Masses and Mainstream

Masses & Mainstream, published from 1948 to 1963, was an American Marxist monthly publication. It resulted from a merger between New Masses, which ceased publication in January 1948, and Mainstream, a Communist cultural quarterly established the previous year.

Masses & Mainstream was edited by Samuel Sillen. Although most of its best-known contributors had written for New Masses before the war, the magazine gave a platform to some younger writers, including Howard Fast, Thomas McGrath, Eve Merriam, Lloyd L. Brown and Phillip Bonosky.

The magazine had a circulation of 17,000 in 1948, but steadily lost subscribers through the McCarthy era.