Modernism in the Magazines: An Introduction (review)

It is impossible not to admire this book, or to find fault with the way in which it carries out the aims that its authors state so clearly in their preface. It is, explicitly and self-consciously, an introduction to the way in which modernism impacted upon, and was shaped by, periodical culture. Its target audience is made up of those who are in some way new to the material, whether students or scholars. The book is closely associated with the Modernist Journals Project, a fact spelled out to the uninitiated relatively early (3) but signalled to the more seasoned reader immediately by way of the Gaudier-Brzeska image on its cover, familiar from the earliest days of the MJP. For this reason, it is important to note that the title of the book avoids the obvious echo, steering clear of the designation “modernist magazines” and inviting the reader to consider a more expansive interaction with a wider field.

The book has another important agenda, albeit one less apparent from the title. It sets out to emphasize and to explore Ezra Pound’s role as producer, mediator, and critic of modernist periodicals, as a “pioneer in this field” (vii). Scholes and Wulfman place this ambition at the top of their list of aims, asserting that “quite simply, he had more to do with our present understanding of modernism than any other individual”, and, as such, he will be “a thread that runs through” their various considerations (viii). However, when faced with the unenviable if oddly inevitable task of having to define what they mean by “modernism,” the authors are careful not to quote Pound. Instead, they opt for modernism as “a response to the social and cultural conditions of modernity and to previous modes of art and literature” (vii). The book is finely balanced in many ways, but one of its most delicately managed maneuvers is this use of Pound, who operates as a focal point for Scholes and Wulfman’s study but is never allowed to limit its scope. For instance, the book opens with a chapter devoted to Pound, the title of which proclaims him to be the “Founder of Modern Periodical Studies.” But it is hard not to hear an echo of the tone Pound himself deploys in his invocation of “Papa Flaubert” (1) on the same page—not quite questioning the assertion, but ensuring some reflection in its note of provocative assent. In chapter two, “Modernity and the Rise of Modernism: A Review,” Scholes and Wulfman are more explicit. Here, Pound is invoked to support the necessity of examining a “full range” of responses to modernity, “including those not thought to be quintessentially ‘modernist’” (26).

A similarly delicate balance governs the tone of Modernism in the Magazines as a whole. There is no doubt that the book is the product of exactly the extended, scholarly investigation it is designed to encourage in its readers. It includes detailed readings but also generous quantities of information. That first chapter includes tables enumerating Pound’s activities as a contributor to, and an editor of, magazines over a twenty year period. But, for all the scholarliness, the critical address remains unwaveringly accessible, even informal. In some studies this might seem strategic—the favorite professor, with the easy intellectual authority, can be particularly persuasive and difficult to contradict. But Scholes and Wulfman counteract this impression with an insistence that readers should be curious, adventurous, and independent in their research. As the preface states: “[w]e are trying to open the way for others, rather than to close it down” (ix). This opening up is as apparent in the structure of the book as it is in the content. Before presenting those tables of information, attention is drawn to biographical, bibliographical, and digital resources in which readers can look things up for themselves. Scholes and Wulfman include a chapter titled “How To Study a Modern Magazine,” which presents an eight-point list of key elements as...