Harvard Advocate (Organization)

Founded in 1866, the Harvard Advocate is Harvard University's oldest literary magazine. Providing an opportunity for young writers to publish original material, the Advocate prints short stories, verses, essays and articles, reviews of books, interviews, photographs, and plays.

The Harvard Advocate is the oldest of Harvard University's existing student magazines.

The first Harvard magazine, The Harvard Lyceum, was founded in 1810, but closed after only nine months. Between 1810 and 1840, four more student magazines started, the last being The Harvard Magazine, which folded after ten years in 1864. In the spring of 1866, the first issue of the Collegian was published. Harvard administrators forced the Collegian to close after only three issues when its defiant editors challenged mandatory student attendance at chapel.

Undaunted, a group of former Collegian editors led by William G. Peckman (Harvard Class of 1867) and Charles S. Gage (Harvard Class of 1867) released the first issue of a new magazine, the Harvard Advocate. The Harvard Advocate, adopted the motto Veritas nihil veretur (Truth fears nothing) and continued its predecessors' attempts to represent the views and opinions of Harvard students. The first issue was a great success and sold out immediately.

The early issues of the Advocate were bi-weekly and in newspaper format. The Advocate reported on football and baseball games, printed traditional verses, and taunted members of the faculty. Editorials became an important part of the newspaper and promoted the introduction of electives to the curriculum, admission of women to the college, and supported opposition to the University's book store monopoly. Although primarily a means by which undergraduates could practice their writing skills, members of the faculty were invited to contribute prose and verse to the newspaper as well.

The Advocate's literary and financial success encouraged other student publishing efforts. In 1873, a group of former Advocate staffers formed the Magenta which later became the Harvard Crimson . Additional defectors from the Advocate started the humor magazine the Harvard Lampoon in 1876 and a serious journal, the Harvard Monthly in 1885.

By the close of the 1890s, the Harvard Advocate had adopted its present format. Coverage of College news diminished, and poetry and short stories became prominent. The magazine had also established traditions such as annual and decennial dinners, published supplements, literary prizes, and an editor's catalogue.

By 1916, the Harvard Advocate's offices had become a gathering place for Cambridge's literary world to meet and socialize. In the period prior to World War I, a number of future literary giants such as Wallace Stevens, E. E. Cummings, T. S. Eliot, and Conrad Aiken, published frequently in the Advocate .

The Harvard Advocate was the only Harvard publication to continue operation during World War I. After the war, the Advocate adopted a more political tone, publishing articles such as Persecution and Americanism by Lloyd McKim (Harvard Class of 1919) and The Liberalism of Herbert Hoover by Archibald MacLeish (Harvard Class of 1919). The Advocate also published parodies of other magazines including The Atlantic Monthly, Time, The Saturday Review, The New Republic, and The New Yorker.

It published a series of special issues in 1938 and 1940 devoted to T. S. Eliot and Wallace Stevens . Members of the editorial board included students who became literary luminaries such as James Agee, Robert Fitzgerald, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., and Norman Mailer. In addition, the Advocate published contributions from established authors who were not Harvard affiliates, such as Ezra Pound, Boris Pasternak, and William Carlos Williams . Falling college enrollment and tight finances during World War II caused the Advocate to suspend publication in 1943.

After World War II, a small group of the magazine's trustees worked to reestablish the Advocate and by the late 1940s the magazine was up and running again. The goal of the newly established Harvard Advocate was to create a high-quality magazine that would sell. Special issues devoted to William Faulkner (1951), British novelists (1952), and Robert Lowell (1961) gained critical acclaim. The magazine became noted for the variety of its undergraduate poetry and its support of the literary efforts of the beat generation in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Advocate editors introduced a new feature, The Harvard Square Sex Story which was discontinued by the end of the 1950s.

During the 1970s, the Harvard Advocate faced increasing competition for readership and writers on campus from new magazines and alternative creative forums. Many of these competitors shifted away from the established literary circle to focus on specific cultural or community groups, provided an outlet for writers, poets, and other artists not interested in producing for a high-pressure publication, and produced issues that were inexpensively printed and distributed.

The Advocate took a number of steps to meet these new challenges. First, it increased opportunities for new writers. It opened to the public writing contests which had formerly been closed, it limited the number of times an individual could be published in order to increase the pool of writers, and it welcomed contributions from outside of the undergraduate community. Second, to promote itself, the magazine sponsored readings, art shows, and music events and it strengthened its relationships with other campus organizations. Third, it changed its staff to better reflect the entire student body by increasing the number of women and members of minority groups.