It is now over forty years since transition, one of the most celebrated of the little magazines of the inter-war period, was founded by Eugene Jolas, who was to remain its principal editor throughout its existence. As McMillan shows, the magazine has two distinct claims to fame. First, it was a vigorous advocate for that brand of modernism propounded by the manifesto 'The Revolution of the Word Proclamation', which appeared in an early issue. Second, it numbered among its contributors three major writers of this century, James Joyce, Franz Kafka and Samuel Beckett, and also published work by other significant figures such as Hart Crane, Dylan Thomas and Gertrude Stein, as well as many dadaists, French surrealists and German expressionists. In the case of Joyce, whose relationship to the magazine is described in some detail, Jolas not only published his 'Work in Progress' (later to become Finnegans Wake) but also championed the work by soliciting and publishing exegetical articles. In telling the story of transition McMillan looks at both aspects of its existence: as a propaganda weapon of, and a showcase for, the revolutionaries of the word. It was Jolas himself, the instigator of 'The Revolution of the Word', practitioner and propagandist, who provided the crucial link between the magazine's educational and literary roles. For all his enthusiasm for theorising about artistic creation, Jolas was too good an editor to lose sight of the magazine's principal aim-to introduce works of literature by writers of major talent and from many nations to a wider audience. This book amply documents the sound- ness of Jolas's instincts and provides a fascinating record of an important achievement. Dougald McMillan was born in 1937 in Little Rock, Arkansas. He was a student of Richard Ellmann at North- western University, where he received a PhD in English, and is now Professor of English at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

McMillan Dougald

Transition 1927-1938 - The history of a Literary Era