Further Reading

Selected books and articles on literary magazine publishing. Chosen and annotated by CLMP members.

Anderson, Elliott and Mary Kinzie. "The Little Magazine in America: A Modern Documentary History." TriQuarterly 43 (Fall 1978).

Various editor-writers discuss the magazines with which they were intimately associated. Among the publications covered are Furioso, Big Table, The Kenyon Review, Poetry, Dust, Kayak, and many more. The accounts are well-written, insightful, lively, and wonderfully anecdotal. Although this volume’s "written oral histories" sometimes document events before World War II, its greatest value is perhaps as a less academic supplement to, and updating of, The Little Magazine: A History and a Bibliography (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1946). PF

Bixler, Paul."Quandries of a Quarterly." The Antioch Review 25 (Winter 1965-66): 469-86.

Part history of the beginnings of The Antioch Review but also a history of the times that fostered its growth and that of similar publications. MG

ibid. "Little Magazine, What Now?" The Antioch Review 8 (Spring 1948): 63-77.

Bixler was the college librarian as well so this piece especially is filled with references to other books that people may find interesting. MG

Chielens, Esward E., ed. American Literary Magazines: The Twentieth Century. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1992.

This book offers profiles, written by many hands, of American little magazines in the twentieth century. It is organized alphabetically, from Accent to Yugen, with an appendix on Minor Literary Magazines. The accounts tend to be more factual and less personal and entertaining than those in Triquarterly #43. The alphabetical organization can seem frustrating if you are looking for an overall chronological account. However, there is an addictive charm to perusing the book at random, flitting from the Hudson Review to Broom or from The Book Buyer to The Fugitive. You feel like an immortal bee, sampling flowers in the Elysian Fields of The Little Magazine. PF

Concordia College. The Editor's Forum.

The faculty were all editors of magazines such as The New Yorker, The Atlantic, New England Review, North Dakota Quarterly, South Dakota Review. Audio tapes of each editor talking about their journal and how/why/what they do.

Coser, Lewis A., Charles Kadushin, and Walter W. Powell. Books: The Culture and Commerce of Publishing. New York: Basic Books, 1982. RM

Crosby, Caresse. The Passionate Years. 1953. New York: Ecco Press, 1979. RM

Dana, Robert, ed. Against the Grain: Interviews with Maverick American Publishers. Iowa City: U of Iowa P, 1986. RM, PF

Dennison, Sally. [Alternative] Literary Publishing: Five Modern Histories. Iowa City: U of Iowa P, 1986. RM

Foley, Martha: "The Story of Story Magazine: A Memoir." MM

Gabriel, Michael R. “The Astonishing Growth of Small Publishers: 1958-1988.” Journal of Popular Culture 24.3 (Winter 1990): 61-68. RM

Glazier, Loss Pequeno. Small Press: An Annotated Guide. Wesport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1992. PF

Goodrich, Chris. “The New Press: It’s Here, It’s Austere, Get Used to It.” Lingua Franca 3.4 (May-June 1993): 45-51. RM

Harris, Charles B. “Independent Presses and the Future of Contemporary American Literature.” Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction 37.3 (Spring 1996).

Henderson, Bill, ed. The Art of Literary Publishing: Editors on Their Craft. Wainscott, N.Y.: Pushcart Press, 1980. PF

Hoffman, Frederick J., Charles Allen, and Carolyn F. Ulrich. The Little Magazine: A History and a Bibliography. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1946.

This is a standard history of the little magazine up through the end of World War II. As the title indicates, it is divided into a historical section (pp. 1–230) and a bibliography (231–398). The ten chapters in the historical section cover such subjects as "Poetry and Others," "The Little Review," and "Modern Poetry and The Little Magazine." The bibliography is organized chronologically, from 1891–1945. It chronicles the founding of important little magazines, providing a thumbnail sketch of each. Jayne E. Marek’s arguments (Women Editing Modernism) that this book has a certain gender bias are not unjust. However, this is clearly the first "standard" work and a valuable reference. PF

Janssen, Marian, The Kenyon Review 1939-1970, A Critical History. Louisiana State University Press, 1990. TB

Jones, Malcolm. “The New Publishers’ Row.” Newsweek 21 Feb. 1994: 64-65. RM

Lesser, Wendy. "Founding a Magazine." THE AMATEUR. CM

Madison, Charles A. Book Publishing in America. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1966. RM

Marek, Jayne E. Women Editing Modernism: "Little" Magazines & Literary History. Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky, 1995.

As the title suggests, this writer strives to credit the women who, as "little magazine" editors, played a vital role in the modernist revolution. She covers such figures as Harriet Monroe and Alice Corbin Henderson of Poetry, Margaret Anderson and Jane Heap of the Little Review; H.D. and Bryher, and Marianne Moore in her capacity as editor of the Dial. She also shows how Ezra Pound "made numerous attempts to control the editorial directions of little magazines headed by women" and how he is often credited with accomplishments that belong to women. The book has detailed notes and a valuable 13-page Bibliography. PF

McAlmon, Robert and Kay Boyle. "Being Geniuses Together."

Literary scene in the 20s. RW

McLaughlin, Robert L. “Oppositional Aesthetics/Oppositional Ideologies: A Brief Cultural History of Alternative Publishing in the U.S.”

Memorial for Quentin Howard. Wind Magazine (Fall 1998). CH

Moore, Marianne. Biography. For info about the Dial.

O’Donnell, Kevin, Jr. “How Thor Power Hammered Publishing.”

One Hundred and Fifty Years of Publishing: 1837-1987. Boston: Little, Brown, 1987. RM

Peck, Abe. Uncovering the Sixties: The Life & Times of the Underground Press. New York: Pantheon, 1985. PF

Phillips, Rodney, and Steven Clay, eds. A Secret Location on the Lower East Side: Adventures in Writing, 1960–1980. New York, NY: The New York Public Library and Granary Books, 1998.

This book, with many photographs of writers and editors and magazine covers, is a catalog for an exhibition of little magazines sponsored by the New York Public Library. Magazines and presses are covered under the following categories: Berkeley Renaissance, San Francisco Renaissance, the Beats, and Others; Black Mountain, Ethnopoetics, Deep Image, Intermedia and Performance, and Others; The New York School: First, Second, and Third Generations, and Others; Language Writing and Others. It includes Sources for Further Study, a listing of books, anthologies, and websites. PF

Scott, Tom: Pound. The Little Review. New York: New Directions Press, 1988. RM2

Simmons, Charles. The Belles Lettres Papers. 1985.

Not exactly a history, but a pretty funny novel about a fictional literary magazine, about a turbulent period in the life of a review journal. (Simmons was once editor of the Times Book Review). I believe it's out of print, but worth looking out for. LG

Sklar, Morty & Jim Mulac, eds. Editor's Choice: Literature & Graphics from the U.S. Small Press, 1965-1977. Iowa City: Spirit That Moves Us Press, 1980. AC

Slesinger, Warren. ed. Spreading the Word. The Bench Press, 1995).
Poetry equivalent of The Whole Story. CD

Soar, Geoffrey, and David Miller. Interaction & Overlap from the Little Magazine & Small Press Collection at University College London. London: workfortheeyetodo, 1994. PF

Tebbel, John. A History of Book Publishing in the United States. 4 vols. New York: R. R. Bowker, 1972-81. RM

Williams, Ellen. 10 years of POETRY: Harriet Monroe and the Poetry Renaissance. 1977. HK

Whiteside, Thomas. The Blockbuster Complex: Conglomerates, Show Business, and Book Publishing. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan UP, 1981. RM

The Whole Story. The Bench Press, 1995.

The Whole Story consists of a brief essay by each of about 25 editors, along with a fiction selection each of them made, reprinted from their respective magazines. So it's like a primer on the art of editing, as well as a story anthology. CD

For more books on small press book publishing, visit the Small Press Center bibliography.

Sources:

AC - Andrew Ciotola, West Branch
CD - Cara Diaconoff, The Gettysburg Review
CH - Charlie Hughes, Wind Publication
CM - C.M. Mayo, Tameme
HK - Helen Klaviter, Poetry
LG - Linda Gardiner, The Women's Review of Books
MG - Michelle Giguere, The Antioch Review
MM - Michael Manley, Rain Crow Publishing
PF - Phil Fried, Manhattan Review
RM - Robert McLaughlin
RM2 - Rodger Martin, Worcester Review
RW - Rebecca Wolff, Fence
TB - Tom Bigelow, The Kenyon Review