Talk:The American Mercury

December 2005 Cleanup
This article, as it stands, is confusing and has big POV. Sean Hayford O&#39;Leary 06:14, 29 December 2005 (UTC)


 * I've tweaked it here and there, to fix poor English and reduce POVisms, but not systematically. —71.154.208.74 05:52, 3 August 2006 (UTC)

Blatant POV
"History in due course will be kinder to The American Mercury as Mencken and Nathan birthed it to be than it will to the magazine as the post-Huie ownerships drove it to be."

This is almost certainly true, but this is also obvious POV, and as such has no place here.

Is it POV? Yes, by the literal definition. But it is thoroughly correct.Atthom (talk) 10:53, 2 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Large parts of the article are clearly POV working with loaded language. Especially from "antisemitic and racist takeover" onward. --197.228.49.89 (talk) 12:19, 3 April 2015 (UTC)

Some Additional Cleanup

 * I have made some changes that clean up malapropisms and remove POV, without changing factual content. lazytory (talk)  04:01, 17 June 2009

Needs cites
Much of the article can be deleted as it is unsourced.Parkwells (talk) 16:33, 19 March 2014 (UTC)

Anonymity of the new website
Huie seems to be anonymous. The name Mark Cohen is described as a "nom de guerre" on the white supremacist National Vanguard website. I can't find anything on Elliot Dashfield, etc. Maybe these are all the same person, maybe they are 3 different people, hard to tell. Does anyone have any more solid info on them? Doug Weller (talk) 14:39, 10 July 2015 (UTC)

Third paragraph of section "Antisemitic and racist takeover"
I moved the following unsourced paragraph from the article to this talk page because it had a tag dated 5 years ago, I was unable to find a source for it, and the main idea is essentially presented in the previous sourced paragraph. Any of the material can be considered for being restored if a reliable source is found.


 * Various interest groups, beginning with the Anti-Defamation League, accused Maguire's Mercury of ongoing and increasing Jew-baiting, particularly when it reprinted writings by Mencken containing what they considered to be anti-Jewish comments. The influences of George Lincoln Rockwell, and later the Rev. Gerald B. Winrod and General Edwin Walker, on the editorial policy of the Mercury resulted in anti-Semitic, White supremacist, and pro-fascist articles becoming commonplace in the magazine.

--Bob K31416 (talk) 22:06, 24 July 2015 (UTC)

Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews, Volume 3: Leo Frank the Lynching of a Guilty Man
The American Mercury is publishing the pseudo-historical NOI book. In 2018, The American Mercury began publishing an anti-Jewish Nation of Islam audiobook about the Leo Frank case, called 'Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews, Volume 3, Leo Frank the Lynching of a Guilty Man. This information was removed from the article. TonyMorris68 (talk) 09:37, 20 July 2018 (UTC)

Introductory paragraph
The American Mercury in the tradition of its anti-Semitic past restarted in 2010 with continuity in its attacks on Jews, with the publishing of Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews Vol. 3 Leo Frank. Summarized here "Reborn again in 2010, The American Mercury would reboot itself, this time, in the new fever swamps of 21st century anti-Semitism." TonyMorris68 (talk) 05:35, 21 July 2018 (UTC)

Lawrence E. Spivak
In the biography Lawrence E. Spivak we say Spivak became business manager for the magazine in 1934, purchased it in 1939, edited it from 1944 until he sold it in 1950. And he "sold his interest in Mercury Publications in 1954." The articles should be reconciled by corrections and expansions as appropriate.
 * In the magazine article, he purchased it in January 1935, as the "longtime business manager".
 * In the publisher article "Spivak entered publishing in 1933 as the business manager of The American Mercury, and two years later, he became the magazine's publisher".

Posted also at Talk:Lawrence E. Spivak and Talk:Mercury Publications. --P64 (talk) 23:07, 10 April 2019 (UTC)

ADL was founded from Leo Frank case
Using the organization that was foundation was based on as a representative of why this publication is bad is a clear conflict of interest. Then not mentioning that the ADL was founded from this case with this conflict of interest makes this even worse --OxAO (talk) 04:25, 17 December 2019 (UTC)