"The Contemporary Reader" was published by the National Council of the Arts, Sciences and Professions, in March 1953. Volume 1, Number 1 contained the following editorial written by Edwin Berry Burgum.
We are pleased to introduce...
THE CONTEMPORARY READER is being published in response to an increasing dissatisfaction on the part of many writers and readers with our current American literature and their increasing demand for the restoration and promotion of a genuinely democratic literature in our country.
Since the end of the Second World War, it has become evident that a rapid deterioration of our culture is taking place. Whether it is in the play or the poem, the novel or the painting, the work of appeal to the few or that reaching millions of readers: the same degeneration is apparent. At the same time that we get more literature of a sentimental and mystical content, we get more and more that portrays men as brutes and psychopaths, that glorifies war for its own sake, that expresses contempt for other nationalities than our own. Whether the mode of expression be the subtle introverted style of limited esoteric appeal or the stereotyped but readable style that guarantees mass consumption, the content remains the same. It is a denial of the warm humane tradition of Whitman and Mark Twain, of Artemus Ward and Mr. Dooley, of Carl Sandburg, of Negro and working class folk song, a tradition that culminated in the first official government support for a democratic American culture in the new Deal of the late Franklin D. Roosevelt. This historically significant coming of age of our culture was strangled before it could mature. It has disappeared both as a movement and in the later works of a Steinbeck or the later silence of an Odets. It is to the restoration of this movement that the editors of THE CONTEMPORARY READER dedicate themselves.
THE CONTEMPORARY READER, therefore, rejects the assumptions of the ivory tower. It believes that content and meaning are of fundamental importance for a literature that is socially useful. It will be frankly concerned with themes that promote peace rather than war, racial equality and opportunity rather than the racism of the white man's burden, understanding of the worker and farmer rather than identification solely with middle class values, respect for the real problems of the intellectual and the middle class person rather than the encouragement of introspection and fantasy, love of people rather than a snobbish delusion that artistic worth is the prerogative of the chosen few: in short the great age-old tradition of humanism, wherever it has been found.
At the same time, we hold that content is not enough. We are aware that good writing does not automatically flow from proper choice of theme. We accept the principle that theme and expression are indivisible. Through mastery of technique alone can theme become clear and convincing. At the same time that we reject the contemporary assumption that the only escape from the contamination of Hollywood or Broadway is to write for the few, we have enough respect for the many to believe them worthy of good writing and capable of appreciating it. We have enough respect for our social objectives to recognize that they deserve good writing. To be valid in its democratic content, a literature must be well written.
We invite the cooperation of all writers and readers to join in this exhilarating and necessary adventure of contributing our share to the restoration of a genuine democratic culture in the United States.
Edwin Berry Burgum
THE CONTEMPORARY READER claims "it is staffed and produced by a committee of volunteer editorial workers and writers. All manuscripts are read by several members of the committee and authors receive written critical analyses of work submitted. To facilitate the work of the editorial committee, all manuscripts should be typed legibly and accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope."
The Editorial Committee were: Mack Berk, Benjamin Brown, Victor R. Bull, Edwin Berry Burgum, William Hayett, Abraham Polonsky, Florence Van Swearengen. Play Reading Committee: Lester Cole, Howard Da Silva, Milroy Ingram, Ellsworth Wright.
CONTENTS
We are pleased to introduce... (editorial) - Edwin Berry Burgum
Marcus - John R. Starks
Casualty - Millard Lampell
Two Poems - Anne Lifscutz
The Chain - Abraham Ward
Hemingway and Chaplin - Abraham Polonsky
Losers Weepers - Esther Lacy
End of a Rainbow - Victor R. Bull
Chidren of the Streets - Martha Millet
Music Lesson - Hal Schreiber
Cross on the Moon - Joseph Sander
Barren Land - Aaron Cohen
The Welders - Arnold Ghinger
A Bird's Eye View of Somethiong - Arthur McKay
Potiphar's House (a three-act play) Alan Max and Lester Cole
Return to the article Edwin Berry Burgum (1894-1979)
Kafka and the Bankruptcy of Faith, by Edwin Berry Burgum.
Policy statement by The National Council of the Arts, Sciences and Professions.
Text of Berry's testimony to the U.S. Senate, Senate Permanent Subcommittee.