'The Sewanee Review' and the Editorial Performance

Abstract

Economy is the word that will take us farthest in charting the anatomy of any publishing enterprise. That is especially true of the literary quarterly at the end of a century in which the quarterly has probably been the most important form of periodical so far as literature proper is concerned. Economy rings with the clear hard sound of commerce, but it embodies a larger suggestiveness within its metaphorical aura. Nothing is more costly than literature, nothing so easily corrupted by purely commercial considerations. Note that I insist upon the phrase literary quarterly, not little magazine, which is another kind of undertaking and another breed of cat. The literary quarterly, or critical review, publishes fiction and poetry in addition to criticism; the criticism appears as essays (formal and informal), essay-reviews, chronicles on new fiction and poetry (and drama in many quarterlies), and book reviews. The fiction and poetry in some ways exemplify, complement, and fortify the given quarterly's critical commitment. Criticism tends to occupy about two-thirds to three-quarters of the quarterly's space; sometimes it extends to social, political, and cultural criticism in such general magazines as the American Scholar, the Virginia Quarterly Review, and the Tale Review. The editors of some reviews so little understand the purpose of their magazines that they reduce book reviews to a negligible level and wait for each new book to prove itself as a classic (remaindered or otherwise) before having it reviewed. The editor of any quarterly worth his salt has a wide range of books reviewed promptly and thoroughly. (A bonus of this practice is an increase in paid advertising.) In contrast the editor of the little magazine chiefly publishes fiction and poetry, encouraging experiment and innovation. The confusion between the literary quarterly and the little magazine is typical of the many confusions in publishing today, in and out of the academy. The quarterly is often academically based, but one of the best, the Hudson Review (I948) is not; nor is the most famous, the Paris Review (I953), which is now distributed by Doubleday. Virtually all quarterlies lose money, and the university, itself a moneylosing (but tax-exempt) institution, can naturally and properly sponsor a literary quarterly and more than one scholarly journal, even though antipathy often exists between the authors for the two kinds of periodicals critics and scholars. The university also often gets good value for its money in supporting a press as well as periodicals (and some presses have periodicals departments). Generally speaking, if the university provides only personnel (salaries and