The Harvard Advocate

The Harvard Advocate, the art and literary magazine of Harvard College, is the oldest continuously published college art and literary magazine in the United States. The magazine (published then in newspaper format) was founded by Charles S. Gage and William G. Peckham in 1866 and, except for a hiatus during the last years of World War II, has published continuously since then. In 1916, The New York Times published a commemoration of the Advocate's fiftieth anniversary.[2] Fifty years after that, Donald Hall wrote in The New York Times Book Review that "In the world of the college – where every generation is born, grows old and dies in four years – it is rare for an institution to survive a decade, much less a century. Yet the Harvard Advocate, the venerable undergraduate literary magazine, celebrated its centennial this month."[3] Its current offices are a two-story wood-frame house at 21 South Street, near Harvard Square and the University campus.

The Harvard Advocate

21 South Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts, headquarters of The Harvard Advocate
Established	May 11, 1866[1]
Founders	Charles S. Gage William G. Peckham
Type	Quarterly magazine
Headquarters	The Harvard Advocate Building 21 South Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
Fields	Art, fiction, culture, humor
Website	www.theharvardadvocate.com

Today, the Harvard Advocate publishes quarterly. Its mission is to "publish the best art, fiction, poetry and prose the Harvard undergraduate community has to offer."[4] It also accepts submissions from professional writers and artists beyond the Harvard community.

History

Founding and early years

Harvard Advocate logo

When the Advocate was founded, it adopted the motto Dulce est Periculum (Danger is Sweet) which had been used by an earlier Harvard newspaper, the Collegian. The magazine originally avoided controversial topics, lest it be shut down by university authorities; by the time the editors were making the then-radical demand for coeducation at Harvard, the magazine had attracted the support of James Russell Lowell and Oliver Wendell Holmes, and its life was less precarious.

The founding in 1873 of The Harvard Crimson newspaper (originally the Magenta), and in 1876, of the Harvard Lampoon humor magazine, led the Advocate by the 1880s to devote itself to essays, fiction, and poetry.

Over the years, the undergraduate editors of and contributors to the Advocate have gone on to later fame, literary and otherwise. Theodore Roosevelt edited the magazine in 1880. Edwin Arlington Robinson, Wallace Stevens, E. E. Cummings, and T. S. Eliot all published their undergraduate poetry in the Advocate. Before World War II, undergraduates who worked on the Advocate included Malcolm Cowley, James Agee, Robert Fitzgerald, Leonard Bernstein, James Laughlin (who got into trouble with local police for publishing a racy story by Henry Miller) and Norman Mailer.

Post World War II

The Advocate suspended publication during the years of World War II, and resumed publication with its April 1947 issue. Editors after the war included Daniel Ellsberg. The post-war Advocate published undergraduate and/or graduate work by Richard Wilbur, Robert Bly, John Ashbery, Donald Hall, Frank O'Hara, John Hawkes, Harold Brodkey, Kenneth Koch and Jonathan Kozol as well as illustrations by Edward Gorey. Contributors from outside Harvard during this time included Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, and Archibald MacLeish.

Other contributors after World War II included Adrienne Rich (the first woman to publish regularly in the magazine), Howard Nemerov, Marianne Moore, Robert Lowell, Tom Wolfe, James Atlas, and Sallie Bingham.

Some recent alumni of note include novelists Louis Begley, Peter Gadol, Lev Grossman, Benjamin Kunkel, and Francine Prose, poets Carl Phillips and Frederick Seidel, biographer and critic Jean Strouse, journalists Elif Batuman and Timothy Noah, literary scholar Peter Brooks, editors Jonathan Galassi and Susan Morrison, businessmen Steve Ballmer and Thomas A. Stewart, filmmaker Terrence Malick, and writer and video game developer Austin Grossman.

First Flowering: The Best of the Harvard Advocate, 1866–1976, an anthology of selections from the magazine edited by Richard Smoley, was published by Addison-Wesley in 1977. In 1986, The Harvard Advocate Anniversary Anthology was published in conjunction with the 120th year of the magazine's publication and Harvard's 350th anniversary. The anthology reproduced actual pages and artwork published in the magazine, introducing each literary era with a brief historical overview.

The Advocate received a degree of national press attention following a controversial 2000 interview with writer Dave Eggers.[5][6][7]

Notable past members

Academics and criticism

• Svetlana Alpers, art historian, critic and professor at University of California at Berkeley[8]
• Elif Batuman, author, academic, critic[8]
• Amy Boesky, writer, professor of English at Boston College[8]
• Van Wyck Brooks, literary critic[9]
• John Mason Brown, drama critic, author[10]
• Richard Bulliet, professor of history at Columbia University[8]
• Stephanie Burt, literary critic, poet, professor at Harvard University[8]
• Charles Townsend Copeland, Harvard professor of English literature[11]
• Holland Cotter, art critic with The New York Times, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism[8]
• Malcolm Cowley, poet, literary critic, editor at The New Republic[12]
• Jonathan Culler, literary critic, professor of English at Cornell University[8]
• Thomas F. Glick, professor of history at Boston University[8]
• Mark Greif, critic, co-founder of the literary journal n+1[8]
• Allen Grossman, poet, critic, professor of humanities at The Johns Hopkins University[8]
• Lev Grossman, novelist, journalist, book critic for Time Magazine[8]
• Rachel Hadas, poet, professor of English at Rutgers University[8]
• Leslie Kirwan, government official, Harvard Dean for Finance and Administration[8]
• George Lyman Kittredge, literary critic, Harvard professor of English literature[13]
• Susan Manning, dance historian, professor of English and theatre at Northwestern University[8]
• James Matisoff, professor of linguistics, UC Berkeley[8]
• Margaret Mills, folklorist, professor of Near Eastern languages and cultures at Ohio State University[8]
• Christopher Minkowski, professor of Sanskrit at the University of Oxford[8]
• Stephen Minot, novelist[8]
• William Vaughn Moody, literary critic, Harvard English professor[14]
• Laurie L. Patton, author, poet, dean of Arts and Sciences and professor of religion at Duke University[8]
• Harriet Ritvo, historian, professor of history at Massachusetts Institute of Technology[8]
• Kenji Yoshino, professor of constitutional law at New York University[8]
• Arthur Waldron, professor of international relations at the University of Pennsylvania[8]

Art, architecture, and engineering

• Miles Coolidge, photographer, art educator[8]
• Ellen Harvey, visual artist[8]
• Antoinette LaFarge, artist, writer, and professor of art at the University of California, Irvine[8]
• Peter Soriano, artist and sculptor[8]

Business and philanthropy

• Steve Ballmer, businessman, former CEO of Microsoft[8]
• Jonathan Galassi, president and publisher of Farrar, Straus and Giroux[8]
• Thomas W. Lamont, financier and philanthropist[15]
• Michael Lynton, businessman, current CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment[8]
• Jeffrey Rayport, consultant author, businessman[8]
• Andrew Wylie, literary agent, founder of The Wylie Agency[8]

Editing and translation

• Witter Bynner, poet, translator[16]
• John Keene, writer and translator[8]
• Maxwell Perkins, editor for Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Thomas Wolfe[17]
• Richard Sieburth, translator, essayist, editor, professor of French and comparative literature at New York University[8]
• Peter Theroux, translator[8]

Fiction

• Conrad Aiken, novelist and poet[18]
• Emily Barton, novelist, critic, professor of English at Smith College[8]
• William Bayer, novelist, screenwriter[8]
• Louis Begley, novelist[8]
• Caleb Crain, novelist and critic[8]
• Nicholas Delbanco, novelist, professor at Bennington College[8]
• Sean Desmond, writer of Adams Fall, the basis for the 2002 film Abandon[8]
• Nell Freudenberger, novelist, travel writer[8]
• Peter Gadol, novelist[8]
• Allegra Goodman, novelist[8]
• Chad Harbach, novelist, co-founder of literary journal n+1[8]
• Julie Hilden, novelist and lawyer[8]
• Ann Hodgman, author of children's books[8]
• Sara Houghteling, novelist and educator[8]
• Angela Hur, novelist[8]
• Benjamin Kunkel, novelist, co-founder of literary journal n+1[8]
• Oliver LaFarge, writer, anthropologist, Pulitzer prize winner[19]
• Norman Mailer, writer[8]
• Francine Prose, writer[8]

Film, theater, television, and entertainment

• Robert Anderson, playwright[8]
• William Bayer, novelist and screenwriter[8]
• Harry Brown, poet, novelist, Oscar-winning screenwriter[20]
• Chris Gerolmo, screenwriter, director[8]
• Austin Grossman, author and game designer[8]
• Maeve Kinkead, soap opera actress[8]
• Franklin Leonard, co-founder of The Black List survey[8]
• Karin Lewicki, screenwriter[8]
• Percy MacKaye, dramatist and poet[21]
• Terrence Malick, filmmaker[8]
• Julie Mallozzi, documentary filmmaker, producer[8]
• Lawrence Osgood, playwright and essayist[8]
• Justin Rice, musician and actor[8]
• Richard E. Robbins, documentarian[8]
• Adam Stein, film director, writer and editor[8]
• James Toback, filmmaker[8]

Journalism and non-fiction writing

• Emily Benedek, journalist and author[8]
• Jacob Brackman, journalist, musical lyricist[8]
• Christopher Caldwell, journalist, senior editor at The Weekly Standard[8]
• Amy Davidson, senior editor at The New Yorker[8]
• Ben Downing, cultural historian[8]
• William Emerson, journalist, editor-in-chief at the Saturday Evening Post[8]
• Hermann Hagedorn, biographer[22]
• Mark Helprin, novelist, journalist, conservative commentator[8]
• Catherine Herridge, chief intelligence correspondent for the Fox News Channel[8]
• H.V. Kaltenborn, radio broadcaster at NBC and CBS[23]
• Perri Klass, pediatrician and writer[8]
• David Laskin, writer, travel journalist[8]
• Jonathan Larsen, former editor-in-chief at The Village Voice[8]
• Sarah Manguso, memoirist, novelist, and poet[8]
• Liz Marlantes, ABC News Correspondent[8]
• Lance Morrow, essayist and writer at Time Magazine[8]
• Timothy Noah, journalist and author, past senior editor of The New Republic[8]
• Katha Pollitt, feminist poet, essayist and critic[8]
• John Reed, journalist, poet, social activist[24]
• Tom Reiss, author, historian, journalist, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography[8]
• Charlie Savage, newspaper reporter with The New York Times, recipient of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize[8]
• Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., historian, writer[8]
• Neil Sheehan, journalist, received the Pentagon Papers from Daniel Ellsberg [8]
• Richard Smoley, writer on esotericism[8]
• Thomas A. Stewart, journalist, editor, director of National Center for the Middle Market at the Fisher College of Business at Ohio State University[8]
• Jean Strouse, biographer[8]
• Melanie Thernstrom, author, contributing writer at The New York Times Magazine[8]

Law and politics

• Daniel Baer, United States Ambassador for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe[8]
• Thomas C. Foley, American diplomat, businessman[8]
• Learned Hand, judicial philosopher, judge in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit[8]
• Todd M. Hughes, United States Circuit Judge[8]
• Peter Jaszi, author, expert on copyright law[8]
• Peter Junger, internet activist[8]
• Grover Norquist, conservative political advocate[8]
• Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States[8]
• Barbara Underwood, New York Solicitor General[8]
• Charles Proctor Sifton, United States federal judge[8]
• Kenji Yoshino, Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Constitutional Law at New York University[8]

Poetry

• Judith Baumel, poet[8]
• April Bernard, poet[8]
• e.e. cummings, poet[25]
• T.S. Eliot, poet[12]
• Arthur Davison Ficke, poet[26]
• Sidney Goldfarb, poet[8]
• Alice Goodman, poet and librettist[8]
• Donald Hall, poet, editor, 14th United States poet laureate[8]
• Matthea Harvey, poet[8]
• Robert Hillyer, poet, Harvard English professor[27]
• Wayne Koestenbaum, poet, cultural critic, professor of English at the City University of New York[8]
• Joyelle McSweeney, poet, critic, professor at University of Notre Dame[8]
• Elise Paschen, editor, poet, co-founder of Poetry in Motion[8]
• Carl Phillips, writer, poet, professor of English and Afro-American studies at Washington University in St. Louis[8]
• Adrienne Rich, poet[8]
• Edwin Arlington Robinson, poet, three time Pulitzer prize winner[28]
• Mary Jo Salter, poet, professor in Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University, co-editor of The Norton Anthology of Poetry[8]
• Frederick Seidel, poet[8]
• Wallace Stevens, poet[29]
• John Hall Wheelock, poet, editor at Scribners[30]
• John Brooks Wheelwright, poet[31]

Science, technology, medicine, and mathematics

• Jordan Ellenberg, mathematician, professor at University of Wisconsin–Madison[8]
• Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, anthropologist and primatologist[8]
• Edward Hallowell, psychiatrist and author[8]
• Wendell Lim, professor of cellular and molecular pharmacology at University of California, San Francisco[8]
• Seth Lloyd, professor of mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology[8]
• James Propp, professor of mathematics at University of Massachusetts Lowell[8]

Past presidents[8]

1868: M Williams 1869: M.S. Severance 1870: R. Wolcott 1871: W.S. Bigelow 1872: P.C. Severance 1873: J. Lyman 1874: W.R. Tyler 1875: C.F. Canfield 1876: A.A. Wheeler 1877: George Edward Woodberry 1878: L. Hancock, E.W. Morse 1879: E. Hale 1880: Albert Bushnell Hart, H. Townsend 1881: C. Sprague 1883: C.H. Grandgent 1884: C.R. Clapp 1885: G.R. Nutter 1886: T.T. Baldwin 1887: Winthrop Wetherbee 1888: L. McK Garrison 1889: J.H. Sears 1890: G.P. Wardner 1891: S.C. Brackett 1892: John Corbin 1893: Learned Hand 1894: C.W. Slope 1895: C. M. Flandrau, J Mack Jr. 1896: J.A. Gade 1897: C.H. Hovey 1898: R. Putter 1899: John A. Macy 1900: William R. Castle, Jr. 1901: Wallace Stevens 1902: J.C. Grew 1903: Richard Washburn Child 1904: A.D. Fickle 1905: Arthur W. Page 1906: R.W. Beach 1907: J.L. Price 1908: Edward B. Sheldon 1909: A Whitman, F. Schenck 1910: W.G. Tinckom-Fernandez 1911: C.P. Aiken 1912: G.W. Gray 1913: Philip James Roosevelt 1914: P.W. Thayer 1915: H. Jackson Jr. 1916: H. Amory 1917: J.D. Parson

1918: Robert Nathan Cram, William Allis Norris, E. Whittlesey 1919: Charles MacVeagh Jr., Lloyd Kirkham Garrison, J.R. Parsons 1920: J.G. King Jr. 1921: Steddard Benham Colby 1922: W. Whitman 1923: M.A. Best 1924: Oliver LaFarge 1925: John Finley Jr. 1926: Walter Dumaux Edmonds Jr. 1927: Kendall Foss 1928: C.C. Abbott 1929: Robeson Bailey 1930: T. Hall Jr. 1931: Wilson Mumford Wing 1932: James Rufus Agee 1933: Robert Hatch 1934: C.L. Sulzberger 1935: Hugh M. Wade 1936: J.J. Slocum, Julian S. Bach 1937: F. Corning Kenly Jr. 1938: Alvah W. Sulloway 1939: Samuel N. Hinckly 1940: Thornton Frederick Bradshaw 1941: Westmore Wileox III 1944: Kingsley Ervin Jr. 1947: Donald B. Watt Jr. 1948: A.G. Haas 1949: Lloyd Staube Gilmour Jr. 1950: Donald Andrew Hall Jr., Daniel Ellsberg 1951: Harvey Slom Ginsberg 1952: George A. Kelly 1953: Samuel D. Stewart 1954: Allen Grossman 1955: Eugene S. Dodd 1956: John Ratte 1957: A. Whitney Ellsworth 1958: Peter P. Brooks 1959: E.J. Bresson 1960: E. deBresson 1961: B.A. Melnick 1962: J. Urrutia 1963: Terence Cogley 1964: Gerald P. Hillman 1965: Stuart A. Davis 1966: Stuart A. Davis 1967: Peter Shaw 1968: Thomas A. Stewart 1969: James R. Atlas

1970: Jonathan Galassi 1971: Chris Ma 1972: Gregory Moore 1973: R. Paul 1974: M. Leib 1975: Paul K. Rowe 1976: Douglas A. McIntyre 1977: John McCullough 1978: Richard V. Nalley 1979: Sarah V. Chace 1980: C. Gerard 1981: Sandra DeJong 1982: L. Murphy 1983: D. Longobardi 1984: S. Harney 1985: Peter D. Gadol 1986: Vivian S.M. Wang 1988: W. Caleb Crain 1989: M. Charters 1990: Rebecca Zorach 1991: Elizabeth Elsas 1992: Peter Nohrnberg 1993: Kelli Rae Patton 1994: Alp Aker 1995: Priya Aiyar 1996: C. You 1997: Daley C. Haggar 1998: Etienne Benson 1999: Saadi Soudavar 2000: Caroline Whitbeck 2001: Brooke Lampley 2002: Cody Carvel 2003: Walt Hunter 2004: Andrews Little 2005: Steven R. Williams 2006: Casey N. Cep 2007: Gregory R. Scruggs 2008: Alexandra Hays 2009: Sanders I. Bernstein 2010: Dana Kase 2011: Emily Chertoff 2012: Alexander J.B. Wells 2013: Tyler Richard 2014: Julian Lucas 2015: Kiara Barrow 2016: Henry Shah 2017: Lily Scherlis 2018: Natasha Lasky 2019: Sabrina Helen Li 2020: Owen Torrey

See also

• List of literary magazines

References

1. "The Harvard Advocate - Google Books". Google Books. 1911. Retrieved 2016-07-01.
2. "Harvard Advocate Has Its Fiftieth Anniversary; Celebration This Week Will Be Attended by One of the Founders and Many Former Editors; Theodore Roosevelt on the Board". The New York Times. May 7, 1916. Retrieved May 14, 2014.
3. Hall, Donald (May 16, 1966). "Speaking of Books:The Harvard Advocate". The New York Times Book Review. Retrieved May 14, 2014.
4. "The Harvard Advocate". www.theharvardadvocate.com.
5. Gladwell, Malcolm (December 10, 2013). "Being Nice Isn't Really So Awful" – via www.newyorker.com.
6. Garner, Dwight (August 15, 2012). "A Critic's Case for Critics Who Are Actually Critical" – via NYTimes.com.
7. Kearney, Ryan (December 11, 2013). "Malcolm Gladwell Thinks We Are All Laughing to Our Deaths" – via The New Republic.
8. Harvard Advocate Archives, 21 South Street, Cambridge MA. Includes copies of all past issues, with mastheads listing memberships.
9. Hall, Donald, ed. (1950). Harvard Advocate Anthology. New York: Twayne Publishers, Inc. p. 87.
10. (Hall 1950, p. 169)
11. (Hall 1950, p. 44)
12. (Hall 1950, p. 104)
13. (Hall 1950, p. 39)
14. (Hall 1950, p. 57)
15. (Hall 1950, p. 50)
16. (Hall 1950, p. 68)
17. (Hall 1950, p. 77)
18. (Hall 1950, p. 115)
19. (Hall 1950, p. 177)
20. (Hall 1950, p. 272)
21. (Hall 1950, p. 59)
22. (Hall 1950, p. 84)
23. (Hall 1950, p. 98)
24. (Hall 1950, p. 113)
25. (Hall 1950, p. 135)
26. (Hall 1950, p. 75)
27. (Hall 1950, p. 147)
28. (Hall 1950, p. 53)
29. (Hall 1950, p. 60)
30. (Hall 1950, p. 93)
31. (Hall 1950, p. 156)

External links

• The Harvard Advocate
• Historical note on the Advocate
• Text of T. S. Eliot's printed in the Advocate