Undiscovered Constellations: SAH’s Eric Bulson on ‘Little Magazines’

Long before the internet and the lit-blog, writers had the “little magazines” to showcase their works in progress and reach audiences—not to mention patrons, too. Thank goodness they did. “No little magazines, no modernism,” writes Claremont Graduate University’s Eric Bulson in his new book, Little Magazine, World Form (Columbia University Press). “It’s as simple as that.”

Without these little magazines—Poetry, Egoist, Little Review, Dial, and many others—there would have been no chance to catch early glimpses of the great works of the 20th century or to understand them in the context of literary modernism, Bulson says. This includes works by James Joyce, T.S. Eliot, Gertrude Stein, and Ernest Hemingway.

Bulson, a professor of English in the School of Arts & Humanities whose other works include Novels, Maps, Modernity and The Cambridge Introduction to James Joyce, explores the vital role of these magazine and the discoveries he made once he widened his research beyond the familiar circle of Paris, New York, and London.

“The more I looked for examples from outside” those three cities, he explains to Donal Harris in an interview on Columbia University Press’ blog, “the more I began to uncover constellations that I never knew existed.”

To promote this close study of a vital aspect of literary modernism, Columbia University Press is offering a special discount at their site. Readers using the code “CUP30” when ordering the book there will receive a 30-percent discount.