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 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. 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." Its current offices are a two-story wood-frame house at 21 South Street, near Harvard Square and the University campus.
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." It also accepts submissions from professional writers and artists beyond the Harvard community.
History
Founding and early years
When the Advocate was founded, it adopted the motto Dulce est Periculum 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, 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 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, 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.
Notable past members
Academics and criticism
- Svetlana Alpers, art historian, critic and professor at University of California at Berkeley
- Elif Batuman, author, academic, critic
- Amy Boesky, writer, professor of English at Boston College
- Van Wyck Brooks, literary critic
- John Mason Brown, drama critic, author
- Richard Bulliet, professor of history at Columbia University
- Stephanie Burt, literary critic, poet, professor at Harvard University
- Charles Townsend Copeland, Harvard professor of English literature
- Holland Cotter, art critic with The New York Times, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism
- Malcolm Cowley, poet, literary critic, editor at The New Republic
- Jonathan Culler, literary critic, professor of English at Cornell University
- Thomas F. Glick, professor of history at Boston University
- Mark Greif, critic, co-founder of the literary journal n+1
- Allen Grossman, poet, critic, professor of humanities at The Johns Hopkins University
- Lev Grossman, novelist, journalist, book critic for Time Magazine
- Rachel Hadas, poet, professor of English at Rutgers University
- Leslie Kirwan, government official, Harvard Dean for Finance and Administration
- George Lyman Kittredge, literary critic, Harvard professor of English literature
- Susan Manning, dance historian, professor of English and theatre at Northwestern University
- James Matisoff, professor of linguistics, UC Berkeley
- Margaret Mills, folklorist, professor of Near Eastern languages and cultures at Ohio State University
- Christopher Minkowski, professor of Sanskrit at the University of Oxford
- Stephen Minot, novelist
- William Vaughn Moody, literary critic, Harvard English professor
- Laurie L. Patton, author, poet, dean of Arts and Sciences and professor of religion at Duke University
- Harriet Ritvo, historian, professor of history at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Kenji Yoshino, professor of constitutional law at New York University
- Arthur Waldron, professor of international relations at the University of Pennsylvania
Art, architecture, and engineering
- Miles Coolidge, photographer, art educator
- Ellen Harvey, visual artist
- Antoinette LaFarge, artist, writer, and professor of art at the University of California, Irvine
- Peter Soriano, artist and sculptor
Business and philanthropy
- Steve Ballmer, businessman, former CEO of Microsoft
- Jonathan Galassi, president and publisher of Farrar, Straus and Giroux
- Thomas W. Lamont, financier and philanthropist
- Michael Lynton, businessman, current CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment
- Jeffrey Rayport, consultant author, businessman
- Andrew Wylie, literary agent, founder of The Wylie Agency
Editing and translation
- Witter Bynner, poet, translator
- John Keene, writer and translator
- Maxwell Perkins, editor for Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Thomas Wolfe
- Richard Sieburth, translator, essayist, editor, professor of French and comparative literature at New York University
- Peter Theroux, translator
Fiction
- Conrad Aiken, novelist and poet
- Emily Barton, novelist, critic, professor of English at Smith College
- William Bayer, novelist, screenwriter
- Louis Begley, novelist
- Caleb Crain, novelist and critic
- Nicholas Delbanco, novelist, professor at Bennington College
- Sean Desmond, writer of Adams Fall, the basis for the 2002 film Abandon
- Nell Freudenberger, novelist, travel writer
- Peter Gadol, novelist
- Allegra Goodman, novelist
- Chad Harbach, novelist, co-founder of literary journal n+1
- Julie Hilden, novelist and lawyer
- Ann Hodgman, author of children's books
- Sara Houghteling, novelist and educator
- Angela Hur, novelist
- Benjamin Kunkel, novelist, co-founder of literary journal n+1
- Oliver LaFarge, writer, anthropologist, Pulitzer prize winner
- Norman Mailer, writer
- Francine Prose, writer
Film, theater, television, and entertainment
- Robert Anderson, playwright
- William Bayer, novelist and screenwriter
- Harry Brown, poet, novelist, Oscar-winning screenwriter
- Chris Gerolmo, screenwriter, director
- Austin Grossman, author and game designer
- Maeve Kinkead, soap opera actress
- Franklin Leonard, co-founder of The Black List survey
- Karin Lewicki, screenwriter
- Percy MacKaye, dramatist and poet
- Terrence Malick, filmmaker
- Julie Mallozzi, documentary filmmaker, producer
- Lawrence Osgood, playwright and essayist
- Justin Rice, musician and actor
- Richard E. Robbins, documentarian
- Adam Stein, film director, writer and editor
- James Toback, filmmaker
Journalism and non-fiction writing
- Emily Benedek, journalist and author
- Jacob Brackman, journalist, musical lyricist
- Christopher Caldwell, journalist, senior editor at The Weekly Standard
- Amy Davidson, senior editor at The New Yorker
- Ben Downing, cultural historian
- William Emerson, journalist, editor-in-chief at the Saturday Evening Post
- Hermann Hagedorn, biographer
- Mark Helprin, novelist, journalist, conservative commentator
- Catherine Herridge, chief intelligence correspondent for the Fox News Channel
- H.V. Kaltenborn, radio broadcaster at NBC and CBS
- Perri Klass, pediatrician and writer
- David Laskin, writer, travel journalist
- Jonathan Larsen, former editor-in-chief at The Village Voice
- Sarah Manguso, memoirist, novelist, and poet
- Liz Marlantes, ABC News Correspondent
- Lance Morrow, essayist and writer at Time Magazine
- Timothy Noah, journalist and author, past senior editor of The New Republic
- Katha Pollitt, feminist poet, essayist and critic
- John Reed, journalist, poet, social activist
- Tom Reiss, author, historian, journalist, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography
- Charlie Savage, newspaper reporter with The New York Times, recipient of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize
- Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., historian, writer
- Neil Sheehan, journalist, received the Pentagon Papers from Daniel Ellsberg
- Richard Smoley, writer on esotericism
- Thomas A. Stewart, journalist, editor, director of National Center for the Middle Market at the Fisher College of Business at Ohio State University
- Jean Strouse, biographer
- Melanie Thernstrom, author, contributing writer at The New York Times Magazine
Law and politics
- Daniel Baer, United States Ambassador for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
- Thomas C. Foley, American diplomat, businessman
- Learned Hand, judicial philosopher, judge in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
- Todd M. Hughes, United States Circuit Judge
- Peter Jaszi, author, expert on copyright law
- Peter Junger, internet activist
- Grover Norquist, conservative political advocate
- Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States
- Barbara Underwood, New York Solicitor General
- Charles Proctor Sifton, United States federal judge
- Kenji Yoshino, Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Constitutional Law at New York University
Poetry
- Judith Baumel, poet
- April Bernard, poet
- e.e. cummings, poet
- T.S. Eliot, poet
- Arthur Davison Ficke, poet
- Sidney Goldfarb, poet
- Alice Goodman, poet and librettist
- Donald Hall, poet, editor, 14th United States poet laureate
- Matthea Harvey, poet
- Robert Hillyer, poet, Harvard English professor
- Wayne Koestenbaum, poet, cultural critic, professor of English at the City University of New York
- Joyelle McSweeney, poet, critic, professor at University of Notre Dame
- Elise Paschen, editor, poet, co-founder of Poetry in Motion
- Carl Phillips, writer, poet, professor of English and Afro-American studies at Washington University in St. Louis
- Adrienne Rich, poet
- Edwin Arlington Robinson, poet, three time Pulitzer prize winner
- Mary Jo Salter, poet, professor in Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University, co-editor of The Norton Anthology of Poetry
- Frederick Seidel, poet
- Wallace Stevens, poet
- John Hall Wheelock, poet, editor at Scribners
- John Brooks Wheelwright, poet
Science, technology, medicine, and mathematics
- Jordan Ellenberg, mathematician, professor at University of Wisconsin–Madison
- Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, anthropologist and primatologist
- Edward Hallowell, psychiatrist and author
- Wendell Lim, professor of cellular and molecular pharmacology at University of California, San Francisco
- Seth Lloyd, professor of mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- James Propp, professor of mathematics at University of Massachusetts Lowell
Past presidentsHarvard Advocate Archives, 21 South Street, Cambridge MA. Includes copies of all past issues, with mastheads listing memberships.
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