The New Leader (1924–2010) was an American political and cultural magazine.
History
The New Leader began in 1924 under a group of figures associated with the Socialist Party of America, such as Eugene V. Debs and Norman Thomas. It was published in New York City by the American Labor Conference on International Affairs. Its orientation was liberal and anti-communist. The Tamiment Institute was its primary supporter.
In its second decade, the magazine's overall politics shifted:
Editors 1924-1940: James Oneal, founding editor 1936-1960: Sol Levitas, managing editor 1940-1960: Sol Levitas, executive editor 1945-1950: Liston M. Oak, managing editor 1950-1960: Suzanne La Follette, managing editor 1960-1961: Myron Kolatch, managing editor 1960-2006: Myron Kolatch, executive editor
Contributors Its contributors were prominent liberal thinkers and artists. The New Leader was the first to publish Joseph Brodsky and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in the United States. It was one of the first to publish Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 "Letter from Birmingham Jail". Other contributors, who were generally paid nothing or only a modest fee, included James Baldwin, Daniel Bell, Willy Brandt, David Dallin, Milovan Djilas, Theodore Draper, Max Eastman, Ralph Ellison, Sidney Hook, Hubert Humphrey, George F. Kennan, Murray Kempton, Irving Kristol, Melvin Lasky, Richard J. Margolis, Reuben Markham, etc. Claude McKay, C. Wright Mills, Hans Morgenthau, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Albert Murray, Ralph de Toledano, Reinhold Niebuhr, George Orwell, Bertrand Russell, Cyril Joad, Bayard Rustin, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. and Tony Sender.Robert F. Wheeler (1972). "The Tony Sender Papers". Newsletter: European Labor and Working Class History No. 1 (May, 1972), pp. 5-7
Closure The New Leader ceased print publication after the January/April 2006 double issue. A bimonthly online version was published from January/February 2007 to May/June/July/August 2010.
Longtime Editor Myron Kolatch conducted an interview with Columbia University's The Current in 2007.The Current: Spring 2007 Current Q & A: Myron Kolatch He discussed the history of journals of ideas (The New Leader, Partisan Review, The New Republic, National Review) and their role in politics and intellectual discourse. Kolatch's "Who We Are and Where We Came From", adapted from the last print issue, covers some of the same topics.Who We Are and Where We Came From, The New Leader.
See also Anti-Stalinist left New York intellectuals
Notes
External links
Archived official website Columbia University New Leader records Columbia University New Leader records "Biographical Note" The New Leader archive at the Internet Archive The New Leader Digital Archive
Further reading Bernstein, Richard. "65th Birthday Party for a Voice of Liberal Opinion". The New York Times. Epstein, Joseph. "New Leader Days: Can you have a political magazine without politics?". The Weekly Standard. September 18, 2006.