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THE DIAL. VOLUME LXXIII, NUMBER 1.
(Greenwich, Connecticut: The Dial Publishing Company, July 1922). 250 x 165 mm. (9 7/8 x 6 1/2"). viii, 120, ix-xvi pp.
Original rose-colored printed paper wrappers. Housed in a custom russet linen chemise and matching slipcase with black morocco label on the spine. With eight black & white plates reproducing artworks by Henri Matisse, Marc Chagall, Boardman Robinson, Preston Dickinson, and August Gaul. (Inexpensive) paper slightly yellowed (as no doubt in all copies), wrapper fore edge a little worn, but these imperfections very minor, and overall a fine copy of a fragile item.
Issued in the Modernist heyday of the magazine, this is a very appealing copy of "The Dial," containing the first appearance of "The Fox" by D. H. Lawrence, poems by Wallace Stevens and William Butler Yeats, an essay by George Santayana, book reviews by John Dos Passos and Malcolm Cowley, T. S. Eliot's column "Letter from London," and artwork by Matisse and Chagall, among others. Originally established in the 1840s as a Transcendentalist journal and revived in 1880s Chicago as a political magazine, "The Dial" entered its third incarnation in 1920, when it was taken over by editor Scofield Thayer (1889-1982), with backing from Wells Fargo heir James Sibley Watson Jr. (1894-1982). The two young men, both fans of the Modernist movement, turned the modestly successful periodical into an influential avant-garde literary journal, publishing the first U.S. appearance of Yeats' "Second Coming" and Eliot's "The Waste Land," and bringing a host of new voices--Djuna Barnes, Mina Loy, James Joyce, Marcel Proust, and William Carlos Williams among them--to American audiences. The magazine's run as a major Modernist journal continued for just 10 years, with poet Marianne Moore taking over as editor in 1925, but its impact on American letters was long lasting. Authors whose early careers were promoted by "The Dial" became lions of 20th century literature, familiar to every schoolchild in the U.S. Our very well-preserved issue comes from the collection of Laure-Anne Bosselaar (b. 1943) and her husband Kurt Brown (1944-2013). Bosselaar is a Belgian-American poet, translator, and editor who has published numerous works of poetry in multiple languages, including five collections of her own works. She has received various prizes and recognitions (Pushcart, Isabella Gardner, Breadloaf) and was named Poet Laureate of Santa Barbara in 2019. Sometimes publishing jointly with Bosselaar, Brown was also a prolific poet and editor of anthologies, as well as the founder and first director of the Aspen Writer's Conference, playing a pivotal role in shaping its early vision and establishing Aspen as a literary center. (ST20338-117)
Price: $250.00