Here's another fun discovery from the New School archives. I'd helped them locate a complete set of The Figure in the Carpet, which fashioned itself the nation's first magazine of literary prose, from 1927-28 - all work by pioneering writing instructor Gorham Munson and his students. When I went in to have a look at the four issues, I was introduced to the successor journal, Salient, which ran for six! I skimmed the contents of both journals. The latter one includes poetry, and catty commentary on other literary journals as well as the stories, reviews and fragments of various sorts in Figures. I was drawn to a story by an Oakley Johnson in Salient's second issue (January 1929) which tells of a down and out writer who lives near the construction for the 8th Avenue subway on 14th Street with Rodin's The Thinker and the Buddha, the former ever morosely doubting himself, the latter taking all things in with bemused equanimity - and a smoke.
Interesting crowd, the Chelsea New School! I was struck that Salient features prominent advertisements for the Amalgamated Bank's Travel Department, one ad entitled ... why intelligent Americans will include RUSSIA in their trip next summer appeared several times, and then the one above, which speaks of Your Relatives and Friends in RUSSIA. Meanwhile, a New School Travel Club offered an opportunity for small groups of five or more to tour Russia and France.
Which students had friends and relatives in Russia? The first Leaflet (in 1920) had a breakdown of the New School's then students. Russians are the biggest group of foreign born "regular students" (32 of 77 foreign, of a total 381) and number 62 of 148 "special students" (who came in groups, usually from labor unions). But there's no reason to think the student body was the same a decade later, times - and course offerings - having changed a lot. And many of these "Russians" will surely have been Russian Jews... Still so much to find out!
