Title:
The Glebe
Date of Publication:
Sept. 1913 (1:1) – Nov. 1914 (2:4)
Place(s) of Publication:
Ridgefield, NJ: Sept. 1913 (1:1)
New York, NY: Oct. 1913 – Nov. 1914 (1:2 – 2:4)
Frequency of Publication:
Irregular: 10 numbers over 15 months
Circulation:
300 copies
Publisher:
The Glebe, Ridgefield, NJ (Sept. – Oct. 1913)
A. and C. Boni, New York (Nov. 1913 – Oct. 1914)
Physical Description:
60 – 120 pages. All issues were devoted to a single author’s work, with the exception of the Imagiste number (1:5) which presented the works of eleven poets.
Sept. 1913 (1:1): Songs, Sighs and Curses, Adolf Wolff
1913 (1:2): Diary of a Suicide, Wallace Baker
1913 (1:3): The Azure Adder, Charles Demuth
1914 (1:4): Love of One’s Neighbor, Leonid Andreyev
1914 (1:6): Erna Vitek, Alfred Kreymborg
1914 (2:1): Collects, Horace Traubel
1914 (2:2): Poems, George W. Cronyn
1914 (2:3): Erdgeist, Frank Wedekind
1914 (2:4): Pandora’s Box, Frank Wedekind
Price:
60 cents per issue
Editor(s):
Alfred Kreymborg
Associate Editor(s):
Man Ray
Libraries with Complete Original Issues:
Northwestern University; Ohio State University; Pennsylvania State University; Brown University; University of California, Berkeley
Reprint Editions:
Ann Arbor, Michigan: UMI, 2004 (Little Magazines. American 1910 – 1919) [Microform]
New York: Kraus Reprint, 1967.
PDFs of selected issues available on Google Books.
PDFs available online at Princeton University’s Blue Mountain Project
Although the concept of The Glebe, a little magazine devoted exclusively to innovative poetry, had taken form in Alfred Kreymborg’s mind as early as 1908, it took until September 1913 for the first issue to appear. A panic attack defrayed Kreymborg’s efforts at establishing the magazine for five years until he met with artist Samuel Halpart and Man Ray in Grantwood, New Jersey in 1913 and the three men decided to go forth with Kreymborg’s concept. Unfortunately, the printing press they had planned to use was damaged beyond repair when they attempted to move it from New York to Grantwood, which forced Kreymborg to travel New York to find funding for his magazine. He found financial support from Albert and Charles Boni, the proprietors of a bookshop. The Bonis agreed to fund Kreymborg’s enterprise and allowed him full editorial license – although considering the large amount European writers within the magazine, it is likely that the Bonis claimed extensive editorial privileges over Kreymborg, who harbored a proclivity for the unknown American writer [Hoffman 44-46].
Early in the magazine’s career Ezra Pound sent Kreymborg a collection of poetry, Des Imagistes which became the magazine’s fifth, and most renown, issue. This Imagiste number was the only issue during the magazine’s run to contain multiple authors – all other issues were of a single writer or poet – and it included the work of Pound, James Joyce, William Carlos Williams, Amy Lowell, Richard Aldington and Ford Maddox (Ford) Hueffer (Hoffman 45). Despite the success of this issue, the increased editorial presence of the Bonis spurned Kreymborg’s resignation; without his guidance, the magazine was dissolved in November 1914 (Hoffman 46). The Glebe served as a precursor for Others which Kreymborg went on to edit in 1915.
Alfred Kreymborg’s asserted his editorial policy very clearly in one of his early issues of The Glebe:
“The only editorial policy of THE GLEBE is that embodied in its declaration of absolute freedom of expression, which makes for a range broad enough to include every temperament from the most radical to the most conservative, the only requisite being that the work should have unmistakable merit. Each issue will be devoted exclusively to one individual, thereby giving him an opportunity to present his work in sufficient bulk to make it possible for the reader to obtain a much more comprehensive grasp of his personality than is afforded him in the restricted space allotted by the other magazines. Published monthly, or more frequently if possibly, THE GLEBE will issue twelve to twenty books per year, chosen on their merits alone, since the subscription list does away with the need of catering to the popular demand that confronts every publisher. Thus, THE GLEBE can promise the best work of American and foreign authors, known and unknown.”
Alfred Kreymborg. 1:5 (1914).
Alfred Kreymborg (Dec. 10 1883 – Aug. 14 1966)
Editor: Sept. 1914 – Nov. 1914
Alfred Kreymborg grew up in a working class family in New York City. While living in Greenwich Village, he became interested in modern art, photography, and writing. He founded The Glebe in 1913, which was “one of the first periodicals to sponsor experimental writing” (Hoffman 46). With a donation of $276 from Walter Conrad Arensberg, Kreymborg went on to found Others, a magazine dedicated to experimental poetry. Editor of Broom and American Caravan and contributor to little magazines well into the 1950s, Kreymborg achieved popular acclaim touring America with his puppet plays (1920-1) and a radio play he produced (1938). When he died in 1966, he had published forty books and served as president of the Poetry Society of America and as judge for the Pulitzer Prize for poetry.
Richard Aldington
“Choricos”
“To a Greek Marble”
“The River”
Leonid Andreyev
“Love of One’s Neighbor”
Skipwith Cannell
“Nocturnes”
George W. Cronyn
“Poems”
H. D.
“Sitalkas”
“Priapus”
“Acon”
Charles Demuth
The Azur Adder
F. S. Flint
“I”
“II Hallucination”
“III”
“IV”
“V The Swan”
Ford Maddux Hueffer
“In the Little Old Market-Place”
James Joyce
“I Hear an Army”
Alfred Kreymborg
“Erna Vitek”
Amy Lowell
“In a Garden”
Ezra Pound
“The Return, After Ch’u Yuan”
“Liu Ch’e”
“Fran-Piece for Her Imperial Lord”
“Ts’ai Chi’h”
Horace Traubel
“I’m So Glad I Was Born”
“Pankhurst”
“What Is the Color of Your Skin?”
Allen Upward
“Scented Leaves from a Chinese Jar”
Frank Wedekind
Erdgeist (Earth Spirit): A Tragedy in Four Acts
Pandora’s Box: A Tragedy in Three Acts
William Carlos Williams
“Postlude”
Adolph Wolff
“Songs, Sighs and Curses”
Allen, Charles. “Glebe and Others.” College English. 5.8 (1944): 418-423.
The Glebe. 1913 – 1914. New York: Kraus Reprints, 1967.
Hoffman, Frederick J., Charles Allen, and Carolyn F. Ulrich. The Little Magazine: A History and a Bibliography. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1947.
Image, cover Sept. 1913. Department of Special Collections, 990 Memorial Library, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Murphy, Russell Elliott. “Kreymborg, Alfred Francis.” American National Biography Online Feb. 2000. Davidson College Lib., Davidson, NC. 5 Dec. 2004.
“The Glebe” compiled by Sabrina Rissing (Class of ’06), David Tulis (Class of ’05) & Ruthie Hill (Class of ’07, Davidson College)