[LITTLE MAGAZINES] [SECESSION] [TYPESCRIPT] Three-page hand-corrected typescript for an article entitled "Secession in Retrospect," authored by the editor of "Secession"

MUNSON, Gorham

Publication Date: 1951

About this Item

Three-page typescript; each leaf measuring 8.5" x 11". Old staple rust at the top of the first and last leaves, else in about fine condition. With several holograph corrections, almost certainly by Munson. An informative, reflective, and somewhat self-critical history of the short-lived literary magazine "Secession," which, though it only produced eight issues, helped midwife the early careers of such writers as William Carlos Williams, Hart Crane, Waldo Frank, Wallace Stevens, and Marianne Moore; the list goes on, and it's a veritable "Murderer's Row" of pre-war modernists. Munson begins, "The general idea of "Secession" was dissent from the ways of literary life of the generation typified in fiction by Dreiser and Anderson, in poetry by Sandburg and Lindsay, and in criticism by Mencken and Brooks." Munson launched the magazine in the spring of 1922 and the expirement was over by the spring of 1924, with various issues having been printed in Vienna, Berlin, New York, and other places, mostly for reasons of money ("the economic problem of survival," as he phrases it), although the egos of Munson and other editors ended up conspiring (unintentionally) to sabotage the thing. A detailed and fascinating discussion of this history is offered on pp. 93-101 of "The Little Magazine: A History and Bibliography," by Hoffman et al (1947). Munson's own interpretation of this history is offered herein. This typescript is a (very nearly final) draft of the article that appeared in a 1951 issue of "Golden Goose" (formerlly "Chronos"), itself a literary magazine put out of Ohio State in Columbus. "Golden Goose" is elusive; OCLC notes fewer than a dozen partial holdings, and individual issues are uncommon in the marketplace. We were unable to locate a copy of the issue that includes this contribution. While Hoffman et al clearly attribute the failure of "Secession" to a mixture of the aforementioned infighting and the cost of production, Munson's typescript focuses much more heavily on the latter problem, and notes the difficulty of contemporary similar magazines to even find an audience, a problem that he acknowledges "Secession" faced, as well. Still, Munson discusses the disagreements among the contributors, referring to it as the "dadaists fighting with the mystics," adding that "Hart Crane was caught in the middle of this fighting." This typescript is a fitting re-appraisal by Munson, who had authored a "post-mortem" in the final issue of "Secession." That post-mortem ended on the upbeat prediction that "Secession would be remembered as "the magazine that introduced the Twenties." (see Hoffman, p. 101). In this re-appraisal, Munson writes, "I felt [.] a complete confidence in the future of such contributors as Kenneth Burke, Hart Crane, and the others who had promised to write for the little publication; it was they, I knew, who would make "Secession" remembered." An excellent ephemeral document of little magazine history.

Seller Inventory # 7263

Bibliographic Details

• Title: [LITTLE MAGAZINES] [SECESSION] [TYPESCRIPT] Three-page hand-corrected typescript for an article entitled "Secession in Retrospect," authored by the editor of "Secession"
• Publication Date: 1951
• Condition: Near fine
• Seller catalogs:
  • Literary Criticism