“Contempo: A Review of Books and Personalities (Volume 1, Number 13).”
1 media/image51_thumb.jpg 2021-08-26T11:36:29-07:00 Grant Glass 107afcf8873f422898a9c2e07c49ae3f625fc644 37354 1 America’s Strange Fruit. Website. English 762: America’s Strange Fruit: Lynching in Literature and Culture, 2017, https://www.google.com/url?q=https://lynching.omeka.net/exhibits/show/contempo_vol1no3/contempo_vol1no3&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1620058306296000&usg=AOvVaw2KuDE7l2RcIqS8p0hd2ulP. plain 2021-08-26T11:36:29-07:00 Grant Glass 107afcf8873f422898a9c2e07c49ae3f625fc644This page is referenced by:
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1931 - Contempo Published; the Intimate Bookshop Opens
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Edited by UNC students Milton A. Abernethy (1911-1991), Minna K. Abernethy (1911-2006), and Anthony Buttitta (1907-2004), Contempo: A Review of Books and Personalities was published between 1931 and 1934 as a monthly magazine of literature and social commentary. Abernethy also founded the Intimate Bookshop on Franklin Street.
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Edited by UNC students Milton A. Abernethy (1911-1991), Minna K. Abernethy (1911-2006), and Anthony Buttitta (1907-2004), Contempo: A Review of Books and Personalities was published between 1931 and 1934 as a monthly magazine of literature and social commentary. Though it was not connected with the University, it was considered a well-known progressive publication at the time and “dealt regularly with current events and social issues, recent literary releases, and even published new poetry by well-known contributors.” Among the contributors were Kay Boyle, Erskine Caldwell, William Faulkner, Ezra Pound, and William Carlos Williams. It did not shy away from controversy, publishing Langston Hughes’s poem “Christ in Alabama” and a special issue reporting on the Scottsboro Case. A complete run of Contempo is held in the Southern Historical Collection of Wilson Library.
Abernethy also opened his boarding house room to people interested in avant-garde books and the books he reviewed for Contempo. By 1932 he had opened the Intimate Bookshop in the Patterson Building on Franklin Street, which also served as headquarters for Contempo. His wife Minna oversaw the Bookshop while Abernethy served in the war (1943-1946), and the shop continued to thrive for many years, selling office supplies, records, and new and used books. In 1955 the couple moved to New York City in the wake of accusations that Milton Abernethy was engaged in communist activity. Wallace and Brenda Kuralt bought the store in 1964, and it continued to serve the community until the growth of national chain bookstores forced the Bookshop’s closure in 1998.
SOURCES
Groff, Martin. “Contempo: A Review of Books and Personalities (Volume 1, Number 13).” America’s Strange Fruit. Website. English 762: America’s Strange Fruit: Lynching in Literature and Culture, 2017, https://lynching.omeka.net/exhibits/show/contempo_vol1no3/contempo_vol1no3
“Contempo Records, 1930-1934” [finding aid]. Collection no. 04408, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, https://finding-aids.lib.unc.edu/04408/.
Graham, Nicholas, and Cecelia Moore. “Contempo,” and “Intimate Bookshop.” UNC A to Z: What Every Tar Heel Needs to Know about the First State University. Chapel Hill, N.C.: U of North Carolina P, 2020. 72, 134.
Meador, Judith Hay. “A History and Index of Contempo.” MA Thesis. University of Louisville, 1971. Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms, 1972. Proquest Dissertations and Theses. Proquest, n.d. Web. May 4, 2021.
