The New Republic

Back in 1931, a magazine called Contempo appeared in Chapel Hill, N.C. By 1934, it had disappeared, but during its brief life it baited the literary establishmentwith Conrad Aiken, Faulkner, Kay Boyle, Pound, Wallace Stevens and D. H. Lawrence. Recently, through the offices of the Kraus Reprint Corporation, a company that specializes in out-of-print periodical publishing, Contempo achieved a belated karma, along with 26 other experimental magazines that include The Dial, Laughing Horse, Little Review and Pagany. READ MORE >>

The Creator “lifted His hand, and from it burst a fountain-spray of fire, a million stupendous suns, which clove the blackness . . . as they pierced the far frontiers of Space, until at last they were but as diamond nailheads sparkling under the domed vast roof of the universe.” The three archangels – Michael, Gabriel, and Satan – were impressed and thoughtful, according to Mark Twain in Letters from the Earth. Then the Creator made animals. The three archangels “were perplexed. Deeply perplexed – and the Creator noticed it, and said, ‘Ask, I will answer.’ READ MORE >>

In presidential politics, Calvin Coolidge is unique in choosing not to run. Any fool knows that a sitting President, if he wants it, can have his party's nomination for a second term. These truths are self-evident, and all evidence shows that Lyndon Johnson is not only sitting but running. Any incumbent President can make his will felt upon his party's state and city political structures, and Mr. Johnson is exceptionally adept at this kind of manipulation. READ MORE >>

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THE WITHDRAWAL of Harry S. Truman from the 1952 election race greatly increases the chances of the Democratic Party to win. With more than three months to go before the national nominating convention, the Democrats have ample time in which to weigh the available candidates and decide upon their strongest slate. In Gov. Adlai Stevenson and Sen. Estes Kefauver, the Democratic Party has two men fully acceptable as liberal standard bearers. READ MORE >>

Like the older Republicans and Democrats, the young third party is more than mass meetings and platform speeches. It also has top strategists and potent local leaders whose differences must be reconciled off-stage:   READ MORE >>

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At last birth control is legal in the United States. The right to provide contraceptive information and service under medical direction is finally recognized under the federal law as now interpreted, and it also is legal under state laws in all but two states, Mississippi and Massachusetts—and the Massachusetts law is vulnerable on constitutional grounds. READ MORE >>

This is the first of a series of articles on various aspects of the next four years in American life. The other contributors are: Secretary Henry A. Wallace, Under-secretary Rexford G. Tugwell, Morris L. Cooke, John L. Lewis, Dr. Arthur E. Morgan, Professor Thomas Reed Powell, Bruce Bliven and George Soule.—THE EDITORS. In a cloudburst of votes, the people washed away "Jeffersonian" Democrats, assorted big shots, newspapers, in a deluge of hilarious bitterness—and when the sun rose bright and shiny, there was Franklin D. Roosevelt, sitting on top of the world. READ MORE >>

To Llewellyn Powys I. The Landing The great ship, lantern-girdled, The tender standing by; The waning stars, cloud-shrouded, The land that we descry. That pale land is our homeland, And we are bound therefor: On her lawns nor in her coppice No birds as yet make stir. But birds are flying round us, The white birds of the sea— It is the breeze of morning. This that comes hummingly. READ MORE >>