Introduction to the Collection
Little magazines have long provided an important key to the understanding of modern literature. Characterized by their non- commercial attitudes and their penchant for the avant-garde and experimental, little magazines have continuously rebelled against established literary expression and theory, demonstrating an aggressive receptivity to new authors, new ideas, and new styles. Such publications usually have very small circulations, and are frequently short-lived; many die after publishing only one or two issues.
The origins of the English-language little magazine may be discerned in the aptly titled Germ, an English Pre-Raphaelite publication which ran for four issues from 1850. It exhibited two characteristics that have remained constant to this day: its contributors primarily belonged to innovative artistic groups in search of a forum, and because commercial gain was not its main objective, it lost money. Since the little magazine renaissance of 1910, the continuing fight for innovative literature not likely to be published by established journals has been grounded in those publications which were the first to publish the early work of a majority of important modern writers, artists, and critics. Little mags have sponsored or introduced all of this century's literary trends, including imagism, dadaism, surrealism, symbolism, and the Beat generation. They were also the first to publish and discuss the artistic and literary manifestations of socialism, psychoanalysis, and Marxism and other social movements. In our own age, esthetic challenges to the established artistic order have been replaced by political ones, and the current magazines reflect and express the reality of feminist, multiculturalist, and gay and lesbian experience. Thus little magazines offer social and political comment inextricably linked with literature, and provide an indispensable context for the study of modern poetry and fiction.
The Little Magazine Collection began its existence in Memorial Library in the late 1950s, when a private collection assembled by Dr. Marvin Sukov, a Minneapolis psychiatrist, was purchased for the Department of Special Collections. These early issues and complete runs of a large number of scarce titles laid the foundation for an extensive and comprehensive collection, arguably the best in the country. It reflects a long-standing library commitment to building exceptional research collections with an emphasis on innovative and experimental writing. The development of the collection was greatly influenced by the exceptional personality and reputation of Felix Pollak, Curator of Rare Books from 1959 to 1973, and a distinguished poet in his own right.
In the almost forty years of its existence the collection has grown to approximately 6,700 titles, including a fairly constant average of 1,200 titles currently received. Since purchase of the Sukov collection, it has been the policy to collect as comprehensively as possible English-language publications, mostly from the United States, Canada, England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, with a good representation from Australia, New Zealand and the Caribbean area, as well as other English-language magazines published anywhere in the world. Literary reviews and academic quarterlies are also represented in the collection, as they fluctuate between inventiveness and academism. Prominence is given to poetry, but current trends such as short fiction are also reflected. Diverse formats such as broadsides, single-sheet issues, three-dimensional objects, full and tabloid sizes, and nowadays electronic publications, are present in the collection. The advent of desk-top publishing has of late given renewed momentum to little magazine activity. It has long been one of the strengths of the collection that it contains not only "the best of the littles", but also any publication reflecting the "little magazine spirit ", no matter how ephemeral or unassuming in format and appearance.
Published reference works and secondary sources about little magazines are collected by Memorial Library and can be found in the General Reference collection, the stacks, or the Reference section of Special Collections. In addition, the Department of Special Collections has kept a file of interviews appearing in all issues received since 1975 (a yearly index is now published in Serials Review). Interviews contain much valuable biographical and bibliographical information often not available elsewhere.
The Little Magazine Collection is non-circulating. Patrons are required to use the materials in the Reading Room. The collection is partly accessible online in MadCat, and the Department of Special Collections maintains complete manual files. Some of the older or scarcer runs are also available in reprint or microfilm format. It is strongly recommended for visiting scholars and researchers to write ahead or telephone for additional information about holdings. The Department of Special Collections is open to the public on weekdays, 9:00-5:00. All correspondence should be addressed to Little Magazine Collection, Department of Special Collections, Memorial Library, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 728 State Street, Madison, WI 53706. The telephone number is 608-262-3243.
Here is the collection development policy.
Scholars interested in the Little Magazine Collection are encouraged to visit the Department of Special Collections