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Fw: William Phillips, Partisan Review Co - Founder, Dies
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Galya Diment" <galya@u.washington.edu>
To: "Nabokov" <NABOKV-L@listserv.ucsb.edu>
Sent: Saturday, September 14, 2002 10:09 AM
Subject: William Phillips, Partisan Review Co - Founder, Dies
>
> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (80
lines) ------------------
>
> This may be of interest to the list readers. PR considered publishing an
> extract of LOLITA in 1955 but the in-house lawyers recommended against it.
> Nabokov published "Problems of Translation: 'Onegin' in English" there the
> same year. There is a longer obituary for Phillips in today's New York
> Times.
>
> Galya Diment
>
>
> Partisan Review Co - Founder Dies
>
> September 14, 2002
> By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
>
>
> Filed at 6:47 a.m. ET
>
> NEW YORK (AP) -- William Phillips, who co-founded the
> Partisan Review and was its editor for more than 60 years,
> died in Manhattan. He was 94.
>
> Phillips, who died Friday, founded the magazine with Philip
> Rahv, and the two molded it into one of the most
> influential literary and political journals in the country
> in the years before and after World War II.
>
> It introduced Americans to existentialism, and published
> the work of such well-known intellectuals and writers as
> Lionel Trilling, Mary McCarthy, Irving Howe and Dwight
> Macdonald.
>
> The early writings of Norman Mailer and James Baldwin,
> among others, appeared in its pages, as did many famous
> works, including Isaac Bashevis Singer's ``Gimpel the
> Fool,'' and Susan Sontag's essay ``Notes on Camp.''
>
> Born in East Harlem, Phillips grew up poor in the East
> Bronx and attended City College, where he studied with the
> philosopher Morris Raphael Cohen. He went on to take
> graduate courses at New York University.
>
> Phillips, who said the Depression stirred his interest in
> politics, joined the John Reed Club, a Greenwich Village
> organization of writers and artists that was supported by
> the Communist Party.
>
> He eventually became the club's secretary, but sought to
> express more subtle distinctions in his views, and found an
> ally in Rahv, who was discontent with writing for The New
> Masses, a Communist journal.
>
> In 1934, the two founded the Partisan Review in a Greenwich
> Village loft as the club's official journal.
>
> But after nine issues, Rahv and Phillips broke away from
> the John Reed Club, losing longtime friends in the process.
> They sought to attack Stalinism and the Soviet Union,
> instead advocating a purer Marxism and advancing
> avant-garde culture.
>
> The magazine's first independent issue included the famous
> story by Delmore Schwartz, ``In Dreams Begin
> Responsibilities,'' as well as a poem by Wallace Stevens
> and essays by Lionel Abel and Edmund Wilson.
>
> Ravh and Phillips had a relationship fraught with drama,
> and when the magazine's board named Phillips
> editor-in-chief in 1965, Rahv sued. He won the right to
> read manuscripts, but resigned in 1969 to start his own
> magazine. He died in 1972.
>
> After its heyday, the Partisan Review was supported by
> Rutgers and then Boston University. Phillips continued to
> read manuscripts into his 90s.
>
> Phillips married Edna Greenblatt, a high school teacher, in
> 1933. She died in 1985. The couple had no children.
>
>
>
From: "Galya Diment" <galya@u.washington.edu>
To: "Nabokov" <NABOKV-L@listserv.ucsb.edu>
Sent: Saturday, September 14, 2002 10:09 AM
Subject: William Phillips, Partisan Review Co - Founder, Dies
>
> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (80
lines) ------------------
>
> This may be of interest to the list readers. PR considered publishing an
> extract of LOLITA in 1955 but the in-house lawyers recommended against it.
> Nabokov published "Problems of Translation: 'Onegin' in English" there the
> same year. There is a longer obituary for Phillips in today's New York
> Times.
>
> Galya Diment
>
>
> Partisan Review Co - Founder Dies
>
> September 14, 2002
> By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
>
>
> Filed at 6:47 a.m. ET
>
> NEW YORK (AP) -- William Phillips, who co-founded the
> Partisan Review and was its editor for more than 60 years,
> died in Manhattan. He was 94.
>
> Phillips, who died Friday, founded the magazine with Philip
> Rahv, and the two molded it into one of the most
> influential literary and political journals in the country
> in the years before and after World War II.
>
> It introduced Americans to existentialism, and published
> the work of such well-known intellectuals and writers as
> Lionel Trilling, Mary McCarthy, Irving Howe and Dwight
> Macdonald.
>
> The early writings of Norman Mailer and James Baldwin,
> among others, appeared in its pages, as did many famous
> works, including Isaac Bashevis Singer's ``Gimpel the
> Fool,'' and Susan Sontag's essay ``Notes on Camp.''
>
> Born in East Harlem, Phillips grew up poor in the East
> Bronx and attended City College, where he studied with the
> philosopher Morris Raphael Cohen. He went on to take
> graduate courses at New York University.
>
> Phillips, who said the Depression stirred his interest in
> politics, joined the John Reed Club, a Greenwich Village
> organization of writers and artists that was supported by
> the Communist Party.
>
> He eventually became the club's secretary, but sought to
> express more subtle distinctions in his views, and found an
> ally in Rahv, who was discontent with writing for The New
> Masses, a Communist journal.
>
> In 1934, the two founded the Partisan Review in a Greenwich
> Village loft as the club's official journal.
>
> But after nine issues, Rahv and Phillips broke away from
> the John Reed Club, losing longtime friends in the process.
> They sought to attack Stalinism and the Soviet Union,
> instead advocating a purer Marxism and advancing
> avant-garde culture.
>
> The magazine's first independent issue included the famous
> story by Delmore Schwartz, ``In Dreams Begin
> Responsibilities,'' as well as a poem by Wallace Stevens
> and essays by Lionel Abel and Edmund Wilson.
>
> Ravh and Phillips had a relationship fraught with drama,
> and when the magazine's board named Phillips
> editor-in-chief in 1965, Rahv sued. He won the right to
> read manuscripts, but resigned in 1969 to start his own
> magazine. He died in 1972.
>
> After its heyday, the Partisan Review was supported by
> Rutgers and then Boston University. Phillips continued to
> read manuscripts into his 90s.
>
> Phillips married Edna Greenblatt, a high school teacher, in
> 1933. She died in 1985. The couple had no children.
>
>
>