''Transatlantic Review'' was a literary journal founded in 1959 by Joseph F. McCrindle, who remained its editor until he closed the magazine in 1977. Published quarterly, at first in Rome and then in London and New York, ''TR'' was known for its eclectic mix of short stories and poetry—by both young, previously unpublished writers and prominent authors such as

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...

Iris Murdoch Dame Jean Iris Murdoch ( ; 15 July 1919 – 8 February 1999) was an Irish and British novelist and philosopher. Murdoch is best known for her novels about good and evil, sexual relationships, morality, and the power of the unconscious. Her fi ...

, Grace Paley and

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 Tar ...

—as well as drawings, essays, and interviews with writers and theater and film directors.

History

Reviving the title of the short-lived but influential '' Transatlantic Review'' founded by

Ford Madox Ford Ford Madox Ford (né Joseph Leopold Ford Hermann Madox Hueffer ( ); 17 December 1873 – 26 June 1939) was an English novelist, poet, critic and editor whose journals ''The English Review'' and ''The Transatlantic Review (1924), The Transatlant ...

in 1924, McCrindle originally conceived of TR as a way to publish short stories that he had not been able to place as a literary agent. He was inspired in part by the semiannual journal ''

Botteghe Oscure ''Botteghe Oscure'' was a literary journal that was founded and edited in Rome by Marguerite Caetani (Princess di Bassiano) from 1948 to 1960. History and profile ''Botteghe Oscure'' was established in 1948. The magazine was named after Rome� ...

'', which was based in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

and published by Marguerite Caetani.

Eugene Walter Eugene Ferdinand Walter, Jr. (November 30, 1921 – March 29, 1998) was an American screenwriter, poet, short-story author, actor, puppeteer, gourmet chef, cryptographer, translator, editor, costume designer and well-known raconteur. During his y ...

provided a connection between the two; after helping launch ''

The Paris Review ''The Paris Review'' is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, ''The Paris Review'' published new works by Jack Kerouac, ...

'', he edited Caetani's magazine and then became an associate editor of ''Transatlantic Review,'' remaining on its masthead from the third issue until the last. George Garrett was one of a group of initially credited editors, including

William Goldman William Goldman (August 12, 1931 – November 16, 2018) was an American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter. He first came to prominence in the 1950s as a novelist before turning to screenwriting. Among other accolades, Goldman won two Aca ...

, and by issue 3 became the poetry editor, continuing alongside B. S. Johnson up until issue 39. Another significant contributing editor was the playwright, poet and actor

Heathcote Williams John Henley Heathcote-Williams (15 November 1941 – 1 July 2017), known as Heathcote Williams, was an English poet, actor, political activist and dramatist. He wrote a number of book-length polemical poems including ''Autogeddon'', ''Falling ...

. B. S. Johnson was eventually the sole poetry editor and assembled the feature "New Transatlantic Poetry". He also proposed the annual Erotica competition, which was open to fiction, poetry and illustration. Prize-winners included Paul Ableman,

Diana Athill Diana Athill (21 December 1917 – 23 January 2019) was a British literary editor, novelist and memoirist who worked with some of the greatest writers of the 20th century at the London-based publishing company Andre Deutsch Ltd. Early life ...

Gavin Ewart Gavin Buchanan Ewart Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, FRSL (4 February 1916 – 23 October 1995) was a British poet who contributed to Geoffrey Grigson's ''New Verse'' at the age of seventeen. Early life Gavin Ewart was born in Lond ...

, Giles Gordon, D. M. Thomas, Jerry Stahl, Jay Jeff Jones, Trevor Hoyle, Patrick Hughes and Steve Barthelme. Issue 52 (Autumn 1975), featured ''An Anthology of New American Poetry'', compiled by Gerard Malanga. It included work by

Charles Bukowski Henry Charles Bukowski ( ; born Heinrich Karl Bukowski, ; August 16, 1920 – March 9, 1994) was a German Americans, German-American poet, novelist, and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural, and economic ambien ...

Lawrence Ferlinghetti Lawrence Monsanto Ferlinghetti (March 24, 1919 – February 22, 2021) was an American poet, painter, social activist, and co-founder of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers. An author of poetry, translations, fiction, theatre, art criticism, and ...

Allen Ginsberg Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with Lucien Carr, William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of th ...

Louis Zukofsky Louis Zukofsky (January 23, 1904 – May 12, 1978) was an American poet. He was the primary instigator and theorist of the so-called "Objectivist" poets, a short lived collective of poets who after several decades of obscurity would reemerge a ...

, George Oppen, Jonathan Williams,

Gary Snyder Gary Snyder (born May 8, 1930) is an American poet, essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist. His early poetry has been associated with the Beat Generation and the San Francisco Renaissance and he has been described as the "poet laureate ...

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, Harold Norse and

Lou Reed Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician and songwriter. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. Althoug ...

. After a decade, McCrindle selected the magazine's best for his ''Stories from the Transatlantic Review'' (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1970; Penguin, 1974), an anthology that included

Paul Bowles Paul Frederic Bowles (; December 30, 1910November 18, 1999) was an American expatriate composer, author, and translator. He became associated with the Moroccan city of Tangier, where he settled in 1947 and lived for 52 years to the end of his ...

, Jerome Charyn,

Bruce Jay Friedman Bruce Jay Friedman (April 26, 1930June 3, 2020) was an American novelist, screenwriter, playwright, and actor. He was noted for his versatility of writing in both literature and pop culture. He was also a trailblazer in the style of modern Ameri ...

, Penelope Gilliatt,

and

Joyce Carol Oates Joyce Carol Oates (born June 16, 1938) is an American writer. Oates published her first book in 1963, and has since published 58 novels, a number of plays and novellas, and many volumes of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction. Her novels ''Black ...

. McCrindle collected the interviews in ''Behind the Scenes: Theater and Film Interviews from the Transatlantic Review'' (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1971). The final issue was published June 1977. An announcement appeared in the penultimate issue of the magazine saying that the title would continue as an annual review but this idea was not pursued. After he folded the magazine, McCrindle continued to support new writing talent through the Henfield Foundation (later renamed the Joseph F. McCrindle Foundation), awarding annual Henfield Prizes for the best short stories from writing programs throughout the United States. He died July 11, 2008, at his home in New York City.

Writers

Other well-known writers whose work appeared in ''Transatlantic Review'' include J. G. Ballard,

John Banville William John Banville (born 8 December 1945) is an Irish novelist, short story writer, Literary adaptation, adapter of dramas and screenwriter. Though he has been described as "the heir to Marcel Proust, Proust, via Vladimir Nabokov, Nabokov", ...

Anthony Burgess John Anthony Burgess Wilson, (; 25 February 1917 – 22 November 1993) who published under the name Anthony Burgess, was an English writer and composer. Although Burgess was primarily a comic writer, his Utopian and dystopian fiction, dy ...

, William S. Burroughs,

Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau ( , ; ; 5 July 1889 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, film director, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost avant-garde artists of the 20th-c ...

William Faulkner William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer. He is best known for William Faulkner bibliography, his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, a stand-in fo ...

, Robert Grossbach, Alan Lelchuk, Alan Sillitoe, Richard Yates,

Harold Pinter Harold Pinter (; 10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A List of Nobel laureates in Literature, Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramat ...

and William Trevor. Also notable are

's 1960 interview with

Gore Vidal Eugene Luther Gore Vidal ( ; born Eugene Louis Vidal, October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012) was an American writer and public intellectual known for his acerbic epigrammatic wit. His novels and essays interrogated the Social norm, social and sexual ...

and Giles Gordon's 1964 interview with

Joe Orton John Kingsley Orton (1 January 1933 – 9 August 1967), known by the pen name of Joe Orton, was an English playwright, author, and diarist. His public career, from 1964 until his murder in 1967 committed by his partner, was short but highly i ...

, which appeared shortly before Orton was murdered. Over the years, the magazine published interviews with

Edward Albee Edward Franklin Albee III ( ; March 12, 1928 – September 16, 2016) was an American playwright known for works such as ''The Zoo Story'' (1958), ''The Sandbox (play), The Sandbox'' (1959), ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' (1962), ''A Delicat ...

, Burgess (twice), James T. Farrell,

Federico Fellini Federico Fellini (; 20 January 1920 – 31 October 1993) was an Italian film director and screenwriter. He is known for his distinctive style, which blends fantasy and baroque images with earthiness. He is recognized as one of the greatest and ...

, William Gaskill, William Inge and

Christopher Isherwood Christopher William Bradshaw Isherwood (26 August 1904 – 4 January 1986) was an Anglo-American novelist, playwright, screenwriter, autobiographer, and diarist. His best-known works include '' Goodbye to Berlin'' (1939), a semi-autobiographical ...

, Pinter and

Peter Yates Peter James Yates (24 July 1929 – 9 January 2011) was an English film director and producer. He was known for making films in a wide variety of genres, including the Steve McQueen police thriller film '' Bullitt'' in 1968. He received nomin ...

. After ''TR'' was shut down in 1977, annual fiction prizes were given by the Henfield Foundation, later renamed the Joseph F. McCrindle Foundation. In 2011, the McCrindle Foundation set up endowments to support fiction prizes at five graduate writing programs: Columbia University, University of Virginia, University of Iowa, University of Michigan, and University of California at Irvine.

Illustrators

The only issue of ''Transatlantic Review'' that did not contain an illustration was the debut issue. The second issue had only one, by Jean Cocteau, but illustration soon became a staple item, usually unrelated to the text but in some cases complementing short stories or articles. Contributors of illustration included

Dylan Thomas Dylan Marlais Thomas (27 October 1914 – 9 November 1953) was a Welsh poet and writer, whose works include the poems " Do not go gentle into that good night" and " And death shall have no dominion", as well as the "play for voices" ''Un ...

, Peter Farmer, Elaine de Kooning, Daniel Mroz,

Mervyn Peake Mervyn Laurence Peake (9 July 1911 – 17 November 1968) was a British writer, artist, poet, and illustrator. He is best known for what are usually referred to as the '' Gormenghast'' books. The four works were part of what Peake conceived ...

, Patrick Procktor,

Kaffe Fassett Frank Havrah "Kaffe" Fassett, MBE (born December 7, 1937) is an American-born, British-based artist who is best known for his colourful designs in the decorative arts— needlepoint, patchwork, knitting, painting and ceramics. While still a chi ...

, Mike McGear,

, John(H) Howard, Larry Rivers, Mabel Pakenham-Walsh and Colin Spencer.

Contents of ''Stories from the Transatlantic Review''

*"Introduction" • Joseph F. McCrindle *"Music to Lay Eggs By" • Thomas Bridges • 1968 *"Home Is" • Morris Lurie • 1968 *"The Road" • Alan Sillitoe • 1968 *"Summer Voices" • John Banville • 1968 *"Making Changes" • Leonard Michaels • 1969 *"My Sister and Me" • Asa Baber, Jr. • 1967 *"Before the Operation" • Paul Breslow • 1967 *"The Collector" • Austin C. Clarke • 1967 *"Sing, Shaindele, Sing" • Jerome Charyn • 1966 *"Black Barbecue" • Daniel Spicehandler • 1966 *"The Adult Education Class" rom ''Eating People Is Wrong''• Malcolm Bradbury • 1959 *"During the Jurassic" • John Updike • 1966 *"Acme Rooms and Sweet Marjorie Russell" • Hugh Allyn Hunt • 1966 *"The Zodiacs" • Jay Neugeboren • 1969 *"Dying" • Joyce Carol Oates • 1966 *"The Redhead" • Penelope Gilliatt • 1965 *"Girl in a White Dress" • Edward Franklin • 1964 *"Changed" • Norma Meacock • 1964 *"A Meeting in Middle Age" • William Trevor • 1964 *"The World’s Fastest Human" • Irvin Faust • 1964 *"The Siege" • Sol Yurick • 1963 *"The Enemy" • Bruce Jay Friedman • 1963 *"Simple Arithmetic" • Virginia Moriconi • 1963 *" The Hyena" • Paul Bowles • 1962 *"The Fair of San Gennaro" • John McPhee • 1961 *"Ismael" • Alfred Chester • 1961 *"Francois Yattend" • Jean-Claude Van Itallie • 1961 *"The Star Blanket" • Shirley Schoonover • 1961 *"A Game of Catch" • George Garrett • 1960 *"The Educated Girl" • V. S. Pritchett • 1960 *"Johnny Dio and the Sugar Plum Burglars" • Harry D. Miller • 1960 *"At Home with the Colonel" • Frank Tuohy • 1962 *"A Different Thing" • Walter Clemons • 1959 *"The Ice Cream Eat" • William Goldman • 1959 *"Biographical Notes"

References

External links