The Southern Review


The Southern Review is a quarterly literary magazine that was established by Robert Penn Warren in 1935 at the behest of Charles W. Pipkin and funded by Huey Long as a part of his investment in Louisiana State University. It publishes fiction, poetry, critical essays, and excerpts from novels in progress by established and emerging writers and includes reproductions of visual art. The Southern Review continues to follow Warren's articulation of the mission when he said that it gives "writers decent company between the covers, and editorial authority sufficiently for the journal to have its own distinctive character and quality".

History

An earlier Southern Review was published in Charleston, South Carolina from 1828 to 1832, and another in Baltimore from 1867 to 1879.
The initial staff consisted of editor-in-chief Charles W. Pipkin, Robert Penn Warren and Cleanth Brooks as managing editors, and Albert Erskine as business manager. In 1942, after 28 issues, publishing was interrupted and restarted again in 1965. Past editors-in-chief and co-editors have been Albert R. Erskine Jr., Lewis P. Simpson, Donald E. Stanford, James Olney, Fred Hobson, Dave Smith, Bret Lott, Jeanne M. Leiby, Cara Blue Adams, and Emily Nemens. The co-editors as of August 2018 are Sacha Idell and Jessica Faust.

Reception

In 1936, shortly after the journal's founding, poetry editor Morton D. Zabel credited The Southern Review with "a competence almost unrivaled at the moment in American letters." In 1941, on the occasion of the journal's 5th anniversary, John Crowe Ransom stated "The Southern Reviews five year achievement is close to the best thing in the history of American letters."

Timeline