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 (published then in newspaper format) 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." For its themed winter issue, the Harvard Advocate also accepts submissions from professional writers and artists beyond the Harvard community.
Founding and early years
When the Advocate was founded, it adopted the motto Dulce est Periculum (Danger is Sweet) 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 (originally the Magenta), 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 (who got into trouble with local police for publishing a racy story by Henry Miller) and Norman Mailer.
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 (the first woman to publish regularly in the magazine), 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.
Academics and criticism
Svetlana Alpers, art historian, critic and professor at University of California at BerkeleyElif Batuman, author, academic, criticAmy Boesky, writer, professor of English at Boston CollegeVan Wyck Brooks, literary criticJohn Mason Brown, drama critic, authorRichard Bulliet, professor of history at Columbia UniversityStephen Burt, literary critic, poet, professor at Harvard UniversityCharles Townsend Copeland, Harvard professor of English literatureHolland Cotter, art critic with the New York Times, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for CriticismMalcolm Cowley, poet, literary critic, editor at The New RepublicJonathan Culler, literary critic, professor of English at Cornell UniversityThomas F. Glick, professor of history at Boston UniversityMark Greif, critic, co-founder of the literary journal n+1Allen Grossman, poet, critic, professor of humanities at The Johns Hopkins UniversityLev Grossman, novelist, journalist, book critic for Time MagazineRachel Hadas, poet, professor of English at Rutgers UniversityLeslie Kirwan, government official, Harvard Dean for Finance and AdministrationGeorge Lyman Kittredge, literary critic, Harvard professor of English literatureSusan Manning, dance historian, professor of English and theatre at Northwestern UniversityJames Matisoff, professor of linguistics, UC BerkeleyMargaret Mills, folklorist, professor of Near Eastern languages and cultures at Ohio State UniversityChristopher Minkowski, professor of Sanskrit at the University of OxfordStephen Minot, novelistWilliam Vaughn Moody, literary critic, Harvard English professorLaurie L. Patton, author, poet, dean of Arts and Sciences and professor of religion at Duke UniversityHarriet Ritvo, historian, professor of history at Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyKenji Yoshino, professor of constitutional law at New York UniversityArthur Waldron, professor of international relations at the University of PennsylvaniaArt, architecture, and engineering
Miles Coolidge, photographer, art educatorEllen Harvey, visual artistAntoinette LaFarge, artist, writer, and professor of art at the University of California, IrvinePeter Soriano, artist and sculptorBusiness and philanthropy
Steve Ballmer, businessman, former CEO of MicrosoftJonathan Galassi, president and publisher of Farrar, Straus and GirouxThomas W. Lamont, financier and philanthropistMichael Lynton, businessman, current CEO of Sony Pictures EntertainmentJeffrey Rayport, consultant author, businessmanAndrew Wylie, literary agent, founder of The Wylie AgencyEditing and translation
Witter Bynner, poet, translatorJohn Keene, writer and translatorMaxwell Perkins, editor for Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Thomas WolfeRichard Sieburth, translator, essayist, editor, professor of French and comparative literature at New York UniversityPeter Theroux, translatorConrad Aiken, novelist and poetEmily Barton, novelist, critic, professor of English at Smith CollegeWilliam Bayer, novelist, screenwriterLouis Begley, novelistCaleb Crain, novelist and criticNicholas Delbanco, novelist, professor at Bennington CollegeSean Desmond, writer of Adams Fall, the basis for the 2002 film AbandonNell Freudenberger, novelist, travel writerPeter Gadol, novelistAllegra Goodman, novelistChad Harbach, novelist, co-founder of literary journal n+1Julie Hilden, novelist and lawyerAnn Hodgman, author of children's booksSara Houghteling, novelist and educatorAngela Hur, novelistBenjamin Kunkel, novelist, co-founder of literary journal n+1Oliver LaFarge, writer, anthropologist, Pulitzer prize winnerNorman Mailer, writerFrancine Prose, writerFilm, theater, television, and entertainment
Robert Anderson, playwrightWilliam Bayer, novelist and screenwriterHarry Brown, poet, novelist, Oscar-winning screenwriterChris Gerolmo, screenwriter, directorAustin Grossman, author and game designerMaeve Kinkead, soap opera actressFranklin Leonard, co-founder of The Black List surveyKarin Lewicki, screenwriterPercy MacKaye, dramatist and poetTerrence Malick, filmmakerJulie Mallozzi, documentary filmmaker, producerLawrence Osgood, playwright and essayistJustin Rice, musician and actorRichard E. Robbins, documentarianAdam Stein, film director, writer and editorJames Toback, filmmakerJournalism and non-fiction writing
Emily Benedek, journalist and authorJacob Brackman, journalist, musical lyricistChristopher Caldwell, journalist, senior editor at The Weekly StandardAmy Davidson, senior editor at The New YorkerBen Downing, cultural historianWilliam Emerson, journalist, editor-in-chief at the Saturday Evening PostHermann Hagedorn, biographerMark Helprin, novelist, journalist, conservative commentatorCatherine Herridge, chief intelligence correspondent for the Fox News ChannelH.V. Kaltenborn, radio broadcaster at NBC and CBSPerri Klass, pediatrician and writerDavid Laskin, writer, travel journalistJonathan Larsen, former editor-in-chief at The Village VoiceSarah Manguso, memoirist, novelist, and poetLiz Marlantes, ABC News CorrespondentLance Morrow, essayist and writer at Time MagazineTimothy Noah, journalist and author, past senior editor of The New RepublicKatha Pollitt, feminist poet, essayist and criticJohn Reed, journalist, poet, social activistTom Reiss, author, historian, journalist, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or AutobiographyCharlie Savage, newspaper reporter with the New York Times, recipient of the 2007 Pulitzer PrizeArthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., historian, writerNeil Sheehan, journalist, received the Pentagon Papers from Daniel Ellsberg Richard Smoley, writer on esotericismThomas A. Stewart, journalist, editor, director of National Center for the Middle Market at the Fisher College of Business at Ohio State UniversityJean Strouse, biographerMelanie Thernstrom, author, contributing writer at The New York Times MagazineLaw and politics
Daniel Baer, United States Ambassador for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in EuropeThomas C. Foley, American diplomat, businessmanLearned Hand, judicial philosopher, judge in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second CircuitTodd M. Hughes, United States Circuit JudgePeter Jaszi, author, expert on copyright lawPeter Junger, internet activistGrover Norquist, conservative political advocateTheodore Roosevelt, President of the United StatesBarbara D. Underwood, New York Solicitor GeneralCharles Proctor Sifton, United States federal judgeKenji Yoshino, Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Constitutional Law at New York UniversityJudith Baumel, poetApril Bernard, poete.e. cummings, poetT.S. Eliot, poetArthur Davison Ficke, poetSidney Goldfarb, poetAlice Goodman, poet and librettistDonald Hall, poet, editor, 14th United States poet laureateMatthea Harvey, poetRobert Hillyer, poet, Harvard English professorWayne Koestenbaum, poet, cultural critic, professor of English at the City University of New YorkJoyelle McSweeney, poet, critic, professor at University of Notre DameElise Paschen, editor, poet, co-founder of Poetry in MotionCarl Phillips, writer, poet, professor of English and Afro-American studies at Washington University in St. LouisAdrienne Rich, poetEdwin Arlington Robinson, poet, three time Pulitzer prize winnerMary Jo Salter, poet, professor in Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University, co-editor of The Norton Anthology of PoetryFrederick Seidel, poetWallace Stevens, poetJohn Hall Wheelock, poet, editor at ScribnersJohn Brooks Wheelwright, poetScience, technology, medicine, and mathematics
Jordan Ellenberg, mathematician, professor at University of Wisconsin-MadisonSarah Blaffer Hrdy, anthropologist and primatologistEdward Hallowell, psychiatrist and authorWendell Lim, professor of cellular and molecular pharmacology at University of California, San FranciscoSeth Lloyd, professor of mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyJames Propp, professor of mathematics at University of Massachusetts Lowell
