Scrutiny: A Quarterly Review was a literature

Literature

Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...

 periodical founded in 1932 by F. R. Leavis

F. R. Leavis

Frank Raymond "F. R." Leavis CH was an influential British literary critic of the early-to-mid-twentieth century. He taught for nearly his entire career at Downing College, Cambridge.-Early life:...

, who remained its principal editor until the final issue in 1953. Other editors include Lionel Charles Knights

Lionel Charles Knights

Lionel Charles Knights was an English literary critic, an authority on Shakespeare and his period. His essay How many children had Lady Macbeth? is a classic of modern criticism. He became King Edward VII Professor of English Literature at the University of Cambridge in 1965.-Early life:He was...

 and Harold Andrew Mason

Harold Andrew Mason

Harold Andrew Mason was a lecturer of English at Exeter University.- Biography :Mason was born in Hull, England in 1911. He was educated at Hull Grammar School, Christ's Hospital, Hull University College and Oriel College, Oxford. He graduated from Oxford in 1934...

.

An additional volume, number 20, is often included in this series, including "A Retrospect" by Leavis, indexes, and errata.

Background

The first issue appeared early in May 1932, with 100 copies sold in the first week, with subscribers including T.S. Eliot, George Santayana

George Santayana

George Santayana was a philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist. A lifelong Spanish citizen, Santayana was raised and educated in the United States and identified himself as an American. He wrote in English and is generally considered an American man of letters...

, R. H. Tawney

R. H. Tawney

Richard Henry Tawney was an English economic historian, social critic, Christian socialist, and an important proponent of adult education....

 and Aldous Huxley

Aldous Huxley

Aldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. Best known for his novels including Brave New World and a wide-ranging output of essays, Huxley also edited the magazine Oxford Poetry, and published short stories, poetry, travel...

. The circulation rose slowly, with 750 copies being printed later in the 1930s, and 1000 copies in the 1940s. At its height in the 1950s, Scrutiny only printed 1,500 copies, but most of these were held by colleges and academic libraries for circulation. As such, Scrutiny was widely read, and Leavis became very influential in 20th century literary criticism

Literary criticism

Literary criticism is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often informed by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of its methods and goals...

 in part because he was editor of the journal.

After writing many articles for the journal, music critic Wilfrid Mellers

Wilfrid Mellers

Wilfrid Howard Mellers OBE was an English music critic, musicologist and composer.-Early life:Born in Leamington, Warwickshire, Mellers was educated at the local Leamington College and later won a scholarship to Downing College, Cambridge, where he read English. At Cambridge, he formed a...

 appeared on the editorial board of the January 1942 issue, and continued in that position until the December 1948 issue. Besides its editorial staff, Scrutiny was able to have a contributing body of many important literary critics

Literary criticism

Literary criticism is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often informed by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of its methods and goals...

, including: Marlus Bewley, William Empson

William Empson

Sir William Empson was an English literary critic and poet.He was known as "燕卜荪" in Chinese.He was widely influential for his practice of closely reading literary works, fundamental to the New Critics...

, L.C. Knights, Michael Oakeshott

Michael Oakeshott

Michael Joseph Oakeshott was an English philosopher and political theorist who wrote about philosophy of history, philosophy of religion, aesthetics, and philosophy of law...

, Herbert Read

Herbert Read

Sir Herbert Edward Read, DSO, MC was an English anarchist, poet, and critic of literature and art. He was one of the earliest English writers to take notice of existentialism, and was strongly influenced by proto-existentialist thinker Max Stirner....

, I. A. Richards

I. A. Richards

Ivor Armstrong Richards was an influential English literary critic and rhetorician....

, George Santayana

George Santayana

George Santayana was a philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist. A lifelong Spanish citizen, Santayana was raised and educated in the United States and identified himself as an American. He wrote in English and is generally considered an American man of letters...

, Derek Traversi, and Martin Turnell. Some of the contributors to Scrutiny were also contributors to Left Review

Left Review

Left Review was a journal of the Writers' International established in 1934 and continued until 1938.The first issue published a position statement by the Writers' International, declaring Britain's economy and culture were in a state of collapse, and invited responses...

. Many contributors focused on the topics of education and politics, but, according to Richard Poirier

Richard Poirier

Richard Poirier was an American literary critic.He co-founded the Library of America, and served as chairman of its board. He was the Marius Bewley Professor of American and English Literature at Rutgers University...

, "its most important achievement was a nearly complete revaluation of English literature". That is not to say that they always supported these critics; according to John Grant, Scrutiny denounced "the later work of Empson and Richards" and disregarded "critics in the colonies such as Blackmur, Burke, and Frye".

Critical response

Poirier claims that "Scrutiny had earned more respect and more denunciation than any other quarterly in English". Grant, in responding to Poirier's review of Scrutiny, found that "Scrutiny specialized in being right—half the time. In order to praise, it felt compelled also to damn, and then found it easy to do so because it possessed "standards" against which all works could be judged."

There were other detractors, including T. S. Eliot

T. S. Eliot

Thomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...

; "'I so strongly disagreed with Dr Leavis during the last days of [Scrutiny],' Eliot wrote, 'and objected to his attacks and innuendoes about people I knew and respected. I think it is a pity he became so intemperate in his views and was extravagant in his admirations, as I had, in the earlier stages of the magazine, felt great sympathy for its editor.'"

Collections

Articles from Scrutiny have been separately republished in collections.
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• • Review:

Further reading

• • Review:

External links

• Scrutiny: Wilfrid Mellers' early writings