The full digitisation of New Masses was initialised by Sue Currell at the School of English, Unversity of Sussex. Sue received a nearly linear collection of the periodical, stretching from 1926 to 1938. The magazine was in produced a further 10 years, and ceased to operate in 1948, in the aftermath of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and WW2, with intensified anti-communism in the U.S.

This digital edition of New Masses aims to combine the presentation of the magazine as it was meant to be seen; the graphic art and design of the periodical is, in many cases, of very high standard and yields further insight into the intellectual and artistic ambition of the U.S. left at the time. Each issue is therefore presented in two formats; as a virtual magazine in duplex format, and as searchable, embedded, high-resolution PDFs of the single pages.

We actively invite collaboration with related projects, and invite colleagues to contact the School of English for discussing the possibility of digitising and publishing the remaining issues of New Masses, to make this a complete collection.

Many thanks to The Keep, who safekeep the physical artefacts that were donated to Sue Currell, and who contributed valuably to the project by undertaking and overseeing the initial scanning.