''The Seven Arts'', an early example of the

Little Magazine In the United States, a little magazine is a magazine genre consisting of "artistic work which for reasons of commercial expediency is not acceptable to the money-minded periodicals or presses", according to a 1942 study by Frederick J. Hoffman, ...

, was edited by

James Oppenheim James Oppenheim (24 May 1882 – 4 August 1932) was an American poet, novelist, and editor. A lay analyst and early follower of Carl Jung, Oppenheim was also a founder and editor of ''The Seven Arts''. Life and work Oppenheim was born in St. ...

Waldo Frank Waldo David Frank (August 25, 1889 – January 9, 1967) was an American novelist, historian, political activist, and literary critic, who wrote extensively for ''The New Yorker'' and ''The New Republic'' during the 1920s and 1930s. Frank is best ...

, and

Van Wyck Brooks Van Wyck Brooks (February 16, 1886 in Plainfield, New Jersey – May 2, 1963 in Bridgewater, Connecticut) was an American literary critic, biographer, and historian. Biography Brooks graduated from Harvard University in 1908. As a studen ...

; it appeared monthly from November 1916 through October 1917. Jointly envisaged by Oppenheim and Frank, ''The Seven Arts'' was an attempt to anticipate and influence the United States' emerging “renascent period;” in the first issue the editors explain: “In short, ''The Seven Arts'' is not a magazine for artists, but an expression of artists for the community.” Of the many contributors to the magazine,

Sherwood Anderson Sherwood Anderson (September 13, 1876 – March 8, 1941) was an American novelist and short story writer, known for subjective and self-revealing works. Self-educated, he rose to become a successful copywriter and business owner in Cleveland and ...

, J. D. Beresford,

Randolph Bourne Randolph Silliman Bourne (; May 30, 1886 – December 22, 1918) was a progressive writer and intellectual born in Bloomfield, New Jersey, and a graduate of Columbia University. He is considered to be a spokesman for the young radicals living du ...

Theodore Dreiser Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser (; August 27, 1871 – December 28, 1945) was an American novelist and journalist of the naturalist school. His novels often featured main characters who succeeded at their objectives despite a lack of a firm mora ...

Robert Frost Robert Lee Frost (March26, 1874January29, 1963) was an American poet. His work was initially published in England before it was published in the United States. Known for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloq ...

Kahlil Gibran Gibran Khalil Gibran ( ar, جُبْرَان خَلِيل جُبْرَان, , , or , ; January 6, 1883 – April 10, 1931), usually referred to in English as Kahlil Gibran (pronounced ), was a Lebanese-American writer, poet and visual artist ...

D. H. Lawrence David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English writer, novelist, poet and essayist. His works reflect on modernity, industrialization, sexuality, emotional health, vitality, spontaneity and instinct. His best-k ...

Amy Lowell Amy Lawrence Lowell (February 9, 1874 – May 12, 1925) was an American poet of the imagist school, which promoted a return to classical values. She posthumously won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1926. Life Amy Lowell was born on Febru ...

, Paul Rosenfeld, and

Louis Untermeyer Louis Untermeyer (October 1, 1885 – December 18, 1977) was an American poet, anthologist, critic, and editor. He was appointed the fourteenth Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1961. Life and career Untermeyer was born in New Y ...

were among the most prolific.

History

The idea of ''The Seven Arts'' was first conceived by Oppenheim and Frank at a party in

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

; Frank, who had many literary contacts, would serve as associate editor and find contributors for the magazine. Oppenheim would serve as editor, and by this time, had already met Annette Rankine, who agreed to finance the magazine. Rankine had no influence over editorial decisions, but when her family pressured her over the magazine's increasingly hostile attitude toward the U.S.’s involvement in the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, which culminated in ''The Seven Arts''’s acerbic August 1917 issue, she withdrew her support and killed herself shortly thereafter. All three editors contributed material to the magazine; Oppenheim wrote several poems and editorials for ''The Seven Arts'', although his most significant achievement may have been organizing the superb, but potentially discordant contributions that continually came in: “I took hold of the blessed thing and each month studied our available material carefully, composing the next number somewhat as if I were composing a symphony or painting a picture: there had to be balance, homogeneity, a something that united the whole, an ensemble effect that was pleasurable.” Randolph Bourne, perhaps the most brilliant contributor to ''The Seven Arts'', certainly its most coherent voice criticizing the war, disrupted Oppenheim's “ensemble effect.” Bourne's scathing anti-war pieces for ''The Seven Arts'', “The War and the Intellectuals” (June 1917), “Below the Battle” (July 1917), “The Collapse of American Strategy” (August 1917), “A War Diary” (September 1917), and " Twilight of Idols" (October 1917), were audacious, brave, and discordant. The tensions that Oppenheim carefully balanced each month between artistic expression and political revelation snapped, ''The Seven Arts'' collapsed, and one year later Bourne was dead. Others offered to back the magazine, but the editors were unable to find an agreeable means of sharing responsibilities and power. Historian

Casey Nelson Blake Casey Nelson Blake is a historian and the Mendelson Family Professor of American Studies at Columbia University. He has written ''Beloved Community: The Cultural Criticism of Randolph Bourne, Van Wyck Brooks, Waldo Frank, and Lewis Mumford'' (1 ...

writes: “The posthumous idealization of the ''Seven Arts'' reflects a widespread sentiment, on the part of its survivors and historians, that the journal was itself part of a ‘potential America’ crushed in the stampede to total war, antiradical hysteria, and ‘normalcy’” (123).

References

External links

''The Seven Arts''
at The

Modernist Journals Project The Modernist Journals Project (MJP) was created in 1995 at Brown University in order to create a database of digitized periodicals connected with the period loosely associated with modernism. The University of Tulsa joined in 2003. The MJP's websit ...

: a cover-to-cover, searchable digital edition of all 12 issues (and 1 supplement) from November 1916 to October 1917. PDFs of these issues may be downloaded for free from the MJP website.
The Seven Arts (vol. 1)The Seven Arts (vol. 2)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Seven Arts Monthly magazines published in the United States Defunct literary magazines published in the United States Magazines established in 1916 Magazines disestablished in 1917 Magazines published in New York City

History

References

Further reading

External links