Left Front (magazine)

Left Front Magazine (1933-1935) was an American magazine published by the Chicago chapter of the John Reed Club,^[1] itself a Marxist club for writers, artists, and intellectuals, named after the American journalist, activist, and poet, John Reed. The magazine is most famous for being a major early publishing venue of American author Richard Wright.

In 1933, Richard Wright joined the Chicago chapter of the John Reed Club at the urging of friend Abraham Aaron.^[2] The same year, he is elected executive secretary of the chapter^[3] and founded Left Front.^[4] By early 1934, Wright began writing poetry for the chapter's magazine, Left Front.^[5][6] He published poems "A Red Love Note" and "Rest for the Weary" in the January–February 1934 issue^[7] and became co-editor of the magazine at the same time.^[1][8] "Everywhere Burning Waters Rise" appeared in the May–June 1934 issue of Left Front.^[9][10]

While some sources say the CPUSA shut down the magazine in 1935,^[2][11] its demise most likely came in August 1934 during a Midwest Writers Congress, when publisher Alexander Trachtenberg proposed replacement of the John Reed Club with a new (i.e., Party-sanctioned) organization called the First American Writers Congress.^[12]

• New Masses: magazine associated with the John Reed Club's New York chapter
• Daily Worker: newspaper published by the CPUSA from headquarters in Chicago

• Partial text of "I Tried to be a Communist", by Richard Wright
• Yale University Press: Artists on the Left by Andrew Hemingway

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