Milton A. Abernethy

Milton A. Abernethy (died 1991) was a journalist, magazine editor, business owner, and stockbroker, best known for his time spent editing the literary journal Contempo: A Review of Books and Personalities from 1931-1934.

The Hickory, North Carolina native first rose to fame writing for the student journal Wataugan, a publication of North Carolina State University. His articles soon gave him his first reputation as a smalltime radical, as he spoke out in a number of articles. These include “Whither the South? Light on the Southern Industrial Revolution” attacked Northern Capitalists who came south to exploit Southern Labor, and “Militarism or Education—which?” attacked his school’s compulsory military training. He soon struck a little too far with “The Game of Cheating at North Carolina State College is Not Equal to Any Other Sport,” an article that outlined the cheating endemic at the university. Predictably, it was the Student Council that came down hard on him, finding him guilty and expelling him. Abernethy won the case on appeal with the help of faculty, but soon transferred to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a move that proved quite important to his future life.

Soon after transferring to UNC-Chapel Hill, Abernethy joined with several other college students (Phil Liskin, Shirley Carter, Vincent Garoffolo, and Anthony Buttitta) to start a literary magazine known as Contempo. The magazine started as a small publication accepting free submissions. It would eventually publish many of the major authors of the day, including Sherwood Anderson, Ezra Pound, Langston Hughes, William Faulkner, William Carlos Williams, Hart Crane, James Joyce, and others.

Abernethy co-edited the magazine with Anthony Buttitta (following the departure of the other three editors by the fall of 1931), and Minna K. Abernethy (his wife, and co-editor following Buttitta’s departure). It is likely that Abernethy did a lot of the administrative work for the magazine, as he is said to have been the one to contact authors and bartered for ads at the magazine’s beginning and may have dealt with the financial aspects of the magazine. The editing process itself, though accounts from those associated with the magazine vary, may have been the combined work of both Buttitta and Abernethy, or for a short time, Abernethy, Buttitta, and Minna.

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