Talk:The Truth Seeker

Succession
A  template for the editors' pages might help clarify, but several are so minor as to verge on non-notability. Abb3w (talk) 21:04, 24 July 2015 (UTC)

Ownership/Editorship dispute
The edits of June 11, 2016 suggest there may be a dispute as to the present "rightful" editorship. The particular edit asserting that it "Deleted erroneous information" and that "Linda Hironimus is the current owner and publisher of Truth Seeker" was performed by an anonymous IP6 address with no other edits, and deleted a citation that gives evidence to the contrary. There may be a (geologic) ongoing struggle for control among Lange's heirs. Abb3w (talk) 16:17, 13 June 2016 (UTC)
 * Alternately, it may just be a failure to notice that the list is of editors, not owners. Abb3w (talk) 19:53, 17 June 2016 (UTC)
 * This (very intermittently) continues; December 10, 2016 and March 1, 2017. Abb3w (talk) 14:56, 13 March 2017 (UTC)

Further Data
The ruling of Higbee Estate, 372 Pa. 233 (1953) looks to have been a minor part of the legal history. Abb3w (talk) 16:30, 13 June 2016 (UTC)

Removed Sections
An edit was made removing several efforts by Pierre38 to improve the article, on the grounds that the additions lacked sourcing. As most of these things match recollections I have heard elsewhere, I believe most of the changes were sourceable; I thus am putting these items here into talk to facilitate efforts of anyone (possibly myself at a later time) who wants to find sources.

....

The Truth Seeker is an American periodical published beginning in 1873 in Paris, Illinois. It moved to New York City a year later and was published weekly by D. M. Bennett. However, upon his conviction and imprisonment in 1879 for thirteen months for mailing a free love booklet, Eugene Macdonald became acting editor and continued in that capacity after Bennett's release from the Albany penitentiary as Bennett then traveled extensively to Europe and around the world before passing away in 1882. Bennett's widow sold the company to Macdonald and associates and he continued to edit it until shortly before his death in 1909. He was succeeded by his younger brother, George E. Macdonald. who continued as editor until 1937. James F. Morton, Jr., better known as a long term correspondent of H.P. Lovecraft, was associate editor between 1909-15. Charles Lee Smith assumed the editorship in 1937 (along with his associate editors Woolsey Teller and later Robert E. Kuttner) and incorporated the company in New York in 1940. The paper had reverted to monthly publication in 1930 as a consequence of the depression. Macdonald continued to write a column for the paper until his death in 1944. In 1964, Smith moved the publication to San Diego at the behest of James Hervey Johnson who took control of the company and editorship upon Smith's death in October, 1964. Johnson maintained the paper as a monthly until his death in 1988, but circulation declined to a level around 400. A longtime friend and secretary to Johnson, Bonnie Lange, succeeded Johnson as publisher with Ralph De Sola as interim editor. Beginning with the March/April 1989 issue, the publication was transformed into a glossy bi-monthly magazine under the editorship of James W. Prescott. A succession of editors - Ian Hutton, Marti E. Kransberg, Nicholas Rocha - followed. A special 144 page 125th anniversary issue was published in 1998 following which the periodical was generally published annually. Following Bonnie Lange's death in 2013, Roderick Bradford revived the magazine beginning with the September, 2014, 141st anniversary issue as a tri-annual publication. Beginning in 2018, Bradford moved the publication office to Buffalo, New York.

It was considered the most influential Freethought publication during the period following the Civil War into the first decades of the 20th Century, known as the Golden Age of Freethought. It numbered Mark Twain, Clarence Darrow and Thomas A. Edison as subscribers. Though there were other influential Freethought periodicals, The Truth Seeker was the only one with a national circulation.

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In particular, in "Fifty Years of Freethought", George E. Macdonald mentions Edison several times inways indicating Freethought sentiments and event attendance; however, it does not mention a subscription.

Commons files used on this page have been nominated for speedy deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons files used on this page have been nominated for speedy deletion: You can see the reasons for deletion at the file description pages linked above. —Community Tech bot (talk) 23:21, 1 April 2019 (UTC)
 * TSFamilySince1873.jpg
 * TSMarkTwain.jpg