Broom: An International Magazine of the Arts
Encyclopedia
Broom: An International Magazine of the Arts was a little magazine founded by Harold Loeb
and Alfred Kreymborg
and published from November 1921 to January 1924. Initially, the magazine was printed in Europe with the intention of bringing new, avant-garde
art back to the U.S.
Loeb later claimed he no longer remembered why he choose the name Broom, but they had gone through a list of one-syllable words and "broom" was the only one left. Ostensibly, the title of the magazine coalesced with the stated focus in the first issue, publishing "the unknown, path-breaking artist", allowing the new artist the opportunity to sweep away the old.
, to help him start a little magazine. The two collected some American writing and left for Europe in June 1921. The magazine was headquartered in Europe, first in Rome, later in Berlin, to take advantage of the cheaper printing costs and favorable exchange rate as well as to gain access to European and expatriate art. Loeb ran the magazine in Rome with Nathaniel Shaw operating as the New York editor who had to acquire American submissions and to handle the importing of the magazine to the U.S.
, Conrad Aiken
, Wallace Stevens
, and Sherwood Anderson
. The magazine also contained notable artwork by Picasso, Jacques Lipchitz
, Joseph Stella
, and Man Ray
. While working on the third issue, Loeb and Kreymborg clashed over financial and editing issues, which resulted in Loeb dismissing Kreymborg and buying him out of his share in the magazine.
Loeb took over the main editing duties in the Rome office and in April 1922 he replaced Shaw, the New York editor, with Lola Ridge
. Shaw was held responsible for the shipping problems to the U.S. that were hampering the magazine's finances. In the May issue Loeb published his article, "Foreign Exchange", which took a more positive view of American industrialization. At the same time, Loeb began a correspondence with Matthew Josephson
, who also supported the aesthetic within industrialization and was an editor of Secession, a rival expatriate
little magazine. Loeb latter published Josephson's response to his essay entitled "Made in America." Their friendship culminated in Loeb moving the magazine to Berlin and Josephson becoming an editor of Broom.
, Hart Crane
, and Marianne Moore
. Additionally, Loeb and Josephson attempted to strengthen their focus toward what came to be known as "skyscraper
primitivism
", a term for the championing of the aesthetic in industrialization that Josephson and Loeb forwarded; Loeb considered the term a simplistic misnomer. In March, Loeb left for New York to gain some investors for the magazine; however, he returned empty handed, which forced the magazine to cease publication. Josephson felt that Broom had at least 3000 loyal readers and wanted to try to continue publishing. Loeb left to focus on his career as a novelist, but told Josephson that he could attempt to resurrect Broom.
and Slater Brown, restarted the magazine in New York. The American version of Broom was greatly scaled down from the European versions. Josephson reduced the quality of the paper, trimmed the margins, and lessened the pages to sixty-four. Nevertheless, Josephson was able to publish five issues with work from E.E. Cummings, Toomer, and artist Juan Gris
. The magazine continued to struggle financially and when the U.S. postal service seized the January edition for obscenity
, due to a narrative, "Prince Llan", by Kenneth Burke
, which mentions "breast" in the plural, Broom was forced to cease publication due to the lack of funds.
, which attacked Loeb in relation to his financial background. Due to his family connections, many assumed that the magazine had a large financial backing and characterized Broom as a product of the wealthy elite. Despite these attacks, Broom had a readership of around 4000, which was quite substantial for a little magazine. The importance of the magazine has also been debated, with Frederick Hoffman claiming that "Broom was not an important magazine" and "was not particularly pioneering." Alternatively, Craig Monk sees Broom and other expatriate magazines as helping "make hospitable to Americans the foreign centers of modernism." While Broom may have suffered from a lack of originality or editorial focus, the magazine definitely played a major role in exposing European modernism to U.S.
Reprints
Harold Loeb
Harold Albert Loeb was an American figure active in the arts in Paris in the 1920s. Loeb attended Princeton University where he boxed. Loeb served in World War I and after the War was Ernest Hemingway's sparring partner. Loeb served as co-editor of Broom, An International Magazine of the Arts . He...
and Alfred Kreymborg
Alfred Kreymborg
Alfred Francis Kreymborg was an American poet, novelist, playwright, literary editor and anthologist.-Early life and associations:...
and published from November 1921 to January 1924. Initially, the magazine was printed in Europe with the intention of bringing new, avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
art back to the U.S.
Loeb later claimed he no longer remembered why he choose the name Broom, but they had gone through a list of one-syllable words and "broom" was the only one left. Ostensibly, the title of the magazine coalesced with the stated focus in the first issue, publishing "the unknown, path-breaking artist", allowing the new artist the opportunity to sweep away the old.
Background
Loeb, the son of two powerful New York Jewish families, the Guggenheims on his Mother's side and the Loebs on his father's side, met Kreymborg while he owned a partnership in the Sunwise Turn bookstore. Loeb eventually sold his interest in the bookstore and convinced Kreymborg, who had previously edited Others: A Magazine of the New VerseOthers: A Magazine of the New Verse
Others: A Magazine of the New Verse was founded by Alfred Kreymborg in July, 1915 with financing from Walter Conrad Arensberg. The magazine ran until July, 1919. It published poetry and other writing, as well as visual art. While the magazine never had more than 300 subscribers, it helped launch...
, to help him start a little magazine. The two collected some American writing and left for Europe in June 1921. The magazine was headquartered in Europe, first in Rome, later in Berlin, to take advantage of the cheaper printing costs and favorable exchange rate as well as to gain access to European and expatriate art. Loeb ran the magazine in Rome with Nathaniel Shaw operating as the New York editor who had to acquire American submissions and to handle the importing of the magazine to the U.S.
Rome (November 1921-November 1922)
Loeb and Kreymborg began working on the first issue in August; it was published in November and sold for fifty cents a copy or five dollars for a year subscription. Loeb was pleased with the quality of the paper, the large margins, and the quality of the art reproductions and illustrations; however, he felt that the magazine lacked originality and a clear focus. The first few issues contained few lesser-known artists, while and including submissions from Amy LowellAmy 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:...
, Conrad Aiken
Conrad Aiken
Conrad Potter Aiken was an American novelist and poet, whose work includes poetry, short stories, novels, a play and an autobiography.-Early years:...
, Wallace Stevens
Wallace Stevens
Wallace Stevens was an American Modernist poet. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, educated at Harvard and then New York Law School, and spent most of his life working as a lawyer for the Hartford insurance company in Connecticut.His best-known poems include "Anecdote of the Jar",...
, and 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,...
. The magazine also contained notable artwork by Picasso, Jacques Lipchitz
Jacques Lipchitz
Jacques Lipchitz was a Cubist sculptor.Jacques Lipchitz was born Chaim Jacob Lipchitz, son of a building contractor in Druskininkai, Lithuania, then within the Russian Empire...
, Joseph Stella
Joseph Stella
Joseph Stella was an Italian-born, American Futurist painter best known for his depictions of industrial America. He is associated with the American Precisionism movement of the 1910s-1940s....
, and Man Ray
Man Ray
Man Ray , born Emmanuel Radnitzky, was an American artist who spent most of his career in Paris, France. Perhaps best described simply as a modernist, he was a significant contributor to both the Dada and Surrealist movements, although his ties to each were informal...
. While working on the third issue, Loeb and Kreymborg clashed over financial and editing issues, which resulted in Loeb dismissing Kreymborg and buying him out of his share in the magazine.
Loeb took over the main editing duties in the Rome office and in April 1922 he replaced Shaw, the New York editor, with Lola Ridge
Lola Ridge
Lola Ridge was an anarchist poet and an influential editor of avant-garde, feminist, and Marxist publications best remembered for her long poems and poetic sequences...
. Shaw was held responsible for the shipping problems to the U.S. that were hampering the magazine's finances. In the May issue Loeb published his article, "Foreign Exchange", which took a more positive view of American industrialization. At the same time, Loeb began a correspondence with Matthew Josephson
Matthew Josephson
Matthew Josephson was an American journalist and author of works on nineteenth-century French literature and twentieth-century American economic history.-Biography:...
, who also supported the aesthetic within industrialization and was an editor of Secession, a rival expatriate
Expatriate
An expatriate is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country and culture other than that of the person's upbringing...
little magazine. Loeb latter published Josephson's response to his essay entitled "Made in America." Their friendship culminated in Loeb moving the magazine to Berlin and Josephson becoming an editor of Broom.
Berlin (November 1922- March 1923)
Even before the move to Berlin, Loeb and the magazine were on shaky financial ground; Loeb and Josephson struggled to make Broom a success while also striving to create a unique voice for the magazine. During this period, the magazine published work by Jean ToomerJean Toomer
Jean Toomer was an American poet and novelist and an important figure of the Harlem Renaissance. His first book Cane is considered by many as his most significant.-Early life:...
, Hart Crane
Hart Crane
-Career:Throughout the early 1920s, small but well-respected literary magazines published some of Crane’s lyrics, gaining him, among the avant-garde, a respect that White Buildings , his first volume, ratified and strengthened...
, and Marianne Moore
Marianne Moore
Marianne Moore was an American Modernist poet and writer noted for her irony and wit.- Life :Moore was born in Kirkwood, Missouri, in the manse of the Presbyterian church where her maternal grandfather, John Riddle Warner, served as pastor. She was the daughter of mechanical engineer and inventor...
. Additionally, Loeb and Josephson attempted to strengthen their focus toward what came to be known as "skyscraper
Skyscraper
A skyscraper is a tall, continuously habitable building of many stories, often designed for office and commercial use. There is no official definition or height above which a building may be classified as a skyscraper...
primitivism
Primitivism
Primitivism is a Western art movement that borrows visual forms from non-Western or prehistoric peoples, such as Paul Gauguin's inclusion of Tahitian motifs in paintings and ceramics...
", a term for the championing of the aesthetic in industrialization that Josephson and Loeb forwarded; Loeb considered the term a simplistic misnomer. In March, Loeb left for New York to gain some investors for the magazine; however, he returned empty handed, which forced the magazine to cease publication. Josephson felt that Broom had at least 3000 loyal readers and wanted to try to continue publishing. Loeb left to focus on his career as a novelist, but told Josephson that he could attempt to resurrect Broom.
New York (August 1923-January 1924)
In August 1923, Josephson, with the help of Malcolm CowleyMalcolm Cowley
Malcolm Cowley was an American novelist, poet, literary critic, and journalist.-Early life:...
and Slater Brown, restarted the magazine in New York. The American version of Broom was greatly scaled down from the European versions. Josephson reduced the quality of the paper, trimmed the margins, and lessened the pages to sixty-four. Nevertheless, Josephson was able to publish five issues with work from E.E. Cummings, Toomer, and artist Juan Gris
Juan Gris
José Victoriano González-Pérez , better known as Juan Gris, was a Spanish painter and sculptor who lived and worked in France most of his life...
. The magazine continued to struggle financially and when the U.S. postal service seized the January edition for obscenity
Obscenity
An obscenity is any statement or act which strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time, is a profanity, or is otherwise taboo, indecent, abhorrent, or disgusting, or is especially inauspicious...
, due to a narrative, "Prince Llan", by Kenneth Burke
Kenneth Burke
Kenneth Duva Burke was a major American literary theorist and philosopher. Burke's primary interests were in rhetoric and aesthetics.-Personal history:...
, which mentions "breast" in the plural, Broom was forced to cease publication due to the lack of funds.
Reception and legacy
The initial reception of Broom was mixed as evidenced by the attacks toward the magazine such as those published in The DialThe 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...
, which attacked Loeb in relation to his financial background. Due to his family connections, many assumed that the magazine had a large financial backing and characterized Broom as a product of the wealthy elite. Despite these attacks, Broom had a readership of around 4000, which was quite substantial for a little magazine. The importance of the magazine has also been debated, with Frederick Hoffman claiming that "Broom was not an important magazine" and "was not particularly pioneering." Alternatively, Craig Monk sees Broom and other expatriate magazines as helping "make hospitable to Americans the foreign centers of modernism." While Broom may have suffered from a lack of originality or editorial focus, the magazine definitely played a major role in exposing European modernism to U.S.
Broom
- Broom: An International Magazine of the Arts. Published by Americans in Italy. Vol. 1, No. 1, November 1921 - Vol. 6, Mo. 1, January 1924. Edited by Harold A.Loeb, Alfred Kreymborg, Slater Brown, Matthew Josephson and Malcolm Cowley (associate editors), Lola Ridge (American editor). Published by The Broom Publishing Company, Rome and New York.
Reprints
- Broom. An International Magazine of the Arts. Kraus Reprints, New York 1967. 5 Vols.
- The Broom Anthology. Edited, with an introduction by Harold Loeb. Milford House, Pound Ridge, New York 1969.