Antioch Review Celebrates 75 Years Part I

The Antioch Review, “one of the oldest, continuously publishing literary magazines in America,” celebrates 75 year of publishing fiction, essays, and poetry from both emerging as well as established authors. The celebration begins with the Summer 2016 issue, Part I, with a selection of “firsts” and a few “favorites” from the 40s – 60s. Editor Robert S. Fogarty includes the first poem and first story published in the journal, as well as the “most downloaded” essay which was first published in 1943.

Also shared within this historical collection is the “Preamble and Statement of Principles” collectively written by The Association of Literary Magazines of America when those 19 magazine organizers first met in 1961. It begins: “Resolved, that we form an association, the purpose of which is to increase the usefulness and the prestige of the literary magazines in the United States and Canada,” and later makes the following statement that still rings true today: “A nation’s body of literature does not depend wholly on a the great, and since the magazines have served as a seedbed for each generation of creative writers they have also helped to preserve the very impulse to literary creation. The literary magazines of the present generation are continuing this indispensable tradition.”