"The first function of a literary magazine is to introduce the work of new or little-known writers of talent.” There is an appealing modesty about this brisk declaration, even a kind of impersonality in subordinating editorial ego to the larger good; it seems likely to provoke a murmur of agreement, not least from new or little-known writers. But this is not, of course, the only way in which the function of such publications may be conceived. The editor of one of the many new literary periodicals established in the 1920s announced a no less definite sense of purpose in quite other terms: “I shall make its aim the maintenance of critical standards and the concentration of intelligent critical opinion”. The goals expressed in these two quotations are not necessarily in conflict: editors might, it is true, maintain “critical standards” in a practical way by identifying new literary talent. But the tendency is for the pursuit of these two purposes to result in periodicals of rather different types. One, often thought of as the classic “little magazine”, largely carries new poetry and fiction, mostly by as yet unrecognized writers, often exemplifying a style of writing that is self-consciously, even determinedly, insurgent and unfashionable. The other, committed to upholding the critical or reviewing function, is largely filled with essays and book reviews, taking in the literature of both the past and the present, as well as taking in more than literature; it aspires to shape intelligent opinion and to combat the slackness and puffery of mainstream literary journalism.
via entertainment.timesonline.co.uk
This is a review of the first volume of a series on "little magazines" associated, even if loosely, with Modernism. The volume comes from the Modernist Magazines Project in the UK. The review gives a good overview of the project and this voiume. Since it's US price is $180, it's aimed at libraries.
There's a similar project in the US, the Modernist Journals Project at Brown University. This project hopes to put full, searchable texts of the journals online, a worthy if difficult goal.
Little magazines and small presses are still an intrinsic part of the literary scene, even if much of the activity has moved to the Internet. These publishers are an important part of the literary dynamism of a culture. Perhaps, despite problems of quality and confusing numbers, the Internet versions will carry on successfully as the print publications are squeezed out by costs and the shifts in media, the reduction of poetry series in university presses and "major" (ie, corporate) publishers. Whaddayathink?
