The Seven Arts
Encyclopedia
The Seven Arts was a literary journal which flourished briefly in 1916-1917. It was edited by James Oppenheim
, Waldo Frank
, and Van Wyck Brooks
. The magazine featured new American writing by figures such as Sherwood Anderson
, Amy Lowell
, Robert Frost
, Eugene O'Neill
, and John Dos Passos
. The magazine's pacifist editorial stance led to a loss of funding and the magazine ceased publication in 1917, after which it merged with The Dial
.
One of the editors, James Oppenheim
, later wrote a reminiscence of his one tumultuous year as editor of the journal in which he observed that Randolph Bourne
“was the real leader. . . of what brains and creativeness we had at the time and had he lived the ‘twenties might have sparkled much more than they did. Mind you, this young man not only was a cripple, but wheezed in breathing, and was mortally physically afraid most of the time. More than that, he had one fear greater than any other. That was the fear of prison. He could hardly bear the thought of it.” However, Bourne wrote six anti-war articles for the magazine in the teeth of these frailties and fears. Then “the air began to get hot, pro and con, mainly pro” but Oppenheim also found himself the object of surveillance. “The illusion of a ‘free country’ in which I had grown up simply exploded. It was something in those days to know one was shadowed, spied upon, trailed by snoopers, that one must whisper what one thought in a restaurant and even then be sure one’s friend wasn’t going to hand one over to the police. . . . The lying propaganda had something foul and degrading in it. The exultation of the timorous stay-at-homes was rotten and debased. “Enemies Within,” shrieked the old New York Tribune and spat snake’s venom at Bourne and the rest of us.” The circulation was actually climbing when “the inevitable happened. The contract stipulated that there should be no interference from the business side. However, our backer, clerking still [i.e., the rich backer worked as a clerk to dispel her boredom], was mortally terrified not only by the danger we found ourselves in, but by the word treason. She was of good old American stock, and besides, relatives of her’s owned a great food industry. They pressed her hard. She came to me and said we would have to lay off the war, or there would be no more subsidy. There was no more subsidy. . . . But I wouldn’t have missed that year for kingdom come.”
James Oppenheim
James Oppenheim , was an American poet, novelist, and editor. A lay analyst and early follower of C. G. Jung, Oppenheim was also the founder and editor of The Seven Arts, an important early 20th-century literary magazine....
, Waldo Frank
Waldo Frank
Waldo Frank was a prolific novelist, historian, literary and social critic. Most well-known for his studies of Spanish and Latin American literature, Frank served as chairman of the First Americans Writers Congress and became the first president of the League of American Writers.-Biography:Frank...
, and Van Wyck Brooks
Van Wyck Brooks
Van Wyck Brooks was an American literary critic, biographer, and historian.- Biography :Brooks was educated at Harvard University and graduated in 1908...
. The magazine featured new American writing by figures such as Sherwood Anderson
Sherwood Anderson
Sherwood Anderson was an American novelist and short story writer. His most enduring work is the short story sequence Winesburg, Ohio. Writers he has influenced include Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, J. D. Salinger, and Amos Oz.-Early life:Anderson was born in Clyde, Ohio,...
, Amy Lowell
Amy Lowell
Amy Lawrence Lowell was an American poet of the imagist school from Brookline, Massachusetts who posthumously won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1926.- Personal life:...
, Robert Frost
Robert Frost
Robert Lee Frost was an American poet. He is highly regarded for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloquial speech. His work frequently employed settings from rural life in New England in the early twentieth century, using them to examine complex social and...
, Eugene O'Neill
Eugene O'Neill
Eugene Gladstone O'Neill was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in Literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into American drama techniques of realism earlier associated with Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and Swedish...
, and John Dos Passos
John Dos Passos
John Roderigo Dos Passos was an American novelist and artist.-Early life:Born in Chicago, Illinois, Dos Passos was the illegitimate son of John Randolph Dos Passos , a distinguished lawyer of Madeiran Portuguese descent, and Lucy Addison Sprigg Madison of Petersburg, Virginia. The elder Dos Passos...
. The magazine's pacifist editorial stance led to a loss of funding and the magazine ceased publication in 1917, after which it merged with The Dial
The Dial
The Dial was an American magazine published intermittently from 1840 to 1929. In its first form, from 1840 to 1844, it served as the chief publication of the Transcendentalists. In the 1880s it was revived as a political magazine...
.
One of the editors, James Oppenheim
James Oppenheim
James Oppenheim , was an American poet, novelist, and editor. A lay analyst and early follower of C. G. Jung, Oppenheim was also the founder and editor of The Seven Arts, an important early 20th-century literary magazine....
, later wrote a reminiscence of his one tumultuous year as editor of the journal in which he observed that Randolph Bourne
Randolph Bourne
Randolph Silliman Bourne was a progressive writer and "leftist intellectual" born in Bloomfield, New Jersey, and a graduate of Columbia University...
“was the real leader. . . of what brains and creativeness we had at the time and had he lived the ‘twenties might have sparkled much more than they did. Mind you, this young man not only was a cripple, but wheezed in breathing, and was mortally physically afraid most of the time. More than that, he had one fear greater than any other. That was the fear of prison. He could hardly bear the thought of it.” However, Bourne wrote six anti-war articles for the magazine in the teeth of these frailties and fears. Then “the air began to get hot, pro and con, mainly pro” but Oppenheim also found himself the object of surveillance. “The illusion of a ‘free country’ in which I had grown up simply exploded. It was something in those days to know one was shadowed, spied upon, trailed by snoopers, that one must whisper what one thought in a restaurant and even then be sure one’s friend wasn’t going to hand one over to the police. . . . The lying propaganda had something foul and degrading in it. The exultation of the timorous stay-at-homes was rotten and debased. “Enemies Within,” shrieked the old New York Tribune and spat snake’s venom at Bourne and the rest of us.” The circulation was actually climbing when “the inevitable happened. The contract stipulated that there should be no interference from the business side. However, our backer, clerking still [i.e., the rich backer worked as a clerk to dispel her boredom], was mortally terrified not only by the danger we found ourselves in, but by the word treason. She was of good old American stock, and besides, relatives of her’s owned a great food industry. They pressed her hard. She came to me and said we would have to lay off the war, or there would be no more subsidy. There was no more subsidy. . . . But I wouldn’t have missed that year for kingdom come.”