The Criterion

The Criterion ( engl. The scale ) was an English literary magazine, founded by TS Eliot and published from 1922 to 1939. During the whole period of time Eliot was editor and editorial director and kept alone the selection of the texts published before.

The magazine was published quarterly, in 1927 and 1928, temporarily, monthly, and provided a platform especially for literary criticism and poetics essays. Partial but also literary texts and political writings were published. Eliot initially funded from private donations, until it was (later Faber and Faber ) adopted in 1925 by the publisher Faber & Gwyer. Many well-known authors such as Virginia Woolf, Ezra Pound, William Butler Yeats and WH Auden wrote posts for The Criterion. In addition, each issue contained at least one text by Eliot himself in a comment he sat down each feuilletonistisch with current events apart. Also some literary texts by Eliot were first published in the magazine (some still in early versions, which differ from the published later ) about The Waste Land and The Hollow Men The Criterion was, so also the first magazine, the English translations of texts Marcel Proust and Paul Valéry's printed.

In January 1926, Eliot stated in an editorial in the sense of his own magazine; they should be literarily oriented primarily, but not thereby distinguished from the rest of the events of the day. A sharp boundary between literature and life could not be drawn in his opinion, without destroying the lives of the literature. For this reason, it seemed inevitable, even texts on politics and other current events to publish. Over time, The Criterion became increasingly political, and was blown up after Eliot's conception of the scope of a literary magazine - in the last edition in 1939, he admitted in a farewell text infolgefdessen his failure as an editor, but without the basic necessity of such a medium to the renewal the "European spirit" to move away.

Eliot himself published in The Criterion sometimes sharp and polemical reviews, which dealt among other things with Winston Churchill, Bertrand Russell, Sigmund Freud, and HG Wells. The selection of the published texts directed strongly according to his personal preferences and interests ( but left and counter voices to speak ). In particular, he sat frequently critical of the romantic and modern thinking. His work as editor of the magazine took Eliot very seriously and regarded them as part of an obligation, as a writer to reach a wide audience.

The Criterion is now considered one of the most important literary magazines of modernism. Individual editions appeared under the titles of The New Criterion, and The Monthly Criterion.

Documents

• Literary magazine ( UK )
• Literary criticism
• Literature ( English )
• Literature ( 20th century)
• Antiquarian Journal (United Kingdom)
• First publication in 1922
• Posted in 1939