Although the Progressive name appeared on the masthead of both the publication owned by the Progressive Publishing Company (1929-1947) and by The Progressive, Inc. (1947- ), this microfilm edition documents only the publishing history of the latter during the editorship of Morris H. Rubin. Even this coverage is somewhat flawed by the fact that the majority of the files dating from 1947 to 1950 were so water-damaged that they had to be destroyed at the time of their donation to the Historical Society.

The Original Collection is comprised of extensive correspondence files together with a limited quantity of reorganizational, circulation, and promotional material; unfortunately only a small number of manuscript articles are included. Despite these limitations, the collection offers good documentation of The Progressive's editorial history during a period when it functioned as an important force within liberal thought.

A complete run of the magazine is available in the Historical Society's library. In addition, issues from December, 1929 through 1947 are available on microfilm from the Society, and issues dating from 1964 are available from University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

The REORGANIZATIONAL MATERIALS, 1947, consist of a small number of press releases, a preliminary statement of editorial purpose, and the magazine's articles of incorporation. Other than this and a few scattered references within the correspondence files, the collection sheds little light on the transfer of ownership and editorial control in 1947 from the La Follette family to the non-stock corporation owned by the magazine's subscribers.

CORRESPONDENCE, 1947-1973, comprises the largest and most useful portion of the papers. In addition to incoming and outgoing letters, the researcher will find a variety of material including occasional drafts of articles, inter-office memoranda, press releases, and supplementary printed material.

The various types of material within the correspondence files relate to all departments of the magazine. From the editorial department there is extensive correspondence with authors which not only concerns editorial matters but which frequently provides further information on the subject of the particular article. While most of the manuscript articles themselves were apparently destroyed prior to donation, the collection includes appraisals of many articles which were submitted to Rubin by the editorial staff. Also of interest is the reader mail which bears occasional evidence of revision for possible publication in the “People's Forum.” Generally written in reply to published articles, this correspondence provides a valuable insight into the concerns of the liberal public during the 1950s, 1960s, and early 1970s.

The best guide to the content of the correspondence is the magazine itself. Like The Progressive, the range of topics to be found within the correspondence includes world and national affairs, national politics, economic and social trends, the media, and the arts. In the 1950s Senator McCarthy was an especially prominent topic in the correspondence. During the next decade the civil rights movement and opposition to the Vietnam conflict occupied an increasingly prominent position within Rubin's editorial focus. Although The Progressive was not indexed by any of the standard bibliographic tools during the period documented by this microfilm collection, the magazine published its own author/subject index after 1961.

The majority of the correspondence focuses on concerns relating to publication of The Progressive, but one can find personal correspondence interfiled throughout the section. The majority of the personal references appear within editorial correspondence in which Rubin had developed close relationships with the writers. But there are, in addition, several discrete files such as those of the Wisconsin Citizens Committee on McCarthy's Record (1951, 1952), the American Civil Liberties Union ( passim ), and the American Friends Service Committee ( passim ) which represent Rubin's outside interests.

In general, the arrangement of the correspondence remains what it was in the office of The Progressive. The files are subdivided by year, and within each year are filed alphabetically and then chronologically for each correspondent. Upon occasion the office staff also utilized organizational affiliations for filing some individuals. Frequent insertion on the microfilm of cross-referencing targets directs the researcher in these cases. At other times the strict yearly division was not adhered to if one or two letters which were part of a substantial exchange overlapped into a second year in which there were no other letters.

For a number of individuals and organizations where the material was of sufficient bulk or interest to the editor, The Progressive staff established “special files.” These files, which are specially targeted and interfiled with the regular correspondence, originally contained material from several years, and it was from the post-1950 special files that the only remaining pre-1950 correspondence was reconstructed. In most cases, the special files are arranged according to the last name of the correspondent but there are a few subject files. These special subject files, which are interfiled alphabetically, are:

During processing, the papers were extensively weeded to remove the large amounts of routine correspondence which the magazine received. The majority of these discards derived from the advertising, circulation, and promotion departments. Within the editorial department, the weeded correspondence dealt with book reviewing, reprinting, and evaluation of unsolicited manuscripts. The researcher may be assisted in knowing that the discards equaled the filmed material in bulk.

A lengthy index incorporating prominent correspondents in the areas of politics, government, literature, journalism, education, and labor follows the contents list below. This index does not distinguish between incoming and outgoing mail nor does it make any judgment about the extent or importance of the correspondence; it merely notes the existence of such correspondence.

In the areas of politics and government, Rubin's most frequent correspondents were William Benton, Chester Bowles, O. Edmund Clubb, William O. Douglas, William Fulbright, John Kenneth Galbraith, Hubert Humphrey, Robert Kastenmeier, Estes Kefauver, Leon Kayerling, Herbert Lehman, Robert G. Lewis, Eugene McCarthy, George McGovern, Wayne Morse, Gaylord Nelson, Richard Neuberger, Adlai Stevenson, Joseph Rauh, and Norman Thomas.

In journalism and literature, the most frequent correspondents were Carleton Beals, Henry Beston, Herbert Block, Hal Borland, Kay Boyle, Stuart Chase, Irving Dilliard, Julius Duscha, Murray Kempton, Erwin Knoll, Ann Landers, Robert Lasch, Milton Mayer, Karl E. Meyer, Edward P. Morgan, Wilbur Munnecke, Henry Regnery, Richard Schickel, Howard K. Smith, Laurence Stern, James Warburg, and James Wechsler. Among educators, the frequent correspondents were Arthur Bestor, Richard Current, Robert Hutchins, William Neumann, Russell Nye, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., Fred Rodell, and Charles A. Wright. Sidney Lens was Rubin's most frequent correspondent on labor matters.

The PROMOTION AND CIRCULATION MATERIALS, 1940-1973, include analyses of circulation based on geographic area, cost estimates for promotional campaigns, form letters, published reports to the membership, statements of ownership and circulation filed with the U.S. Post Office, and some miscellaneous memoranda and correspondence.