Fra, The.
A Journal of Affirmation / Not for Mummies / For Philistines and Roycrofters / Exponent of the American Philosophy.
Other titles: The Fra Magazine
1908-1917 Monthly
East Aurora, NY. Editor: Elbert Hubbard; Felix Shay.
1/1, 1908-1917. $2.00 a year (life subscription "good for ninety-nine years," $25.00).

On Hubbard (1856-1915) see the note under The Philistine and the chapter on him in Joscelyn Godwin's The Upstate Cauldron (2015). Hubbard is indescribable, the embodiment of the triumphal, optimistic, take-charge Americanism of the time. He had begun as editor of Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Men and then established his Roycroft Printing Shop in East Aurora, near Buffalo, and churned out beautifully crafted papers, binding and objects, all inspired by Hubbard's admiration for William Morris and for the arts and crafts movement. He carried this over to his first journal, the Philistine, and into this journal, both of which were beautifully illustrated and laid out. Hubbard filled the journals with his admiration for the "great rebels" (Moses, Paul, and Emerson, et al.) and the great men of his own time, and with insistent urging of his readers to aspire to greatness, success and wealth. He and his wife, Alice, who collaborated in the journal, put together an "American Bible, written by Americans for Americans . . . having not one line of mysticism or mythology," with excerpts from Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, Robert G. Ingersoll, Walt Whitman, Emerson-and Hubbard. He combined this passion for excellence with his own version of New Thought ("I believe that we are not living in Eternity as much as we ever shall") and occasionally referenced Blavatsky, Katherine TIngley, Franz Hartmann, Edward Carpenter and others in the Theosophical current in the journal. His Roycroft Fraternity urged the formation of local groups ("Juntos") to explore the leading questions of the day and among other subjects proposed discussion of "What is Theosophy?" and "Who was Mrs. Besant." He was said (by AMORC) to have been a member of the Rosicrucians, but there is no evidence of this in the journal. After Hubbard's death the journal was continued by his son as Roycroft (1917-1924). NYPL; Columbia University; Buffalo and Erie County Public Library; Syracuse University; etc.

IAPSOP materials are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
IAPSOP respects people's privacy and personal data rights.