Modernist Magazines and Digital Humanities

The editor of The English Review, Ford Maddox Ford, seemed to always have an agenda on his mind when he published a magazine. For instance, if one would read the titles of the literary works and editorials on the index pages, one would get a sense of what the editor wanted to relate to the general audience. One example is the October issue of 1909 in which Ford tried to emphasize the negativity that was going on in the world around him by publishing works such as “Foreign Affairs,” "The Economic Aspects of Poor Law Reform," "The Policy of the Government,” “The Present Moment in Spain,” and a poem called “Town and Country.” After reading the different works in the magazine one can see how the editor felt about the world during that time period.

Beginning with the editorial portion of the magazine, the following articles discuss the social and/or political state of the world: “Foreign Affairs” by Sir Charles W. Dilke; “The Policy of Government” by M.P.; and “The Present State of Spain” by William T. Goode. The first article discusses the alliances that were made between the different countries before World War I. “It is difficult to defend our expressing for a cynical Europe official horror at the conduct of the Servians in the murder of their king and queen, and equally difficult to justify our joining Russia in a support of Servia, against Austria, too absolute for French concurrence.” (pg 497) The words “Triple Entente” appear in the article as well, signaling to a reader many years later that The Great War was looming. (pg 499) 

The next article speaks about all of the changes that the government is making in order to improve the social well being of the country. "There has been passed this summer, for example, a Bill for the regulation of the wages of labor by the State in certain trades." (pg 517) This article continues to speak about the changes and also possess some questions, "Can the State obtain that severe and arduous service which alone can render possible the continuance of the industrial supremacy of this country? And will it be able to attract, by what recompense it can offer, just those ambitious and alert men without whose guiding and driving force no particular industry can long survive?" (pg 523)

The last article by William T. Goode discusses exactly what the title suggests – the present moment in Spain. Goode traveled to throughout Spain to write this piece and he gives a great description of the physical state of Spain, “Barcelona may be tranquil, but it is the tranquility of a storm just passed, of which one does not feel sure that it will not break out again... Now, the ordinary business life of a great city mingles with the evidences of a desperate struggle, so fresh it might have been yesterday.” (pg 526) He speaks about how the churches were being burned and how nobody was doing anything to stop this:

Again and again I have been told that the destruction of church or convent was brought about by a mere handful of men or youths, and the question strange unbidden: “Why did not the inhabitants living near do something to put a stop to it?” For though fire threatened their own dwellings, nothing was done. The reply was characteristic. “If you lived here you would soon learn to avoid anything which would bring you into conflict with the authorities.” Mark that! It was not fear of the rioters, so mush as fear of being mixed up with the authorities that caused people to remain quite while a building was burning next door to them. (pg 534)

Goode continues on and on about how people were left for dead in the streets because they did not want to be held accountable for the deaths of others. Goode later mentions that schools were being closed down left and right throughout the country.

Looking through the rest of the magazine one can see the same negativity and gloom that is ever-present throughout the editorial pages. For instance, there are four drawings titled “Four Studies” by Max Beerbohm. All four have a similar common theme throughout them – the subject, a person, is looking down onto someone or something. The first picture is of a woman with her hand on her hips looking down at something towards her left. It seems as though she is telling the reader that he should not even bother her with his nonsense and just move onto the next page. The next picture is the profile of a fairly big man who looks very stern. His face is all crunched up and his eyes are closed, as if he is mad. The third picture is of a smaller looking man dressed in a tuxedo with a top hat in his hand. The mans face is difficult to read, however it seems that he is looking down onto something to the viewers left based on the way that his head is positioned. The last picture is of another man who looks somewhat disheveled in comparison to the other people in the previous pictures. His facial expression looks as though he is annoyed, mad, or incredibly upset. It seems as though Ford told Beerbohm to draw some pictures that portrayed those types of moods and feelings that were in line with the rest of the magazine of with the rest of the world.

There is a short essay that is towards the beginning of the magazine that speaks mainly about funerals and the evolution of the burial process. In “The Church in Lucina’s House,” by Edward Hutton, the word “Death” is mentioned four times in the first paragraph, giving it a very gloomy start. It is interesting to note that this particular piece is written right after the poetry section, since a decent chunk of the poems before this piece talk about god. It is possible that Ford wanted to speak about god first and then talk about the gloom that was going on in the world. It is also possible that Ford wanted to show that god had left the world, which is something that I’m sure a lot of people felt back in 1909.

In closing, throughout the entire magazine one can see evidence of the gloom and sadness that was going on throughout Europe in 1909. Ford achieved his message of gloom, by only publishing works that he felt were relevant. I feel that it is  fairly interesting to learn of the way that people were feeling before The Great War broke out, not only by reading it in a text book or listening to a history teacher speak about it, but also by reading the magazines published during the time. 

The English Review in its January 1910 publication demonstrates stylistic choices that have become the literary norm in the 21st century.  The advertising is intentional and specifically geared for the literary crowd.  The prime retail space directly behind the front cover is reserved for paying advertisers of new books, pens, publishers, and novelties.  This section of the Review is numbered with Roman numerals like the introduction of a book, and the header identifies it as "The English Review Advertiser."  The English Review officially begins with its title on page 185, presumably because the previous issue ended on page 184.  So, the many issues of this publication can be torn away from the ads and bound together into a unified volume of literature without advertising or other interruption. 

After reading several blogs from my fellow peers and skimming through all of The English Review magazines, I felt as though there wasn't any real reason why certain poems and/or short stories were placed together or right after one another. I noticed that every issue - there are 15 issues with a special supplement - beings with a title page that is blue and has either all or most of the contributing authors on it. There is nothing special about the title page, everything is generally written in uppercase letters and in the same "Plain Jane" typeface. Then the magazine starts off with advertisements that generally speak about new books that are coming out or have just been released. There are other advertisements that are trying to sell pens, ink, desks, or other writers materials. Generally speaking the advertisements are directed to those who enjoy reading or writing or maybe even the serious literary critic. I also noticed that a great deal of the work in the magazines are short stories or essays. I noticed that there were no pictures, except for the advertisements that had maybe a grand total of 20 pictures of the 15 issues. I began to feel that there was no bibliographic coding in this particular magazine. But then I remembered that the bibliographic coding is any and all context of the writings. So maybe the editor of this particular magazine were trying to reach a more literary audience as opposed to an audience that Blast, for example, was trying to reach with their bold typeface and drawings. Maybe this is why most of the contributing authors were already well established, for instance, Fyodor Dostoevsky, H. G. Wells, and Ezra Pound.

I think that if the works in The English Review were taken out and put into an anthology I would not read the works differently, since the magazine already feels like an anthology with some advertisements thrown in for flavoring.