New Statesman, The

a weekly magazine founded in 1913 to ‘deal with all current political, social, religious, and intellectual questions’. Originally associated with the Fabian Society, it has remained a vehicle for views from the political left, while retaining its independence of restrictively doctrinaire affiliations. Early issues featured a serialization of ‘What Is Socialism?’ by Beatrice and Sidney Webb. G. B. Shaw, Leonard and Virginia Woolf, T. S. Eliot, Arnold Bennett, and Bertrand Russell were among the notable contributors under Clifford Sharp's editorship from 1913 to 1930. In 1931 the New Statesman absorbed the Nation and was edited by Kingsley Martin until 1963; subsequent editors have included Paul Johnson (1965–70), Richard Crossman (1970–2), and Hugh Stephenson (1982–6). Since 1988, when it merged with New Society, it has appeared under the title New Statesman and Society. It is noted for the consistently high standards of its coverage of current affairs and political issues. Although the space devoted to poetry and other forms of creative writing has diminished since the early 1980s, the New Statesman formerly published verse by many leading poets, including W. B. Yeats, Edward Thomas, Robert Graves, Stephen Spender, D. J. Enright, and Donald Davie.