged trials. Eastman and his sister, Crystal, then started The Liberator to carry on; after The Liberator closed its doors in 1926, The New Masses, under the primary leadership of Mike Gold, carried the radical flag. The Masses, as the first, is also the rarest. Text contributors to this issue of April, 1917 included Eastman, John Reed; Louise Bryant; Floyd Dell; Howard Brubaker; Robert Hillyer; Louis Untermeyer; Hutchins Hapgood; Ruza Wenclaw; Leslie Nelson Jennings; Robert H. Lowie; Charles W. Wood; Jane Whitaker; Anne Arnold; Henry Reich, Jr.; Dorothea Gay; Franklin Van Wert; David Rosenthal; Elizabeth Fox; and Nina Bull. Art was contributed by Arthur B. Davies; K.R. Chamberlain; Boardman Robinson; Arthur Young; Maurice Sterne; and Cornelia Barns. Check out all of these names. An extraordinarily rare piece of American publishing and political history. Please see scans. l-lng2.