Transatlantic Review

"Transatlantic Review", founded and edited by Joseph F. McCrindle, was published in London and New York, although the first two issues were produced in Rome. McCrindle revived the title of "the transatlantic review" originally used by Ford Maddox Ford for a magazine founded in Paris in 1924.

McCrindle's first intention was to publish short stories and poetry that he had not been able to place as a literary agent. He was inspired in part by the periodical "Botteghe Oscure", which was based in Rome and published by Marguerite Caetani. Eugene Walter provided a connection between the two; after helping launch "The Paris Review", he edited Caetani's magazine for a while and was a contributing editor to "Transatlantic Review" from the third issue until the last.

George Garrett was one of a group of initially credited editors, including William Goldman, and by issue 3 became the poetry editor, continuing alongside B. S. Johnson up until issue 39. Another significant contributing editor was the playwright, poet and actor Heathcote Williams.

In the long run, "TR", as it was often called, brought together a mixture of essays, interviews, short stories and poetry in a publication that ran for 60 issues between 1959 and 1977. Seven O. Henry Award-winning stories came from its pages. McCrindle's goal was to strike a balance between leading writers and new, sometimes unpublished, ones, and, as the title implies, between American and British writers.

B.S. Johnson was eventually the sole poetry editor and assembled the feature, "New Transatlantic Poetry". He also introduced the idea of an occasional "erotica" competition in the interest of stimulating circulation. Prize-winners included Paul Ableman, Diana Athill, Gavin Ewart, Giles Gordon, D. M. Thomas, Jerry Stahl, Jay Jeff Jones and Trevor Hoyle.

After a decade, McCrindle selected the magazine's best for his "Stories from the Transatlantic Review" (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1970; Penguin, 1974), an anthology that included Paul Bowles, Jerome Charyn, Bruce Jay Friedman, Penelope Gilliatt, William Goldman and Joyce Carol Oates. McCrindle collected the interviews in "Behind the Scenes: Theater and Film Interviews from the Transatlantic Review" (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1971).

The final issue was published June 1977. A complete set of "Transatlantic Review" is valued at $600. An announcement appeared in the penultimate issue of the magazine saying that the title would continue as an annual review but this idea was not pursued. After he folded the magazine, McCrindle established the Henfield Foundation (later called the Joseph F. McCrindle Foundation) and continued to support new writing talent with awards and grants. He died July 11, 2008 at his home in New York City.

Writers

J.G. Ballard, Samuel Beckett, Anthony Burgess, William Burroughs, Jean Cocteau, William Faulkner, Iris Murdoch, Alan Sillitoe, John Updike, Richard Yates, Harold Pinter, William Trevor, John Banville and other well-known authors appeared in the publication. Many issues featured interviews with theater and film directors, authors and playwrights, such as Eugene Walter's 1960 interview with Gore Vidal and Giles Gordon's 1964 interview with Joe Orton, which appeared shortly before Orton was murdered.Other interviewees included Edward Albee, Peter Yates, Harold Pinter, Anthony Burgess (twice), Federico Fellini, William Gaskill, William Inge and Christopher Isherwood.

Illustrators

The only issue of "Transatlantic Review" that did not contain an illustration was issue 1. Issue 2 had only one, by Jean Cocteau but illustration soon became a staple item, usually unrelated to the text but in some cases complementing short stories or articles. Contributors of illustration included Dylan Thomas, Peter Farmer, Elaine De Kooning, Daniel Mroz, Mervyn Peake, Patrick Proctor, Kaffe Fasset, Mike McGear, Heathcote Williams, Larry Rivers and Colin Spencer.

Contents of "Stories from the Transatlantic Review"

*"Introduction" • Joseph F. McCrindle
*"Music to Lay Eggs By" • Thomas Bridges • 1968
*"Home Is" • Morris Lurie • 1968
*"The Road" • Alan Sillitoe • 1968
*"Summer Voices" • John Banville • 1968
*"Making Changes" • Leonard Michaels • 1969
*"My Sister and Me" • Asa Baber, Jr. • 1967
*"Before the Operation" • Paul Breslow • 1967
*"The Collector" • Austin C. Clarke • 1967
*"Sing, Shaindele, Sing" • Jerome Charyn • 1966
*"Black Barbecue" • Daniel Spicehandler • 1966
*"The Adult Education Class" [from "Eating People Is Wrong"] • Malcolm Bradbury • 1959
*"During the Jurassic" • John Updike • 1966
*"Acme Rooms and Sweet Marjorie Russell" • Hugh Allyn Hunt • 1966
*"The Zodiacs" • Jay Neugeboren • 1969
*"Dying" • Joyce Carol Oates • 1966
*"The Redhead" • Penelope Gilliatt • 1965
*"Girl in a White Dress" • Edward Franklin • 1964
*"Changed" • Norma Meacock • 1964
*"A Meeting in Middle Age" • William Trevor • 1964
*"The World’s Fastest Human" • Irvin Faust • 1964
*"The Siege" • Sol Yurick • 1963
*"The Enemy" • Bruce Jay Friedman • 1963
*"Simple Arithmetic" • Virginia Moriconi • 1963
*"The Hyena" • Paul Bowles • 1962
*"The Fair of San Gennaro" • John McPhee • 1961
*"Ismael" • Alfred Chester • 1961
*"Francois Yattend" • Jean-Claude Van Itallie • 1961
*"The Star Blanket" • Shirley Schoonover • 1961
*"A Game of Catch" • George Garrett • 1960
*"The Educated Girl" • V. S. Pritchett • 1960
*"Johnny Dio and the Sugar Plum Burglars" • Harry D. Miller • 1960
*"At Home with the Colonel" • Frank Tuohy • 1962
*"A Different Thing" • Walter Clemons • 1959
*"The Ice Cream Eat" • William Goldman • 1959
*"Biographical Notes"

External links

* [http://www.necoffee.com/escene/escene1996/espresso/e_whypub.html Robert Sward]
* [http://www.bsjohnson.info/ B.S. Johnson (1933-1973)]