Women Editing Modernism: Little Magazines and Literary History

"For many years young writers experimenting with forms and aesthetics in the early decades of this century, small journals known collectively as "little" magazines were the key to recognition. Joyce, Stein, Eliot, Pound, Hemingway, and scores of other iconoclastic writers now considered central to modernism received little encouragement from the established publishers. It was the avant-garde magazines, many of them headed by women, that fostered new talent and found a readership for it. Jayne Marek examines the work of seven women editors — Harriet Monroe, Alice Corbin Henderson, Margaret Anderson, Jane Heap, H.D., Bryher (Winifred Ellerman), and Marianne Moore — whose varied activities, often behind the scenes and in collaboration with other women, contributed substantially to the development of modernist literature. Through such publications as Poetry, The Little Review, The Dial, and Close Up, these women had a profound influence that has been largely overlooked by literary historians. Marek devotes a chapter as well to the interactions of these editors with Ezra Pound, who depended upon but also derided their literary tastes and accomplishments. Pound's opinions have had lasting influence in shaping critical responses to women editors of the early twentieth century. In the current reevaluation of modernism, this important book, long overdue, offers an indispensable introduction to the formative influence of women editors, both individually and in their collaborative efforts. Jayne Marek is associate professor of English at Franklin College.

Library Journal

Focusing on the role of seven American and English women in editing and publishing influential avant-garde literary journals in the early decades of the 20th century, Marek, a Fulbright fellow in Hungary, argues that women were more instrumental in the evolution of modernism than is generally acknowledged. She devotes individual chapters to Harriet Monroe, founder of Poetry (in 1912), and her first coeditor, Alice Corbin Henderson; Margaret Anderson and Jane Heap, editors of the Little Review (1914-29); and Marianne Moore, editor of the Dial (1925-29), among others. In the final chapter, Marek explores interactions between the women editors and the male literary establishment, specifically regarding Ezra Pound. Although a few of Marek's interpretations may be questioned, the overall evidence that women editors played an important role in promoting critical dialog, new ideas, and new literature cannot be denied. This important scholarly study provides the groundwork for further research.Jeris Cassel, Rutgers Univ. Libs., New Brunswick, N.J.