American Review (literary journal)

Last updated
American Review
Editor Ted Solotaroff
CategoriesLiterary magazine
First issue1967;56 years ago (1967)
Final issue
Number
1977 (1977)
26
CountryUnited States
Based inNew York City
LanguageEnglish

American Review (formerly the New American Review) was a literary journal published from 1967 to 1977 under editor Ted Solotaroff. [1] Though it only published for ten years, it was the longest running paperback literary periodical at the time, and was influential for the large amount of work it published from notable authors.

Contents

Publishing history

The American Review published its first issue in 1967 as New American Review, edited by Ted Solotaroff. It was printed and distributed as a paperback book by the New American Library from 1967 to 1970. When it began to struggle financially, it continued in smaller numbers at Simon & Schuster until 1972 before finally moving to Bantam Books in 1973. [2] [3] At first, it was published at a rate of three issues per year, then reduced to two starting in 1975. [3] Solotaroff served as editor for the duration of its publication, though Stanley Moss and Richard Howard served as poetry editors. [4]

The twenty-sixth and final issue was published in September 1977. [3] It ceased publication for financial reasons, and because Solotaroff felt it had run its course. [3] Its circulation had decreased from a peak of 100,000 to 50,000 and its price increased from $0.95 to $2.45 a copy. The New York Times reported that at the time, it was "the longest-running paperback literary periodical". [3] Slate's Glenn Howard hypothesized that the publication's struggle may in part be due to the decline of "the countercultural project" of the 1960s. [1]

Content

American Review printed traditional and experimental fiction, poetry, and nonfiction essays and journalism, although it prioritized fiction and poetry. [2] [5] It only published certain types of nonfiction, like memoirs and social criticism, and tended to avoid politics and current events. [4] It called itself a "little magazine" (although issues spanned about 250 pages) and aimed to bring high quality literature to a mass audience, or in Solotaroff's words, the "democratization of literary culture". [4]

It was unusual for the number of well-known and later-known writers it attracted from its very first issue. Its list of notable writers includes: Philip Roth, Susan Sontag, Gabriel García Márquez, Norman Mailer, Sylvia Plath, Tom Robbins, Jorge Luis Borges, A. Alvarez, Marshall Berman, E. L. Doctorow, Anna Akhmatova, A. R. Ammons, Max Apple, John Ashbery, Russell Banks, Donald Barthelme, John Berryman, Harold Brodkey, Robert Coover, George Dennison, Richard Eberhart, Stanley Elkin, Ralph Ellison, Leslie Epstein, William Gass, Richard Gilman, Allen Ginsberg, Albert Goldman, Günter Grass, Robert Graves, Peter Handke, Michael Herr, Richard Hugo, Stanley Kauffmann, Ian McEwan, James Merrill, W. S. Merwin, Leonard Michaels, Kate Millett, Conor Cruise O'Brien, Cynthia Ozick, Grace Paley, J. F. Powers, V. S. Pritchett, Mordecai Richler, Theodore Roszak, Lore Segal, Anne Sexton, Wilfrid Sheed, Gilbert Sorrentino, Robert Stone, James Welch, and Ellen Willis. [1] [2] [5] Notable works published in whole or in part in the Review include Roth's Portnoy's Complaint , Millett's Sexual Politics , Moore's Catholics, Handke's A Sorrow Beyond Dreams , Coover's The Public Burning , and Doctorow's Ragtime. [3] [4]

In total, the American Review published 26 issues including about 200 short stories, 300 poems, and 130 essays written by 500 authors. [4]

Legacy

Upon the publication's final issue, Richard Locke praised its content, influence, and ambition in The New York Times, while criticizing elements of Solotaroff's editorial style, such as his disinterest in impersonal forms of writing, never defining his standards, and passively letting writers bring work to him rather than cultivating a stronger guiding concept: "in his admirable reluctance to turn the review into a closed shop or to lay down an ideological line, he reduced his editorial criteria to an unarguable question of taste. And so the magazine was simply Solotaroff - not an institution like the old Partisan or Kenyon reviews, 'little magazines' with an articulate, developing cultural position, but rather a product of one man's taste". [4] Years later, Glenn Howard wrote in Slate that the American Review "the greatest American literary magazine ever." [1] Vanity Fair's James Wolcott said the publication "started off stellar and never lost altitude, never peaked out, continuing to make literary news back when literary news didn't seem like an oxymoron, each issue bearing something eventful...". [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Book Award</span> American literary awards

The National Book Awards (NBA) are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The National Book Awards were established in 1936 by the American Booksellers Association, abandoned during World War II, and re-established by three book industry organizations in 1950. Non-U.S. authors and publishers were eligible for the pre-war awards. Since then they are presented to U.S. authors for books published in the United States roughly during the award year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Literary magazine</span> Periodical devoted to literature

A literary magazine is a periodical devoted to literature in a broad sense. Literary magazines usually publish short stories, poetry, and essays, along with literary criticism, book reviews, biographical profiles of authors, interviews and letters. Literary magazines are often called literary journals, or little magazines, terms intended to contrast them with larger, commercial magazines.

David Lehman is an American poet, non-fiction writer, and literary critic, and the founder and series editor for The Best American Poetry. He was a writer and freelance journalist for fifteen years, writing for such publications as Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times. In 2006, Lehman served as Editor for the new Oxford Book of American Poetry. He taught and was the Poetry Coordinator at The New School in New York City until May 2018.

The Best American Short Stories yearly anthology is a part of The Best American Series published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Since 1915, the BASS anthology has striven to contain the best short stories by some of the best-known writers in contemporary American literature.

<i>Timothy McSweeneys Quarterly Concern</i> American literary journal

Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern is an American literary journal, founded in 1998, typically containing short stories, reportage, and illustrations. Some issues also include poetry, comic strips, and novellas. The Quarterly Concern is published by McSweeney's based in San Francisco and it has been edited by Dave Eggers. The journal is notable in that it has no fixed format, and changes its publishing style from issue to issue, unlike more conventional journals and magazines.

<i>Ninth Letter</i> Academic journal

Ninth Letter is a literary magazine that publishes poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. It is an interdisciplinary collaboration between the School of Art + Design and the Creative Writing Program at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. Ninth Letter exists in two related but distinct forms: a biannual print magazine and a website that features new electronic content on a continuous basis. In 2004, the first issue was published. It included fiction from Pulitzer Prize recipient Robert Olen Butler, Katherine Vaz, and an interview with Yann Martel, the author of the Man Booker Prize-winning novel Life of Pi.

Mid-American Review (MAR) is an international literary journal dedicated to publishing contemporary fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and translations. Founded in 1981, MAR is a publication of the Department of English and the College of Arts & Sciences at Bowling Green State University. It is produced by faculty, students, and alumni of Bowling Green's creative writing program.

<i>TriQuarterly</i> American literary magazine and book series

TriQuarterly is a name shared by an American literary magazine and a series of books.

<i>The Iowa Review</i> American literary magazine

The Iowa Review is an American literary magazine that publishes fiction, poetry, essays, and reviews.

<i>The Gettysburg Review</i> American literary magazine

The Gettysburg Review is a quarterly literary magazine featuring short stories, poetry, essays and reviews. Work appearing in the magazine often is reprinted in "best-of" anthologies and receives awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Meghan O'Rourke</span> American poet

Meghan O'Rourke is an American nonfiction writer, poet and critic.

<i>The Mathematical Experience</i> 1981 book by Philip J. Davis and Reuben Hersh

The Mathematical Experience (1981) is a book by Philip J. Davis and Reuben Hersh that discusses the practice of modern mathematics from a historical and philosophical perspective. The book discusses the psychology of mathematicians, and gives examples of famous proofs and outstanding problems. It goes on to speculate about what a proof really means, in relationship to actual truth. Other topics include mathematics in education and some of the math that occurs in computer science.

Adam Kirsch is an American poet and literary critic. He is on the seminar faculty of Columbia University's Center for American Studies, and has taught at YIVO.

<i>New World Writing</i> American literary magazine

New World Writing was a paperback magazine, a literary anthology series published by New American Library's Mentor imprint from 1951 until 1960, then J. B. Lippincott & Co.'s Keystone from volume/issue 16 (1960) to the last volume, 22, in 1964.

Theodore "Ted" Solotaroff was an American writer, editor and literary critic.

Victoria Chang is an American poet, writer, editor, and critic.

<i>Gigantic</i> (magazine) American literary magazine

Gigantic is an American literary journal that publishes fiction, art and interviews. In particular, it focuses on short prose or flash fiction. Print issues also have included a special poetry section entitled "The Seizure State," curated by celebrated American poet Joe Wenderoth. It publishes original work online at its website and once a year in a print format. Gigantic was founded in 2008 by four writers living in New York City.

Post Road is an American literary magazine established in 1999 that publishes fiction, nonfiction, criticism, poetry, art, and theatre. In addition to these traditional genres, the magazine also features a "Recommendations" section in which established writers suggest their favorite work and an "Etcetera" section which presents literary curiosities such as letters, reprints, and interviews. Post Road is published biannually by the Department of English at Boston College.

The American Literary Review is an American national biannual literary magazine of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Since its Fall 2013 issue, ALR has been an online digital publication. Print publications are cataloged under ISSN 1051-5062.

<i>Current Books</i>

Current Books Magazine was a literary magazine published from 1992 to 1995 that featured excerpts from current fiction, nonfiction, and poetry books. It was founded and edited by Edwin S. Grosvenor and its cover designed by the noted art director J.C. Suarez. The assistant editors were Joshua Dinman and Nathalie op de Beeck.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Howard, Gerald (19 August 2008). "Was New American Review the Best Literary Magazine Ever?". Slate .
  2. 1 2 3 Grimes, William (12 August 2008). "Theodore Solotaroff, Founder of the New American Review, Is Dead at 80". The New York Times .
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Mitgang, Herbert (1976-12-27). "Publishing: A Pioneer at Road's End". The New York Times . ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-07-10.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Locke, Richard (November 20, 1977). "The Literary View". The New York Times .
  5. 1 2 3 Wolcott, James (12 August 2008). "Last of the Literary Godfathers". Vanity Fair. Archived from the original on 2014-12-18.