American Spectator (literary magazine)

The American Spectator was a monthly literary magazine which made its first monthly appearance in November 1932. It was edited by George Jean Nathan, though Eugene O'Neill, Ernest Boyd, Theodore Dreiser, and James Branch Cabell were also listed as joint editors. The original editors left the publication in 1935, after which the paper continued monthly publication under new editors until October 1936. The American Spectator lasted another six months on a bimonthly before folding altogether.

Sherwood Anderson first published his short story entitled Brother Death in this journal. In 1933, the journal published a discussion, including some humor that not everyone recognized, on the Jewish question.

The publication was heralded before the first issue had even been published. A mainstream newspaper gossip columnist wrote: "New York's literati are in a furious flutter over the last word in literary high-hatting which is to be launched... Nathan and Boyd will be the office editors and O'Neill, Lewis and Dreiser, editorial writers... contributors will only contribute by special invitation from the editors... Payment for material to editors and other contributors will be one cent a word. No salaries whatever are to be paid Nathan and Boyd until financial conditions, if ever, warrant it... Contributors who have consented include Sinclair Lewis, Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Mann, James Joyce, William Faulkner..." None of those famous authors were ever published in The American Spectator, but the paper went on to become successful nonetheless.

The American Spectator laid out its mission and purpose in an editorial in the first issue:

"The American Spectator has no policy in the common sense of that word... Sincerity, authenticity, and passion are its editorial criterion. Its aim is to offer a medium for the truly valuable and adventurous in thought, and to invite contributions from every quarter where stimulating opinions may be expected Clarity, vigor, and humor and the three indispensable qualities which must inform the presentation of its ideas. Real knowledge and a decided point of view will replace the usual conventional comment on irrelevant or foregone conclusions.

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