Coterie was founded by Chaman Lall, an Oxford University student who also served as editor from the magazine’s inception in 1919 until 1921 when co-founder Russell Green inherited the post. Having published only five issues over a two and a half year span, Coterie assumes a place amongst a plethora of other early modern magazines whose lifespan was as short as their impact was great. Notwithstanding, a most superficial view of Coterie will attest to a rather pronounced distinction between that magazine and its historical counterparts.
Published in its entirety in London by Hendersons, Coterie prided itself in being a magazine that existed with the sole intent of collecting and disseminating purely creative works. Unlike other little magazines of the period that sought to promulgate certain socio-political views, Coterie assumed an apolitical stance, asserting itself as an outlet for post-World War I and avant-garde poetry and art, especially the works of young, budding writers and artists. Proof of the magazine’s adherence to this policy lies in the absence of editorials (save in the very last issue) and the arrangement of poems not by like political assertions, but by author. The prominence of the poetry is highlighted in the stark presentation of a single artist's work on the page, void of any juxtaposition between other writings and artwork. In this way, the reader confronts each work as an individual entity rather than as a representation of a political or aesthetic ideal.
Indeed, Coterie represented no one school of thought, but opted to publish poetry and visual artistry that oftentimes were of opposing persuasions. Examples of this are the magazine’s publication of both abstract and representational art and the inclusion of novice, traditional, and avant-garde materials, sometimes even placed alongside each other. Additionally, in stark contrast to other turn-of-the-century periodicals that heavily relied on commercial advertisements for survival (a fact that might have determined to some extent who and what they published), Coterie included ads only from “The Bomb Shop,” the magazine’s primary distributor in London. Furthermore, such advertisements are minimal and are completely absent from the first two issues. As a result of this refusal to allow Coterie to become laden with commercialist motivations, contributors to the magazine often went unpaid. Apparently, having one’s work appear in the periodical sufficed as compensation.
Circulation was relatively small, peaking at 1000 for select issues. It is logical to say that the readership was elite (more so in selectivity than in intellectual acuity), a fact that fails to surprise when one considers the willingness of the magazine’s founder to accept the title, “Coterie,” at the time a term that had come to be associated with artistic snobbery. In spite of its moderate circulation in London, Coterie enjoyed transatlantic status, gaining both readership and an editorial staff in the United States by the publication of its third issue in December 1919. Reproduced copies of Coterie can be found in distinguished university libraries across the United States, including those of the University of Pennsylvania, Emory University, and Vanderbilt University. Ironically, none of the searches completed for this paper found copies (original or otherwise) in the United Kingdom.
Tanya Palmer
I noted in general that the magazine changes as the issues progress. The first two issues do not contain any mention of the general editors or editorial staff. However, by the third issue there is mention of the staff, and of a general board of editors. In the first two issues, this seemed to highlight the fact that this was a magazine primairly about the work itself--it is the actual art and content that matters the most. The prominence of the poems themselves are also highlighted in the stark presentation of a single artist's work centered on the page, without any overlapping between different writers and artwork, so the reader confronts each work separately. In the first two issues, there are a few spare pen and ink drawings, but there doesn’t seems to be much of a collaboration between the artwork and poetry, or if there is one, it is confusing. For example, in the 2nd issue, right before the poem “Leda,” by Aldous Huxely, there is a pen and ink drawing of a nude woman by Nina Hamnett who seems to have extremely masculine legs and back, not a young beautiful girl and swan.
Although the magazine's cover changes as the issues progress, and by the second issue there is spare artwork included., The magazine doesn't contain any distracting commercial advertisements, although at the end of the second issue there is a feature for the publisher of the magazine, and bookseller, “The Bomb Shop.”
However, by the third issue, the magazine has already changed its title from being merely a poetry magazine, from being “art, prose and poetry.” Huxley seems to have been a regular contributor, but his prose pieces, such as in the fourth issue seem extremely trashy. His romance piece opens with a reference to his poem Leda from the last issue, but is on nowhere near the level of the poetry. However, it seems that in this magazine, there is a growing emphasis placed on giving the readership the choices to decide on what is fine or not. Perhaps this is why the magazine opened and features a largely absent editorial staff, to place more emphasis on the readers, to allow them into the “Coterie” of deciding what is good taste and what isn’t. The readership was actually quite high for this type of magazine, and averaging about a 1,000 per issue, considering how expensive this journal was to produce and considering that it didn’t include any everyday commercial advertising interspersed between the issues, just literary advertisements and booksellers.
The art included as well in the fourth and fifth issues are more of their own pieces, less of illustrations and more of their own work, as the new title implies.
Rachel Borg
