Making It News: Money and Marketing in the Expatriate Modernist Little Magazine in Europe

Abstract

This article deals with practical and economic aspects of expatriate little magazine production and should be seen as furthering the understanding of the economic and promotional underpinnings of modernist cultural expression in the 1920s and 30s. In particular, the article indicates to what extent literary ambitions and idealistic actions associated with the editing of a little magazine on the European continent intermingled with material and promotional concerns. Moreover, by focusing on expatriate little magazines, the article emphasizes the significance of geographical location for both practical and marketing purposes. Marketing ambitions blended with tactics for gaining legitimacy, and promotional language provided a valuable tool for advancing sales as well as cultural credibility. One important way of catering to economic interests while upholding literary ambitions was to incorporate the magazines into the flow of news, suggesting an affinity with publication types dedicated to hot topics, large readerships, and the journalistic virtue of presence on the scene. Designating the little magazine and its literary content as news therefore complicates and troubles the boundary between elitist and popular culture.