The Modern Poetry Collection

 

 

The small presses and little magazines have been the most important factor behind the rise and development of modernism in Canadian literature and poetry. The history of the little magazines covers a period of some eighty years and closely parallels the development of modern poetry itself from the mid-1920s to the present time. All of the important events in Canadian modern poetry and most of the initiating manifestoes and examples of change are found in the publications of the small presses and the little magazines.

 

As Michael Gnarowski defines the "little magazine" as "a periodical intended to print artistic work which for any one of several reasons is considered unprintable in commercially oriented presses or periodicals." [1] While Frank Davey sees the little magazines as the products of "engaged writers," and that these magazines are founded because writers are "so absorbed in and dedicated to their own writing that they feel they must found a mag--in order that their work may receive at least some attention and criticism." Davey continues to say that "the little magazine reflects the presence of a group of writers of similar interests who are meeting, arguing, fighting, writing, almost every day--a group charged with literary energy that seems to keep continually overflowing into and out of their mimeographed pages." [2]

 

Beginning almost a decade after its counterparts in England and the United States, the small press movement offered writers a chance to take charge of all aspects of publishing their own artistic material. Writers became involved in editorial selection, design, and distribution of their books and little magazines. It took its inspiration from the experiments of F.R. Scott and A.J.M. Smith with the McGill Fortnightly Review (1925-1927). From the 1920s onwards the little magazine in Canada shows a clear and consistent development. Scholars have noted that the Canadian little magazines have a tendency to fall into one of three categories based on their editorial policies:

 

1) The coterie magazine, where a group of like-minded young writers published a loose-knit programme or body of ideas and was militant in getting the new programme across. Notable examples of the coterie magazine are: Preview, First Statement, Tish.

2) The uncommitted or eclectic magazines, which was edited by a an editorial group, but left their pages open to submissions from all literary lines, sources, and styles; like Yes, Contact, and Open Letter.

3) The personal magazine, which was most often a little magazine directed by a single pesonality (e.g. Delta edited by Louis Dudek, GrOnk edited by bpNichol, blewointment edited by bill bissett, Weed/Flower edited by Nelson Ball).

 

The escape from the dictates of the marketplace also triggered a rapid acceleration of artistic experimentation. New models of publication and dissemination were created in little magazines, like Preview and First Statement, that would be imitated and adapted by other small presses in the 1960s and 1970s. For example, by the 1960s the handmade chapbook, the mimeographed magazine, and the illustrated broadside had become common publishing venues in writing communities across Canada.

 

The 1960s presented new schools of poetry within the context of the new little magazines. Poets of this generation would draw their inspiration from a wide variety of sources, including an indigenous tradition of poetic development and a Modernist foundation that had already been established by preceding poets. During this time, several of the little magazines radically enlarged the range of Modernist techniques in Canadian poetry, and magazines like Tish, Open Letter, GrOnk, and blewointment presented new aesthetic orientations which had a major impact on Canada's literary culture. In particular, magazines like bpNichol's GrOnk and bill bissett's blewointment paved the way for a radical new way of looking at writing and book publishing. In this context, the book no longer simply framed or staged the real literary content between its covers but became indelibly intertwined with the art work itself. Similarly, the role of publisher becames indistinguishable from the role of the artist. In these magazines, we witness an avant-garde desire to transform the institution of book-making into an art-full lifestyle. The published materials of the small presses, like the little magazines and other printed ephemera, were not sold by corporate chain bookstores making the works difficult to find. Reprints and second editions are rare.

 

Though many of the small press publishing houses that emerged alongside the rush of magazines collapsed, such as the very influential Contact Press and Delta Canada, others such as the Coach House Press and Oberon Press continue publishing to this day. The movement continues to spread and there are now fairs, festivals and reading series in many Canadian cities catering specifically and exclusively to small press authors and publishers. With a complex history of hundreds of presses and magazines since the 1960s, the small press has become a distinct literary subculture that spans the country and touches (or has touched) nearly every writing community in its midst.

 

Whatever the interpretation of the role and function of such magazines and presses, they provide the setting where new poetry and new poets have their beginning. The key developments of modern poetry in Canada take place on these makeshift stages. Often these magazines were unpretentious, modestly-printed or mimeographed periodicals, edited by writers just beginning their careers with little to no connection to the reading public. In this way, the little magazine and small press were "a form of semi-private publication which aims at public success and eventual victory over whatever is established in literary taste." [3]  Overall, the small pressers have individually published more (and often better) Canadian poetry than most of the publishing houses in the country, and their influence can still be felt to this day.

 

 

 

[1] Michael Gnarowski, "The Role of the 'Little Magazines' in the Development of Poetry in English Montreal," The Making of Modern Poetry in Canada, eds. Louis Dudek and Michael Gnarowski, (Toronto: 1967), 212-213.

[2] Frank Davey, "Anything but Reluctant: Canada's Little Magazines," Canadian Literature, No. 13, (Summer 1962), 39-40.

[3] Louis Dudek and Michael Gnarowski, "The Little Magazines," The Making Of Modern Poetry In Canada, 203.