Diogenes

Title:
Diogenes

Date of Publication:
October – November 1940 (1.1)
December 1940 – January 1941 (1.2)
Autumn 1941 (1.3)

Place(s) of Publication:
Madison, Wisconsin

Frequency of Publication:
Bi-monthly

Circulation:
Unknown

Publisher:
Robert Lowry at The Little Man Press, Cincinnati, Ohio

Physical Description:
21 cm. Vol.1 No.1 about 30 pages. Vol.1 No.2 about 40 pages. Vol.1 No.3 about 50 pages

Price: 
20 cents per issue / $1 per year

Editor(s):
Arthur Blair and Frank Jones

Associate Editor(s): 
Unknown

Libraries with Complete Original Issues:  
Davidson College, Duke University, University of Virgina (Vol.1, No. 1,3), Ohio State University Libraries, Penn State University, University of Louisville, Emory University (Vol.1, No.1,3), University of Pennsylvania, University of Masachusetts-Amherst, SUNY at Buffalo, University of California, University of California-Berkeley, Yale University

Reprint Editions: 
Davidson College, Indiana University, University of Notre Dame

From the university town of Madison, Wisconsin came the “earnest and ambitious” little magazine Diogenes, presumably named for Diogenes of Sinope, the Ancient Greek philosopher famous for going about with a lantern claiming to be seeking an honest man (Greenburg 43).  Edited by Arthur Blair and Frank Jones, this short-lived bi-monthly of poetry, criticism, and experimental prose responded to a perceived shortage of politically balanced and varied prose within the little magazine movement.  Publishing works by over thirty different authors during its 3 issue stint between 1940-1941, editors Arthur Blair and Frank Jones remained committed to their desire to publish all “good” writing “regardless of the author’s status among either the intelligentsia or those whose reading [was] restricted to best sellers” (Diogenes 1:1, 3).  They exhibited a particular interest in publishing contemporary foreign literature, and saw their efforts to do so as a vital endeavor in combating the “cultural isolationism”  they felt to be pervasive in American society (Diogenes 1:1, 3).  Typical of this magazine is its inclusion of many no-namers alongside a few “old” names (Greenburg 43).  Notable is the magazine’s tribute to poet John Wheelwright upon his 1940 death in the second issue as well as Frank Jones’s translation and criticism of Bert Brecht’s works.  The magazine was discontinued following its Autumn 1941 edition.

REASONS:

1) THERE are not enough literary reviews of a non partisan, non-political nature in this country for 140,000,000 people.

2) THE artist exists by anything; he lives by being published.  The culture he represents is being shaken to its foundations; one preserves culture only by adding to it.

3) ONE way of combating unhealthy tendencies toward cultural isolationism is to keep before the public–in good translations–foreign writing of the quality that has vitalized American literature from its beginnings.  This but reiterates the pleas of such men as Hawthorne, Henry James, Eliot.

4) WE intend to print what we think good, regardless of the author’s status among either the intelligentsia or those whose reading is restricted to best sellers.  We do prefer the experimental; but we don’t intend to be snobs about it.

Arthur Blair

Edited Diogenes while a student at the University of Wisconsin.  Contributed two poems, “Afternoon Tea Party” (Vol.1 No.1) and “Caesar to Cleopatra” (Vol.1 No.3), to Diogenes.  Blair also contributed to Poetry and The Sewanee Review.

Frank Jones

Beyond Jones’s contributions to Diogenes, “Bert Brecht and the Poetry of Action” (Vol.1 No.1) and “Mirage” (Vol.1 No.3), and a few later publications, again on Bert Brecht, no other bibliographical information exists for Jones.

William Carlos Williams
The Sleeping Brute (Vol.1 No.1)

Charles Henri Ford
He Cut His Finger on Eternity (Vol.1 No.1)

James Laughlin
Old Dr God (Vol.1 No.1)

John Wheelwright
A Broadside (Vol.1 No.1)
Plate Glass Membrane (Vol.1 No.2)
Apocryphal Apocalypse (Vol.1 No.2)
Live, Evil Veil! (Vol.1 No.2)
State of Main (Vol.1 No.2)
Cross Questions (Vol.1 No.2)
Boston Public Library (Vol. 1 No.2)
Eagle (Vol.1 No.2)

Oscar Williams
The Lady with the Glass Torso (Vol.1 No.1)
The Shadow (Vol.1 No.1)

Gordon Sylander
The Glass of Port (Vol.1 No.1)
The Shadow (Vol.1 No.1)
Baladilla of a Madison Afternoon (Vol.1 No.2)
A Yangtse Yankee (Vol.1 No.3)

Weldon Kees
Public Library (Vol.1 No.1)
A Cornucopia for Daily Use (Vol.1 No.2)
Midnight (Vol.1 No.3)

Howard Blake
On His Being Arrived at the Age of Twenty-Three (Vol.1 No.1)

Gene Derwood
After Reading St. John the Divine (Vol.1 No.1)

Arthur Blair
Afternoon Tea Party (Vol.1 No.1)
Caesar to Cleopatra (Vol.1 No.3)

Bert Brecht
Vanished Glory of New York (Vol.1 No.1)

Frank Jones
Bert Brecht and the Poetry of Action (Vol.1 No.1)
Mirage (Vol.1 No.3)

Austin Warren
John Wheelwright, 1897-1940 (Vol.1 No.2)

John Malcolm Brinnin
The Parting (Vol.1 No.2)
Cry Havoc! (Vol.1 No.2)

Katue Kitasono
The Life of a Pencil (Vol.1 No.2)

Clark Mills
Child With Malaria (Vol.1 No.2)

Ransom Lloyd Richardson
Hope and Squares (Vol.1 No.2)
Who Fortunate Walks (Vol.1 No.3)

Troy Garrison
As a Cataleptic Might Wake in a Tomb (Vol.1 No.2)

Ivan Goll
John Landless Haunts the Boulevard (Vol.1 No.2)
John Landless Leads the Caravan (Vol.1 No.2)
John Landless in the Presence of Spring and Death(Vol.1 No.2)

Edouard Roditi
The Poetry of Ivan Goll (Vol.1 No.2)

Rudolf Jegart
The Spiritual Life: 1941 (Vol.1 No.3)

Anne Ridler
Night Poem (Vol.1 No.3)
A Dream Observed (Vol.1 No.3)

David Cornel DeJong
In Memory Of… (Vol.1 No.3)

Norman McCaig
Poem (Vol.1 No.3)

Kenneth Rexroth
Another Spring (Vol.1 No.3)

Henry Treece
Who Rides on the Wind (Vol.1 No.3)

James Flora
Wood Engraving (Vol.1 No.3)

Robert Lowry
The Skyblue Lady (Vol.1 No.3)

Sherry Mangan 
Lament for All Lucretii (Vol.1 No.3)

Howard Moss
Theater Cliff (Vol.1 No.3)

Lawrence Durrell
Letter to Seferis the Greek (Vol.1 No.3)

Anais Nin
Under a Glass Bell (Vol.1 No.3)

Richard Eberhart
2 Poems (Vol.1 No.3)

Norman Macleod
The Little People of Twilight (Vol.1 No.3)
O, Heart to Heart Talk (Vol.1 No.3)

Lindley Williams Hubbell
Gothic (Vol.1 No.3)

William Fitzgerald
Helen Before the Old Face (Vol.1 No.3)
Snow White… (Vol.1 No.3)

Gilbert Neiman
The Might Earl (Vol.1 No.3)

Boris Pasternak
4 Poems (Vol.1 No.3)

Vera Sandomirsky
Boris Pasternak (Vol.1 No.3)

Hoffman, Frederick J., Charles Allen, and Carolyn F. Ulrich. The Little Magazine: A History and a Bibliography. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1947. Print.

Greenberg, Clement. The Collected Essays and Criticism: Perceptions and Judgements, 1939-1945. Vol.1. Edited by John O’Brian. University of Chicago Press, 1986. Print.

“Notes on Contributors: Arthur Blair” Poetry 61.4 (1943): 581. JSTOR. Web. 10 Dec.

“Diogenes” compiled by Eliza Hadjis (Class of ‘13, Davidson College)