Title:
The English Review
Date of Publication:
Nov. 1908 – Jul. 1937
Place(s) of Publication:
London, England
Frequency of Publication:
Monthly
Circulation:
A range of 1,000 – 18,000
Publisher:
Duckworth & Co., Chapman & Hall
Physical Description:
25 cm in length. A blue/grey cover and uniform, single column black type; approximately 175 pages; includes a range of works from poetry and short stories to political pieces.
Price:
2 shillings and sixpence
Editor(s):
Ford Madox Hueffer (1908 – 1909)
Austin Harrison (1909 – 1923)
Ernest Remnant (1923 – 1931)
Douglas Jerrold (1931 – 1935)
Wilfrid Hindle (1936)
Derek Walker-Smith (1936 – 1937)
Libraries with Original Issues:
US Library of Congress; University of California at Los Angelos; University of NC at Chapel Hill; Newberry Library Chicago
Reprint Editions:
London : Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1908 – 1937
The English Review sought to provide intelligent commentary on contemporary political events as well as social and cultural life. The English Review was started by Ford Madox Heuffer at the end of November, 1908 with the idea of promoting Impressionism and its literary equivalents. The English Review attracted well-read, culturally and politically informed citizens with questions about contemporary life. It includes a range of works from poetry, to short stories, to political pieces by a mix of Victorian and Edwardian authors like Thomas Hardy, H. G. Wells, Joseph Conrad, Ezra Pound, Wyndham Lewis, and D. H. Lawrence. In 1937 the magazine was absorbed by the National Review.
The English Review did not publish an official manifesto, but these quotations by it’s founder, Ford Madox Hueffer, demonstrate his dreams and intentions for the publication:
“The state of the present world of poetry is curious and worthy of attention [__] poets and publishers declare that there are no readers: poets and readers declare that there are no publishers: and publishers and readers declare that there are no poets.” “We wait, in fact, for the poet who, in limpid words, with clear enunciation and, without inverted phrases, shall give the mind of the time sincere frame and utterance.”
Ford Madox Hueffer (Dec. 17, 1873 – Jun. 26, 1939)
Editor: 1908 – 1909
Ford Hermann Hueffer was born in Wimbledon in 1873 to a German father and English mother. He would use the name Ford Madox Hueffer before changing it to Ford Madox Ford in 1919 (possibly because Hueffer sounded too Germanic after World War I). Hueffer began The English Review in December 1908 as a venue for some of the most well-known modernist writers of the day. As he was from an aristocratic family and had a wide range of literary, social and political contacts, Hueffer was in an ideal position to launch his own cultural journal. He was at the center of innovative 20th century writers and saw publishing their literature as the magazine’s primary goal. After just fifteen issues, Hueffer lost control of The English Review due to his lack of organization, tendency to quarrel with important contributors and supporters, and incompetence with finances.
Austin Frederic Harrison (1873 – 1928)
Editor: 1909 – 1923
Harrison was named editor of The English Review by Alfred Mond, who purchased the magazine in 1909. Harrison’s primary goal was to make a profit with the periodical. To do so, he increased advertising, lowered the cost of the magazine, and asked writers to shorten their work. He was able to increase circulation as well as publish works by authors as diverse as Katherine Mansfield, George Bernard Shaw, and William Butler Yeats.
MacShane, Frank. “The English Review”. South Atlantic Quarterly 60:3 (Summer 1961).
Saunders, Max. “Ford Madox Ford: Further Bibliographies”. English Literature in Transition, 1880-1920, Volume 43, Number 2, 2000.
Sullivan, Alvin, ed. “The English Review”. British Literary Magazines. vol.3.Westport, CT: Greenwood Press,1983.
Vogeler, Martha S. Austin Harrison and the English Review. Columbia : University of Missouri Press, 2008.
“The English Review” compiled by Susan Ramsay (Class of ‘11, Davidson College)