Scarce surviving issue of this refined and intellectually ambitious little magazine published in March, 1929 by the New School for Social Research during its formative years as one of New York’s most vital centers of progressive thought and adult education. Though Bertrand Russell’s name dominates the front wrapper — “Bertrand Russell—The Futility of Effort” — the present text is in fact an extended interpretive essay by editor John Riordan examining Russell’s philosophical position and contemporary significance at a moment when Russell’s public reputation in America was rapidly expanding through lectures, essays, and controversy surrounding education and social criticism.
The issue captures the atmosphere of late-1920s downtown intellectual culture just before the onset of the Depression. Contributions by Michael Michaels, Frank Littlejohn, Sheila Rogers, Mavis McIntosh, Oakley Johnson, and the editors appear alongside notices, advertisements, and institutional ephemera now inseparable from the publication’s historical appeal. Particularly evocative are the several pages of rear advertisements, including notices for The Dial, the New School Dining Room, the Amalgamated Bank travel department encouraging “intelligent Americans” to visit Soviet Russia, vocational agencies, booksellers, and small Manhattan businesses catering to the literary and educational communities orbiting the New School.
The typography and production remain quintessential little magazine modernism: austere, economical, serious-minded, and entirely unconcerned with permanence. Publications such as this were intended for immediate circulation among students, lecturers, and aspiring writers, making survival rates exceptionally low. The issue itself notes that only contributions written by registrants in New School lecture courses could be considered for publication, further rooting the magazine within the institution’s experimental educational culture.
While outside the canonical first rank of modernist little magazines, Salient belongs nonetheless to the broader ecosystem of small experimental reviews that sustained literary and intellectual exchange in New York between the wars. 8vo (6”x9”), printed wrappers, 40 pages. Condition remains notably strong for such an ephemeral production: moderate even toning to wrappers, light handling wear and creasing at spine fold, minor chipping to spine, but internally clean and complete.
Scarce surviving issue of this refined and intellectually ambitious little magazine published in March, 1929 by the New School for Social Research during its formative years as one of New York’s most vital centers of progressive thought and adult education. Though Bertrand Russell’s name dominates the front wrapper — “Bertrand Russell—The Futility of Effort” — the present text is in fact an extended interpretive essay by editor John Riordan examining Russell’s philosophical position and contemporary significance at a moment when Russell’s public reputation in America was rapidly expanding through lectures, essays, and controversy surrounding education and social criticism.
The issue captures the atmosphere of late-1920s downtown intellectual culture just before the onset of the Depression. Contributions by Michael Michaels, Frank Littlejohn, Sheila Rogers, Mavis McIntosh, Oakley Johnson, and the editors appear alongside notices, advertisements, and institutional ephemera now inseparable from the publication’s historical appeal. Particularly evocative are the several pages of rear advertisements, including notices for The Dial, the New School Dining Room, the Amalgamated Bank travel department encouraging “intelligent Americans” to visit Soviet Russia, vocational agencies, booksellers, and small Manhattan businesses catering to the literary and educational communities orbiting the New School.
The typography and production remain quintessential little magazine modernism: austere, economical, serious-minded, and entirely unconcerned with permanence. Publications such as this were intended for immediate circulation among students, lecturers, and aspiring writers, making survival rates exceptionally low. The issue itself notes that only contributions written by registrants in New School lecture courses could be considered for publication, further rooting the magazine within the institution’s experimental educational culture.
While outside the canonical first rank of modernist little magazines, Salient belongs nonetheless to the broader ecosystem of small experimental reviews that sustained literary and intellectual exchange in New York between the wars. 8vo (6”x9”), printed wrappers, 40 pages. Condition remains notably strong for such an ephemeral production: moderate even toning to wrappers, light handling wear and creasing at spine fold, minor chipping to spine, but internally clean and complete.
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