Little review (Chicago, Ill.). Records, 1914-1964. UWM Manuscript Collection 1 4.4 cubic ft. (12 boxes and 1 oversize folder)

ABSTRACT: Collection contains the editorial files of the Little Review, an international magazine of the arts. Almost all of the records date from 1914-1929. The bulk of the collection consists of corrected and uncorrected galleys of works, correspondence, holograph manuscripts, and typescripts. Also contains the administrative files of editors Margaret Anderson and Jane Heap, which include correspondence concerning subscriptions and advertising; letters from Ezra Pound; and letters from John Quinn, a financial backer of the magazine and the publication's lawyer in the case concerning the government's seizure of the issue containing James Joyce's Ulysses. The collection contains a small amount of layout materials for various issues; photographs and reproductions, usually published in the magazine; and newsclippings (1920-1964) about Anderson, Heap, and the Little Review. Some materials are in French or German.

ACCESS RESTRICTIONS: There are no access restrictions on the materials, and the collection is open to all members of the public in accordance with state law. However, the researcher assumes full responsibility for conforming with the laws of libel, privacy, and copyright which may be involved in the use of this collection (Wisconsin Statutes 19.21-19.39).

The Archives owns but does not hold the copyright to any of the materials in the Little Review magazine or the Little review records. The Archives does not have specific information on who holds the copyright to any of the materials. The Archives will provide researchers with fair-use copies of materials from the collection, but it cannot and will not authorize, license, or control any specific uses of the materials. Copyright information may be available from:

Copyright Office

Room LM401

James Madison Memorial Building

101 Independence Ave., S.E.

Washington, DC 20540

SCOPE AND CONTENT: Collection contains the editorial files of the Little Review, an international magazine of the arts. Almost all of the records date from 1914-1929. The collection is organized into three series:

Series 1. Administrative Files
Series 2. General Files
Series 3. Photographs and Reproductions

Series 1: Administrative Files: The Administrative Files are the records of editors Margaret Anderson and Jane Heap. The files include correspondence concerning subscriptions and advertising; letters from Ezra Pound to Anderson and Heap during his tenure as the magazine's foreign editor; and letters from John Quinn, a financial backer of the magazine and the publication's lawyer in the case concerning the government's seizure of the issue containing James Joyce's Ulysses. The files also contain a small amount of layout materials, especially for the final 1929 issue; correspondence about the final issue; letters to the editor; items related to the International Exposition New Systems of Architecture (1927); International Theatre Exposition (1926-1928); and Machine Age Expositions (1927); publicity materials; and unidentified letters and typescripts.

Series 2. General Files: The General Files constitute the majority of the collection. They almost entirely consist of corrected and uncorrected galleys of works; correspondence with contributors; graphic materials (photographs and reproductions) usually published in the magazine; holograph manuscripts; newsclippings (1920-1964) about Anderson, Heap, and the Little Review; and typescripts.

The collection includes letters, poetry, and prose by artists and writers such as Louis Aragon, Andre Breton, Jean Cocteau, Hart Crane, Theo van Doesburg, Marcel Duchamp, Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, Vachel Lindsay, Amy Lowell, Francis Picabia, and William Carlos Williams.

Series 3. Photographs and Reproductions: The magazine published most of the images, which show architecture, paintings, sculpture, and theater set designs. All contributors are listed in series 1 and 2, and a SEE ALSO cross-reference states if any graphic materials exist in addition to the textual materials. A SEE cross-reference is given if the file contains only photographs or reproductions. 

The finding aid includes an index to the contents of folders in the Little review records. The index is derived from a handwritten list created in 1989, and the abbreviations follow the pattern found in Edmund Berkeley's Autographs and Manuscripts: A Collector's Manual. In addition, the index provides a listing of photographs, reproductions, and other special information.

Some materials are in French or German.

SEPARATION NOTE: A rayograph, undated, was separated from the collection ("Ray, Man" in Series 3, Box 11, folder 1) in 1995. Contact Archives staff for more information.

ADMINISTRATIVE HISTORY: The Little Review was launched in Chicago in March 1914 as a monthly literary magazine. Founded by Margaret Carolyn Anderson, it was intended to be "an organ of two interests, art and good talk about art." In the first issue, alongside new works by the Chicago poets Arthur Davidson Ficke and Eunice Tietjens, Anderson published celebrations of feminism, psychoanalysis, and Nietzsche. For the next two years the Little Review featured works by Imagist poets and political writings by anarchists such as Emma Goldman.

When Jane Heap, fresh from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, joined the staff, the magazine became more interested in the plastic arts and began using modernistic typography and publishing photographic illustrations of works by contemporary painters, sculptors, and photographers. Literature remained as the magazine's principal interest.

In 1917, the Little Review moved to New York. During the next few years the editors accelerated the magazine's commitment to radical literary experimentation, publishing some of the cornerstones of the modern movement in literature, including works by Louis Aragon, T. S. Eliot, James Joyce, Wyndham Lewis, Ezra Pound, and William Butler Yeats. Many of these writings were solicited by Pound, who served as the magazine's foreign editor from 1917 to 1919. Among his major achievements was his arranging for the serialization of Joyce's Ulysses in the Little Review.

In 1921, as funds grew increasingly scarce, the magazine began to appear quarterly. In 1922, the Little Review moved once again, this time to Paris. Issues appeared sporadically until 1926, when publication was suspended. One final issue of the Little Review appeared in 1929.

COLLECTION CITATION: This collection should be cited as:

Little review (Chicago, Ill.). Records, 1914-1964. UWM Manuscript Collection 1. University Manuscripts Collection. Golda Meir Library. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

RELATED COLLECTION:

Anderson, Margaret C. Papers. (UWM Manuscript Collection 12)

Frederick, Hoffman John. Papers (UWM Manuscript Collection 141)

RELATED RESOURCE: Ezra Pound correspondence, dated 1916-1923 and 1936 and now processed as part of Series 1: Administrative Files, was microfilmed in July 1980 by the Golda Meir Library, UW-Milwaukee, and is cataloged separately from this manuscript collection.

ACQUISITION: The University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee Library purchased the Little review records in 1966 from Michael Currer-Briggs, a British manuscripts dealer. Currer-Briggs was acting for the estate of Jane Heap, who controlled the Little Review magazine at its demise in 1929, and kept the office files until her death in 1964.

PROCESSING: Mark A. Vargas reprocessed the collection in March 1992 at the Archives.

MARC RECORD SEARCH TERMS: The following terms were used in the online bibliographic MARC record to this collection:

• Anderson, Margaret C.
• Aragon, 1897- .
• Arts--United States--Periodicals.
• Breton, Andre, 1896-1966.
• Cocteau, Jean, 1889-1963.
• Crane, Hart, 1899-1932.
• Doesburg, Theo van, 1883-1931.
• Duchamp, Marcel, 1887-1968.
• Editors--United States.
• Heap, Jane.
• Hemingway, Ernest, 1899-1961.
• Joyce, James, 1882-1941.
• Lindsay, Vachel, 1879-1931.
• Lowell, Amy, 1874-1925.
• Picabia, Francis, 1879-1953.
• Pound, Ezra, 1885-1972.
• Williams, William Carlos, 1883-1963.