''Audience: A Quarterly Review of Literature and the Arts'', also sometimes known as ''Audience'', was founded in Cambridge, MA in 1955. In its early incarnation, the magazine cultivated, disseminated and built a lasting historical record of early mid-century work from notable figures in arts and letters, many of whom would go on to acclaim, including poets Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, George Starbuck and

Piero Heliczer Piero Heliczer (June 20, 1937 – July 22, 1993) was an Italian-American poet, publisher, actor and filmmaker associated with the New American Cinema. Life and career Heliczer was born in Rome to a German mother and a Polish father. His film car ...

; artists

Joyce Reopel Joyce Reopel (1933–2019) was an American painter, draughtswoman and sculptor who worked in pencil, aquatint, silver- and goldpoint, and an array of old master media. A Boris Mirski Gallery veteran, from 1959–1966, she was known for her refin ...

and

Arthur Polonsky Arthur Polonsky (June 6, 1925 – April 4, 2019) was a figurative painter, draughtsman and educator, known for his explorations of light, water, flight and similarly lyrical motifs that, in esoteric and unsettling ways, alluded to myth, fantasy, m ...

; writer Roger Shattuck and writer-comedian

Zero Mostel Samuel Joel "Zero" Mostel (February 28, 1915 – September 8, 1977) was an American actor, comedian, and singer. He is best known for his portrayal of comic characters such as Tevye on stage in ''Fiddler on the Roof'', Pseudolus on stage and on ...

. From 1971 to 1973, the magazine was published solely as ''Audience'', and although it was clearly targeted to hip intellectuals and literary arts aficionados serious about their culture, the emphasis on best-in-class continued. Influential graphic designers Milton Glazer and Seymour Chwait were hired to direct art that spanned illustration, multi-page photo essays and graphic design, and contributions from visual artists like filmmakers Gordon Parks and

Frank Capra Frank Russell Capra (born Francesco Rosario Capra; May 18, 1897 – September 3, 1991) was an Italian-born American film director, producer and writer who became the creative force behind some of the major award-winning films of the 1930s ...

and Austrian photographer Inge Morath. Their work accompanied and illustrated an astonishing array of work by novelists, short story writers, poets and screenwriters, including six

Nobel Nobel often refers to: *Nobel Prize, awarded annually since 1901, from the bequest of Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel Nobel may also refer to: Companies *AkzoNobel, the result of the merger between Akzo and Nobel Industries in 1994 *Branobel, or ...

prize winners:

Maya Angelou Maya Angelou ( ; born Marguerite Annie Johnson; April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014) was an American memoirist, popular poet, and civil rights activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and ...

, Saul Bellow,

William Golding Sir William Gerald Golding (19 September 1911 – 19 June 1993) was a British novelist, playwright, and poet. Best known for his debut novel ''Lord of the Flies'' (1954), he published another twelve volumes of fiction in his lifetime. In 1980 ...

, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway and

Nadine Gordimer Nadine Gordimer (20 November 192313 July 2014) was a South African writer and political activist. She received the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Prize in Literature in 1991, recognized as a writer "who through her magnificent epic writin ...

, and three

Pulitzer Pulitzer may refer to: *Joseph Pulitzer, a 20th century media magnate *Pulitzer Prize, an annual U.S. journalism, literary, and music award *Pulitzer (surname) * Pulitzer, Inc., a U.S. newspaper chain *Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, a non-pro ...

prize winners:

John Cheever John William Cheever (May 27, 1912 – June 18, 1982) was an American short story writer and novelist. He is sometimes called "the Chekhov of the suburbs". His fiction is mostly set in the Upper East Side of Manhattan; the Westchester suburbs; ...

, Arthur Miller,

John Updike John Hoyer Updike (March 18, 1932 – January 27, 2009) was an American novelist, poet, short-story writer, art critic, and literary critic. One of only four writers to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once (the others being Booth ...

. In addition to these cultural heavyweights, the magazine also published, in a mere two-year span,

Nelson Algren Nelson Algren (born Nelson Ahlgren Abraham; March 28, 1909 – May 9, 1981) was an American writer. His 1949 novel ''The Man with the Golden Arm'' won the National Book Award and was adapted as the 1955 film of the same name. Algren articulated ...

Margaret Atwood Margaret Eleanor Atwood (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, and inventor. Since 1961, she has published 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of non-fiction, nin ...

, W.H. Auden,

James Baldwin James Arthur Baldwin (August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987) was an American writer. He garnered acclaim across various media, including essays, novels, plays, and poems. His first novel, '' Go Tell It on the Mountain'', was published in 1953; de ...

, Thomas Berger, Jorge Luis Borges,

, Raymond Carver, Don DeLillo, Joan Didion, Joseph Heller,

Jack Kerouac Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac (; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Of French-Canadian a ...

, Vladimir Nabokov, Cynthia Ozick, Walker Percy, George Plimpton, Philip Roth. In 1973, lack of funding forced the magazine to shut down.

Audience: A Quarterly Review of Literature and the Arts

Donald Hall was among the early advisory group to the rotating series of editors that included

Ralph Maud Ralph Maud (December 24, 1928 – December 8, 2014) was a Canadian literary scholar.

, Anthony Cowan and Peter Michael Wyman whose strong links to Harvard were clear from early contributor lists and a Harvard faculty and student discount rate for an annual subscription. In 1958, the magazine took a half-page advertisement in the literary magazine Prairie Schooner, published by the University of Nebraska Press, announcing the first Audience Awards for fiction and poetry, published between June 1958 and June 1959. Winners were awarded $100 and $50 respectively, and there were no restrictions as to age, nationality or status. Despite an erratic publishing schedule that veered from fortnightly to bimonthly to quarterly, a cover price that rose from 10 cents a copy to $1.25 in only a few years and a variable subtitle, by 1959, the magazine was listing its price in both dollars and francs. The following year, however, it was once again advertising itself as quarterly.

Audience (1971–73)

Under the editorial oversight of Tim Hill,

L. Rust Hills Lawrence Rust "Rusty" Hills (November 9, 1924 – August 12, 2008) was an American author and fiction editor at ''Esquire (magazine), Esquire'' from 1957 to 1964. He remained associated with the magazine until 1999. Authors he championed include N ...

, James F. Fixx, Robert Strozier and

Geoffrey C. Ward Geoffrey Champion Ward (born 1940) is an American editor, author, historian and writer of scripts for American history documentaries for public television. He is the author or co-author of 19 books, including 10 companion books to the documentar ...

, the magazine was reborn in 1971 as a high-end, subscription-only bimonthly arts and literature periodicals. Under the headline "Outfox the Fellow in the Bright Nightgown," they sought out subscribers with full-page ads in ''New York Magazine'' by boasting of an editorial board that included " Alan Arkin, Saul Bellow, Robert Bolt, John Cassavetes,

Charles Eames Charles Ormond Eames Jr. (June 17, 1907 – August 21, 1978) was an American designer, architect and filmmaker. In professional partnership with his spouse Ray Kaiser Eames, he was responsible for groundbreaking contributions in the field of a ...

, Philip Johnson, Marisol, Gordan Parks, Anne Sexton, Robert Penn Warren,

Tom Wicker Thomas Grey Wicker (June 18, 1926 – November 25, 2011) was an American journalist. He was a political reporter and columnist for ''The New York Times''. Background and education Wicker was born in Hamlet, North Carolina. He was a graduate ...

, John A. Williams nd... charter subscription rates in perpetuity" for early takers. They also touted their graphic design bona fides, noting that their pilot magazine, designed by cutting edge graphic designers Milton Glaser and

Seymour Chwast Seymour Chwast (born August 18, 1931) is an American graphic designer, illustrator, and type designer. Biography Chwast was born in the Bronx, New York City and in 1949 graduated from Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn where he was intro ...

, had ''already'' won the top award of the Society of Publication Designers. But by 1973, Tim Hill, the editor in chief told the ''New York Times'', losses were already expected to run “well into seven figures.” He said that the magazine had been underfinanced.

External links

Audience records, 1956-1977. Manuscripts and Archives, New York Public LibraryMag Men: Fifty Years of Making Magazines

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Audience Bimonthly magazines published in the United States Biweekly magazines published in the United States Defunct literary magazines published in the United States Magazines established in 1955 Magazines disestablished in 1973 Magazines published in Boston Magazines published in New York City Quarterly magazines published in the United States