''The Criterion'' was a British literary magazine published from October 1922 to January 1939. ''The Criterion'' (or the ''Criterion'') was, for most of its run, a quarterly journal, although for a period in 1927–28 it was published monthly. It was created by the poet,

dramatist A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between characters and is intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. Ben Jonson coined the term "playwri ...

, and

literary critic A genre of arts criticism, literary criticism or literary studies is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical analysis of literature' ...

T. S. Eliot who served as its editor for its entire run. Eliot's goal was to make it a literary review dedicated to the maintenance of standards and the reunification of a European intellectual community. Although in a letter to a friend in 1935

George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950) was an English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist, and critic who wrote under the pen name of George Orwell. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to a ...

had said "for pure snootiness it beats anything I have ever seen", writing in 1944 he referred to it as "possibly the best literary paper we have ever had". The first issue of the magazine, of which 600 copies were printed,"Anything I Write Is Good: Letters of T.S. Eliot"
''The New York Times'' included Eliot's ''

The Waste Land ''The Waste Land'' is a poem by T. S. Eliot, widely regarded as one of the most important English-language poems of the 20th century and a central work of modernist poetry. Published in 1922, the 434-line poem first appeared in the United ...

''. In its first year, it received contributions from

Luigi Pirandello Luigi Pirandello (; ; 28 June 1867 – 10 December 1936) was an Italians, Italian dramatist, novelist, poet, and short story writer whose greatest contributions were his plays. He was awarded the 1934 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his bold and ...

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer and one of the most influential 20th-century modernist authors. She helped to pioneer the use of stream of consciousness narration as a literary device. Vir ...

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an List of poets from the United States, American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Ita ...

, E. M. Forster, and

W. B. Yeats William Butler Yeats (, 13 June 186528 January 1939), popularly known as W. B. Yeats, was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer, and literary critic who was one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the ...

.Sabloff, Nicholas. "The Nursery of Genius: A brief survey of ten magazines of influence" https://web.archive.org/web/20090504235924/http://www.nyrm.org/2007/sabloff_well.html Other contributors over the years included

Wyndham Lewis Percy Wyndham Lewis (18 November 1882 – 7 March 1957) was a British writer, painter and critic. He was a co-founder of the Vorticist movement in art and edited ''Blast (British magazine), Blast'', the literary magazine of the Vorticists. His ...

Herbert Read Sir Herbert Edward Read, (; 4 December 1893 – 12 June 1968) was an English art historian, poet, literary critic and philosopher, best known for numerous books on art, which included influential volumes on the role of art in education. Read wa ...

John Middleton Murry John Middleton Murry (6 August 1889 – 12 March 1957) was an English writer. He was a prolific author, producing more than 60 books and thousands of essays and reviews on literature, social issues, politics, and religion during his lifetime. ...

, John Gould Fletcher, W. H. Auden,

Stephen Spender Sir Stephen Harold Spender (28 February 1909 – 16 July 1995) was an English poet, novelist and essayist whose work concentrated on themes of social injustice and the class struggle. He was appointed U.S. Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry ...

, and Hart Crane. Nine contributions in 1924 and 1925 were made, pseudonymously, by Eliot's first wife, Vivienne Haigh-Wood, who suggested the journal's name. ''The Criterion'' became the first English periodical to publish

Marcel Proust Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust ( ; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, literary critic, and essayist who wrote the novel (in French – translated in English as ''Remembrance of Things Past'' and more r ...

Paul Valéry Ambroise Paul Toussaint Jules Valéry (; 30 October 1871 – 20 July 1945) was a French poet, essayist, and philosopher. In addition to his poetry and fiction (drama and dialogues), his interests included aphorisms on art, history, letters, m ...

and

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 ...

. Lady Rothermere (Mary Lilian Share, the wife of the London newspaper magnate Harold Harmsworth, Viscount Rothermere) originally financed the journal, but on reading the first issue, she wrote three letters to Eliot criticizing it, and suggested ideas for later issues, including a story by

Katherine Mansfield Kathleen Mansfield Murry (née Beauchamp; 14 October 1888 – 9 January 1923) was a New Zealand writer and critic who was an important figure in the Literary modernism, modernist movement. Her works are celebrated across the world and have been ...

. After four years she withdrew her support and the magazine was acquired by Eliot's employer, Faber and Gwyer Publishing (later

Faber & Faber Faber and Faber Limited, commonly known as Faber & Faber or simply Faber, is an independent publishing house in London. Published authors and poets include T. S. Eliot (an early Faber editor and director), W. H. Auden, C. S. Lewis, Margaret S ...

). From January 1926, when Faber became the publisher, though January 1927 the journal was titled ''The New Criterion''. The issues from May 1927 though March 1928 were titled ''The Monthly Criterion''. Some of Eliot's other contributions include his short story "On the Eve", commentaries, and poems, including early versions of " The Hollow Men" and "

Ash Wednesday Ash Wednesday is a holy day of prayer and fasting in many Western Christian denominations. It is preceded by Shrove Tuesday and marks the first day of Lent: the seven weeks of Christian prayer, prayer, Religious fasting#Christianity, fasting and ...

". Together with its rival, '' Adelphi'', edited by

, it was the leading literary journal of the period. While the former's definitions of literature were based on

romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. The purpose of the movement was to advocate for the importance of subjec ...

allied to liberalism and a subjective approach, Eliot used his publication for expounding his defense of

classicism Classicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for a classical period, classical antiquity in the Western tradition, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. In its purest form, classicism is an aesthe ...

, tradition, and Catholicism. In this contest Eliot emerged a clear victor, in the sense that in the London of the 1930s he had taken the centre of the critical stage.David Goldie, ''A Critical Difference: T.S. Eliot and John Middleton Murry in English Literary Criticism, 1919–1928'' (1998), pp. 2–3.

External links

The Criterion (in 18 volumes) is hosted at

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

: * Vol. I: October 1922 – July 1923 * Vol. II: October 1923 – July 1924 * Vol. III: October 1924 – July 1925 * Vol. IV: January 1926– October 1926 * Vol. V: January 1927 – June 1927 * Vol. VI: July 1927 – December 1927 * Vol. VII: January 1928 – June 1928 * Vol. VIII: September 1928 – July 1929 * Vol. IX: October 1929 – July 1930 * Vol. X: October 1930 – July 1931 * Vol. XI: October 1931 – July 1932 * Vol. XII: October 1932 - July 1933 * Vol. XIII: October 1933 – July 1934 * Vol. XIV: October 1934 – July 1935 * Vol. XV: October 1935 - July 1936 * Vol. XVI: October 1936 – July 1937 * Vol. XVII: October 1937 – July 1938 * Vol. XVIII: October 1938 – July 1939

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Criterion 1922 establishments in the United Kingdom 1939 disestablishments in the United Kingdom Monthly magazines published in the United Kingdom Quarterly magazines published in the United Kingdom Defunct literary magazines published in the United Kingdom Magazines established in 1922 Magazines disestablished in 1939 T. S. Eliot