Chicago Review
Encyclopedia
The Chicago Review is a literary magazine
published four times per year in the Humanities Division at the University of Chicago
. It was founded in 1946. Three stories published in the Chicago Review have won the O. Henry Prize. Work that first appeared in the Chicago Review has also been reprinted in The Best American Poetry 2002
, The Best American Poetry 2004
, and The Best American Short Stories 2003
.
Many well-known writers have published in the review, both before and after they became famous, including Henry Miller
, Phillip Roth, Lawrence Ferlinghetti
, Jack Kerouac
, William S. Burroughs
, Allen Ginsberg
, Tennessee Williams
, William Carlos Williams
, Anaïs Nin
, Charles Simic
, James Tate
, Charles Bukowski
, Raymond Carver
, Philip Levine
, Joyce Carol Oates
, Michael Palmer
, Robert Pinsky
, Edward Dorn, Anne Carson
, and Robert Duncan
, amongst many others.
, which was judged obscene by the Chicago Daily News
and sparked public outcry; this episode will lead to the censorship of the following issue, to which the editors responded by resigning and starting a new magazine in which to freely publish Beat fiction.
The Chicago Review also played a significant role in introducing Zen
to the American public.
prohibited editor Irving Rosenthal
from publishing a winter issue that was to include Jack Kerouac
's Sebastian Midnite, a thirty page excerpt from William S. Burroughs's Naked Lunch
and a thirty-page work by Edward Dahlberg
. The concern of the university was that the work might be deemed obscene. All but one editor quit the paper. Rosenthal, Allen Ginsberg and others responded by founding Big Table; its first issue included ten chapters of Naked Lunch.
In the context of the ongoing nation-wide conflict between traditional vs. Beat fiction, the impact of the creation of Big table was such that, as Thomas Pynchon
recalled, among the literature college students at Cornell University
, "'What happened at Chicago' became shorthand for some unimaginable subversive threat."
Literary magazine
A literary magazine is a periodical devoted to literature in a broad sense. Literary magazines usually publish short stories, poetry and essays along with literary criticism, book reviews, biographical profiles of authors, interviews and letters...
published four times per year in the Humanities Division at the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
. It was founded in 1946. Three stories published in the Chicago Review have won the O. Henry Prize. Work that first appeared in the Chicago Review has also been reprinted in The Best American Poetry 2002
The Best American Poetry 2002
The Best American Poetry 2002, a volume in The Best American Poetry series, was edited by David Lehman, with poems chosen by guest editor Robert Creeley.The first print run for the book was 30,000....
, The Best American Poetry 2004
The Best American Poetry 2004
The Best American Poetry 2004, a volume in The Best American Poetry series, was edited by general editor David Lehman. The guest editor for the year was Lyn Hejinian....
, and The Best American Short Stories 2003
The Best American Short Stories 2003
The Best American Short Stories 2003, a volume in The Best American Short Stories series, was edited by Katrina Kennison and by guest editor Walter Mosley.-Short stories included:-Other notable stories:...
.
Many well-known writers have published in the review, both before and after they became famous, including Henry Miller
Henry Miller
Henry Valentine Miller was an American novelist and painter. He was known for breaking with existing literary forms and developing a new sort of 'novel' that is a mixture of novel, autobiography, social criticism, philosophical reflection, surrealist free association, and mysticism, one that is...
, Phillip Roth, Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Lawrence Ferlinghetti is an American poet, painter, liberal activist, and the co-founder of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers...
, Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac
Jean-Louis "Jack" Lebris de Kerouac was an American novelist and poet. He is considered a literary iconoclast and, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Kerouac is recognized for his spontaneous method of writing, covering topics such as Catholic...
, William S. Burroughs
William S. Burroughs
William Seward Burroughs II was an American novelist, poet, essayist and spoken word performer. A primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author, he is considered to be "one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the 20th...
, Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
, Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams
Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was an American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater. He also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs...
, William Carlos Williams
William Carlos Williams
William Carlos Williams was an American poet closely associated with modernism and Imagism. He was also a pediatrician and general practitioner of medicine, having graduated from the University of Pennsylvania...
, Anaïs Nin
Anaïs Nin
Anaïs Nin was a French-Cuban author, based at first in France and later in the United States, who published her journals, which span more than 60 years, beginning when she was 11 years old and ending shortly before her death, her erotic literature, and short stories...
, Charles Simic
Charles Simic
Dušan "Charles" Simić is a Serbian-American poet, and was co-Poetry Editor of the Paris Review. He was appointed the fifteenth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 2007.-Early years:...
, James Tate
James Tate (writer)
James Tate is an American poet whose work has earned him the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. He is a professor of English at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters...
, Charles Bukowski
Charles Bukowski
Henry Charles Bukowski was an American poet, novelist and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural and economic ambience of his home city of Los Angeles...
, Raymond Carver
Raymond Carver
Raymond Clevie Carver, Jr. was an American short story writer and poet. Carver is considered a major American writer of the late 20th century and also a major force in the revitalization of the short story in the 1980s....
, Philip Levine
Philip Levine (poet)
Philip Levine is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet best known for his poems about working-class Detroit. He taught for over thirty years at the English Department of California State University, Fresno and held teaching positions at other universities as well...
, Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates is an American author. Oates published her first book in 1963 and has since published over fifty novels, as well as many volumes of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction...
, Michael Palmer
Michael Palmer
Michael Palmer is an American poet and translator. He attended Harvard University where he earned a BA in French and a MA in Comparative Literature. He has worked extensively with Contemporary dance for over thirty years and has collaborated with many composers and visual artists...
, Robert Pinsky
Robert Pinsky
Robert Pinsky is an American poet, essayist, literary critic, and translator. From 1997 to 2000, he served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. Pinsky is the author of nineteen books, most of which are collections of his own poetry...
, Edward Dorn, Anne Carson
Anne Carson
Anne Carson is a Canadian poet, essayist, translator and professor of Classics. Carson lived in Montreal for several years and taught at McGill University, the University of Michigan, and at Princeton University from 1980-1987....
, and Robert Duncan
Robert Duncan (poet)
Robert Duncan was an American poet and a student of H.D. and the Western esoteric tradition who spent most of his career in and around San Francisco. Though associated with any number of literary traditions and schools, Duncan is often identified with the poets of the New American Poetry and Black...
, amongst many others.
Early history
Before the censorship by the university administration, the Chicago Review was an early and leading promoter of the Beat Movement in American literature. In the Autumn 1958, it published an excerpt from Burroughs' Naked LunchNaked Lunch
Naked Lunch is a novel by William S. Burroughs originally published in 1959. The book is structured as a series of loosely-connected vignettes. Burroughs stated that the chapters are intended to be read in any order...
, which was judged obscene by the Chicago Daily News
Chicago Daily News
The Chicago Daily News was an afternoon daily newspaper published between 1876 and 1978 in Chicago, Illinois.-History:The Daily News was founded by Melville E. Stone, Percy Meggy, and William Dougherty in 1875 and began publishing early the next year...
and sparked public outcry; this episode will lead to the censorship of the following issue, to which the editors responded by resigning and starting a new magazine in which to freely publish Beat fiction.
The Chicago Review also played a significant role in introducing Zen
Zen
Zen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism founded by the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma. The word Zen is from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word Chán , which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which can be approximately translated as "meditation" or "meditative state."Zen...
to the American public.
Censorship controversy
The Chicago Review became the subject of considerable controversy in 1959, when the University of ChicagoUniversity of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
prohibited editor Irving Rosenthal
Irving Rosenthal
Irving Rosenthal an amusement company owner who, along with his brother Jack Rosenthal, operated the Palisades Amusement Park near Cliffside Park and Fort Lee, New Jersey, from 1934 until its closing in 1971....
from publishing a winter issue that was to include Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac
Jean-Louis "Jack" Lebris de Kerouac was an American novelist and poet. He is considered a literary iconoclast and, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Kerouac is recognized for his spontaneous method of writing, covering topics such as Catholic...
's Sebastian Midnite, a thirty page excerpt from William S. Burroughs's Naked Lunch
Naked Lunch
Naked Lunch is a novel by William S. Burroughs originally published in 1959. The book is structured as a series of loosely-connected vignettes. Burroughs stated that the chapters are intended to be read in any order...
and a thirty-page work by Edward Dahlberg
Edward Dahlberg
Edward Dahlberg was an American novelist, essayist and autobiographer. -Background:Edward Dahlberg was born in Boston, Massachusetts to Elizabeth Dahlberg. Together mother and son led a vagabond existence, until 1905 when she operated the Star Lady Barbershop in Kansas City...
. The concern of the university was that the work might be deemed obscene. All but one editor quit the paper. Rosenthal, Allen Ginsberg and others responded by founding Big Table; its first issue included ten chapters of Naked Lunch.
In the context of the ongoing nation-wide conflict between traditional vs. Beat fiction, the impact of the creation of Big table was such that, as Thomas Pynchon
Thomas Pynchon
Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, Jr. is an American novelist. For his most praised novel, Gravity's Rainbow, Pynchon received the National Book Award, and is regularly cited as a contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature...
recalled, among the literature college students at Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
, "'What happened at Chicago' became shorthand for some unimaginable subversive threat."