Ken was a short-lived illustrated magazine first issued on April 7, 1938. It was a controversial, political, large format magazine with full page photo spreads, published every two weeks on Thursdays.^[1] It contained both articles and stories.The publication was investigated in 1938 by the House Un-American Activities Committee for being Communist leaning.^[6] However, its editor Arnold Gingrich denied that the publication had any political slant. Seldes maintained throughout his life that "To these people [i.e, people like the House Un-American Activities Committee under Dies and later the McCarthyites ] 'one step left of center' meant 'leftist,' and 'leftist' meant 'red,' and 'red' of course meant 'Communist'" (despite that when Seldes was cleared by McCarthy, the press did not report it).^[5]Ken ceased publication in the summer of 1939.^[3][7] Seldes stated that caving in to corporate advertiser pressure did not work, as not many ads were sold even afterward.