The Dial

"The Dial" was an American magazine published intermittently from 1840 to 1929. In its first form, from 1840 to 1844, it served as the chief publication of the Transcendentalists. In the 1880s it was revived as a political magazine. From 1920 to 1929 it was an influential outlet for Modernist literature in English.

Transcendentalist journal

Members of the Transcendental Club began talks for creating a vehicle for their essays and reviews in philosophy and religion in October 1839.Gura, Philip F. "American Transcendentalism: A History". New York: Hill and Wang, 2007: 128. ISBN 978-0-8090-3477-2] Other influential journals, including the "North American Review" and the "Christian Examiner" refused to accept their work for publication. [Slater, Abby. "In Search of Margaret Fuller". New York: Delacorte Press, 1978: 51. ISBN 0-440-03944-4] Orestes Brownson proposed utilizing his recently-established periodical "Boston Quarterly Review" but members of the club decided a new publication was a better solution.Von Mehren, Joan. "Minerva and the Muse: A Life of Margaret Fuller". Amherst, Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts Press, 1994: 120. ISBN 1-55849-015-9] Frederick Henry Hedge, Theodore Parker, and Ralph Waldo Emerson were originally considered for the editor role. On October 20, 1839, Margaret Fuller officially accepted the role, though she was unable to begin work on the publication until the first week of 1840. George Ripley served as the managing editor. [Slater, Abby. "In Search of Margaret Fuller". New York: Delacorte Press, 1978: 61–62. ISBN 0-440-03944-4] Its first issue was published in July 1840 with an introduction by Emerson calling it a "Journal in a new spirit". [Gura, Philip F. "American Transcendentalism: A History". New York: Hill and Wang, 2007: 129. ISBN 978-0-8090-3477-2] In this first form, the magazine remained in publication until 1844. Emerson wrote to Fuller on August 4, 1840, of his ambitions for the magazine:

:I begin to wish to see a different "Dial" from that which I first imagined. I would not have it too purely literary. I wish we might make a Journal so broad & great in its survey that it should lead the opinion of this generation on every great interest & read the law on property, government, education, as well as on art, letters, & religion. A great Journal people must read. And it does not seem worth our while to work with any other than sovereign aims. So I wish we might court some of the good fanatics and publish chapters on every head in the whole Art of Living....I know the danger of such latitude of plan in any but the best conducted Journal. It becomes friendly to special modes of reform, partisan, bigoted, perhaps whimsical; not universal & poetic. But our round table is not, I fancy, in imminent peril of party & bigotry, & we shall bruise each the other's whims by the collision. [Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Emerson's Prose and Poetry", ed. Porte and Morris. p. 549]

The title of the journal, which was suggested by Bronson Alcott, intended to evoke a sundial. The connotations of the image were expanded upon by Emerson in concluding his editorial introduction to the journal's first issue:

:And so with diligent hands and good intent we set down our "Dial" on the earth. We wish it may resemble that instrument in its celebrated happiness, that of measuring no hours but those of sunshine. Let it be one cheerful rational voice amidst the din of mourners and polemics. Or to abide by our chosen image, let it be such a Dial, not as the dead face of a clock, hardly even such as the Gnomon in a garden, but rather such a Dial as is the Garden itself, in whose leaves and flowers the suddenly awakened sleeper is instantly apprised not what part of dead time, but what state of life and growth is now arrived and arriving. ["The Transcendentalists", ed. Miller, p. 251]

The journal was never financially stable. In 1843, Elizabeth Peabody, acting as business manager, noted that the journal's income was not covering the cost of printing and that subscriptions totaled just over two hundred.Gura, Philip F. "American Transcendentalism: A History". New York: Hill and Wang, 2007: 130. ISBN 978-0-8090-3477-2] It ceased publication in April 1844. Horace Greeley, in the May 25 issue of the "New-York Weekly Tribune", reported it as an end to the "most original and thoughtful periodical ever published in this country".

Political magazine

After a one-year revival in 1860, the third incarnation of "The Dial", this time as a journal of both politics and literary criticism, began publication in 1880. This version of the magazine was founded by Francis Fisher Browne, who would serve as its editor for over three decades. He envisioned his new literary journal in the genteel tradition of its predecessor, containing book reviews, articles about current trends in the sciences and humanities, and politics, as well as long lists of current book titles. It was in this form that Margaret Anderson, soon to be founder of "The Little Review", worked for the magazine. Although published in a city reputedly indifferent to literary pursuits (Chicago), "The Dial" attained national prominence, absorbing the "Chap-Book" in 1898. Known for its unswerving standard in design and content, "The Dial" changed character after its sale by the Browne family in 1916 and subsequent removal to New York in 1918.

Modernist literary magazine

In 1920, Scofield Thayer and Dr. James Sibley Watson. Jr. re-established "The Dial" as a literary magazine, the form for which it is was most successful and best known. Under and Watson's and Thayer's sway "The Dial" published remarkably influential artwork, poetry and fiction, including William Butler Yeats' "The Second Coming" and the first U.S. publication of T. S. Eliot's "The Waste Land". The first year alone saw the appearance of Sherwood Anderson, Djuna Barnes, Kenneth Burke, William Carlos Williams, Hart Crane, E. E. Cummings, Charles Demuth, Kahlil Gibran, Gaston Lachaise, Amy Lowell, Marianne Moore, Ezra Pound, Odilon Redon, Bertrand Russell, Carl Sandburg, Van Wyck Brooks, and W. B. Yeats.

"The Dial" published art as well as poetry and essays, with artists ranging from Vincent van Gogh, Renoir, Henri Matisse, and Odilon Redon, through Oskar Kokoschka, Constantin Brancusi, and Edvard Munch, and Georgia O'Keeffe and Joseph Stella. The magazine also reported on the cultural life of European capitals, writers included T. S. Eliot from London, John Eglinton from Dublin, Ezra Pound from Paris, Thomas Mann from Germany, and Hugo von Hofmannsthal from Vienna.

Watson was the steadfast foundation for "The Dial" as the magazine proceeded through a series of editors: Thayer from 1920–26, Gilbert Seldes (1922–23), Kenneth Burke (1923), Alyse Gregory (1923–25), Marianne Moore (1925–29). Thayer fell ill in 1927. "The Dial" ceased publication in July 1929.

The Dial Award

In 1921, Thayer and Watson announced the creation of the Dial Award, $2000 to be presented to one of its contributors, acknowledging their "service to letters" in hopes of providing the artist with "leisure through which at least one artist may serve God (or go to the Devil) according to his own lights. Eight awards were granted.
*1921. Sherwood Anderson
*1922. T. S. Eliot
*1923. Van Wyck Brooks
*1924. Marianne Moore
*1925. E. E. Cummings
*1926. William Carlos Williams
*1927. Ezra Pound
*1928. Kenneth Burke

Notable contributors by volume

In its literary phase, "The Dial" was published monthly. Notable contributors for each of its volumes (six-month intervals) are summarized below.

* Vol. 68 (January–June 1920) Sherwood Anderson, Djuna Barnes, Randolph Bourne, Kenneth Burke, Hart Crane, e. e. cummings, Charles Demuth, Kahlil Gibran, Gaston Lachaise, Amy Lowell, Marianne Moore, Ezra Pound, Odilon Redon, Paul Rosenfeld, Bertrand Russell, Carl Sandburg, Gilbert Seldes, Sganarelle, Van Wyck Brooks, W. B. Yeats

* Vol. 69 (July–December 1920) Richard Aldington, Julien Benda, Kenneth Burke, Joseph Conrad, Stewart Davis, T. S. Eliot, Waldo Frank, Paul Gauguin, Remy de Gourmont, Ford Maddox Ford, Henry McBride, Ezra Pound, Marcel Proust, Arthur Rimbaud, Vincent Van Gogh, William Carlos Williams, William Butler Yeats

* Vol. 70 (January–June 1921) Richard Aldington, Sherwood Anderson, Johan Bojer, Jean Cocteau, e. e. cummings, John Dos Passos, T. S. Eliot, Kahlil Gibran, Remy de Gourmont, Ford Maddox Ford, Gaston Lachaise, D. H. Lawrence, Wyndham Lewis, Vachel Lindsay,Mina Loy, Thomas Mann, Henry McBride, George Moore, Marianne Moore, Edwin Arlington Robinson, Paul Rosenfeld, Gilbert Seldes

* Vol. 71 (July–December 1921) Sherwood Anderson, Padraic Colum, Arthur Dove, Anatole France, D. H. Lawrence, Wyndham Lewis, Amy Lowell, Marianne Moore, J. Middleton Murry, Pablo Picasso, Ezra Pound, Logan Pearsall Smith, Arthur Schnitzler, Max Weber, William Butler Yeats

* Vol. 72 (January–June 1922) Conrad Aiken, Sherwood Anderson, Louis Aragon, Alexander Archipenko, Maxwell Bodenheim, Ivan Bunin, Kenneth Burke, Ananda Coomaraswamy, Hart Crane, Thomas Jewel Craven, S. Foster Damon, e. e. cummings, Alfeo Faggi, Herman Hesse, A. L. Kroeber, D. H. Lawrence, Henri Matisse, Henry McBride, Raymond Mortimer, Paul Rosenfeld, Henri Rousseau, Bertrand Russell, Carl Sandburg, George Santayana, Gilbert Seldes, May Sinclair, Paul Valery

* Vol. 73 (July–December 1922) Sherwood Anderson, Constantin Brancusi, Marc Chagall, John Dos Passos, T. S. Eliot, Elie Faure, Duncan Grant, Herman Hesse, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, D. H. Lawrence, Mina Loy, Franz Marc, Henri Matisse, Thomas Mann, Raymond Mortimer, Paul Rosenfeld, Arthur Schnitzler, Wallace Stevens, Edmund Wilson, William Butler Yeats

* Vol. 74 (January–June 1923) Conrad Aiken, Sherwood Anderson, Malcolm Cowley, e. e. cummings, Stuart Davis, John Dewey, Gerhart Hauptmann, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Marie Laurencin, D. H. Lawrence, Thomas Mann, Katherine Mansfield, Frans Masereel, Henry McBride, George Moore, Marianne Moore, Raymond Mortimer, Pablo Picasso, Ezra Pound, Paul Rosenfeld, Henri Rousseau, Edmund Wilson, William Butler Yeats, Stefan Zweig

* Vol. 75 (July–December 1923) Djuna Barnes, Pierre Bonnard, Van Wyck Brooks, Karel Čapek, Adolphe Dehn, Andre Derain, Roger Fry, Alyse Gregory, Knut Hamsun, Manuel Komroff, Alfred Kreymborg, Julius Meier-Graefe, Marie Laurencin, George Moore, Paul Morand, Luigi Pirandello, Bertrand Russell, Edward Sapir, Georges Seurat, Jean Toomer, William Carlos Williams, Edmund Wilson, Virginia Woolf

* Vol. 76 (January–June 1924) Marc Chagall, Padric Colum, e. e. cummings, Jacob Epstein, Elie Faure, E. M. Forster, Maxim Gorky, Gaston Lachaise, Marie Laurencin, Aristide Maillol, Heinrich Mann, Thomas Mann, John Marin, H. L. Mencken, Edvard Munch, J. Middleton Murry, Pablo Picasso, Raffaello Piccolli, Herbert Read, Edwin Arlington Robinson, Herbert J. Seligmann, Miguel de Unamuno, Maurice de Vlaminick, Stefan Zweig

* Vol. 77 (July–December 1924) Ernst Barlach, Clive Bell, Marc Chagall, Thomas Craven, Adolphe Dehn, Andre Derain, Jose Ortega y Gasset, Maxim Gorky, Duncan Grant, Marianne Moore, Edwin Muir, Jules Romains, Bertrand Russell, Carl Sandburg, Herbert J. Seligmann, Georges Seurat, Logan Pearsall Smith, Oswald Spengler, Leo Stein, Wallace Stevens, Scofield Thayer, Edmund Wilson, Virginia Woolf

* Vol. 78 (January–June 1925) Sherwood Anderson, Clive Bell, T. S. Eliot, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Henri Matisse, Henry McBride, Marianne Moore, Paul Morand, Raymond Mortimer, Lewis Mumford, Edvard Munch, Georgia O'Keeffe, Auguste Rodin, Paul Rosenfeld, George Santayana, Oswald Spengler, William Carlos Williams, Virginia Woolf

* Vol. 79 (July–December 1925) Thomas Hart Benton, Pierre Bonnard, Kenneth Burke, Joseph Campbell, Thomas Craven, Malcolm Cowley, e. e. cummings, Charles Demuth, Dostoevsky, Arthur Dove, Elie Faure, Waldo Frank, Roger Fry, Eduard von Keyserling, Marie Laurencin, D. H. Lawrence, Mabel Dodge Luhan, Thomas Mann, Henry McBride, Marianne Moore, Georgia O'Keeffe, Logan Pearsall Smith, Arthur Schnitzler, Edouard Vuillard

* Vol. 80 (January–June 1926) Alexander Archipenko, Hart Crane, e. e. cummings, Adolf Dehn, Alfeo Faggi, Anatole France, Waldo Frank, Robert Hillyer, Augustus John, Nicolai Lyeskov, Aristide Maillol, Henry McBride, Pablo Picasso, Rainer Maria Rilke, Paul Rosenfeld, Henri Rousseau, George Saintsbury, Gilbert Seldes, Scofield Thayer, Paul Valery, Yvor Winters

* Vol. 81 (July–December 1926) Paul Cezanne, Hart Crane, Thomas Craven, John Eglinton, Roger Fry, Marie Laurencin, D. H. Lawrence, Thomas Mann, Henri Matisse, Paul Morand, Pablo Picasso, Raffaello Piccoli, Auguste Renoir, I. A. Richards, Bertrand Russell, George Saintsbury, Gilbert Seldes, Gertrude Stein, William Carlos Williams, William Butler Yeats

* Vol. 82 (January–June 1927) Conrad Aiken, Constantin Brancusi, Paul Cezanne, Hart Crane, Benedetto Croce, T. S. Eliot, Ramon Fernandez, Leon Srabian, Winslow Homer, Oskar Kokoschka, Thomas Mann, Henry McBride, Edvard Munch, Paul Rosenfeld, George Saintsbury, George Santayana, Meridel Le Sueur, Sacheverell Sitwell, Vincent Van Gogh, William Carlos Williams, Jack Yeats

* Vol. 83 (July–December 1927) Conrad Aiken, Paul Cezanne, Malcolm Cowley, Hart Crane, e. e. cummings, Andre Derain, Marie Laurencin, D. H. Lawrence, Raymond Mortimer, Pablo Picasso, Bertrand Russell, Leo Stein, Charles Trueblood, Paul Valery, Vincent Van Gogh, William Butler Yeats

* Vol. 84 (January–June 1928) Conrad Aiken, Kenneth Burke, Kwei Chen, Padraic Colum, T. S. Eliot, Robert Hillyer, Wyndham Lewis, Henry McBride, Pablo Picasso, Ezra Pound, Llewelyn Powys, Odilon Redon, William Carlos Williams, William Butler Yeats

* Vol. 85 (July–December 1928) Conrad Aiken, Kenneth Burke, Kwei Chen, Paul Claudel, Padraic Colum, T. S. Eliot, Waldo Frank, Maxim Gorki, Philip Littell, Aristide Maillol, Frans Masereel, Elie Nadelman, Pablo Picasso, Ezra Pound, Logan Pearsall Smith, Joseph Stella, Jean Toomer, Charles K. Trueblood, Max Weber, William Carlos Williams

* Vol. 86 (January–July 1929) Conrad Aiken, Kenneth Burke, Hart Crane, Padraic Colum, Maxim Gorki, Duncan Grant, Stanley Kunitz, D. H. Lawrence, Aristide Maillol, Pablo Picasso, Ezra Pound, John Cowper Powys, Llewelyn Powys, Bertrand Russell, William Carlos Williams, Paul Valery

References

External links

* [http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/ideas/dialhistory.html History of "The Dial"] at American Transcendentalism Web, Virginia Commonwealth University
* [http://www.walden.org/institute/thoreau/about2/D/Dial/Dial.htm The Dial (Thoreau's Life & Writings at the Thoreau Institute at Walden Woods)]