Category:Anti-Philistine: A Monthly Magazine & Review of Belles-Lettres: also Periodical of Protest
From Victorian Literature
Title: The Anti-Philistine: A Monthly Magazine & Review of Belles-Lettres: also Periodical of Protest
Editor: John Cowley
Publisher: John Cowley and Horace Cowley
The Anti-Philistine was a short-lived literary periodical, published in London by brothers John and Horace Cowley and edited by John Cowley.[1] The periodical only published four issues on the fifteenth of every month from June to September, 1897. The purpose of The Anti-Philistine was to provide audiences with a “bibelot” of intellectual literature.[2] The periodical was published in response to Elbert Hubbard’s periodical, The Philistine: A Periodical of Protest, although it was never as successful. The periodical resists literature that appeals to the everyman and strives to bring critical thought and elitist excellence to literary analysis. According to its motto, The Anti-Philistine “is a pamphlet periodical of carefully selected Literature from some of the best Wits, the strongest, most robust and masculine minds amongst the Younger Writers in the Modern Movement.”[3] Its readership mainly included intellectual adults who sought for exceptional, thought-provoking literature.
Although The Anti-Philistine is often critical of American literature, many American authors contributed to the periodical such as Ambrose Bierce and Francis and Edgar Saltus. Most of the literature included in the periodical is short fiction with a few inclusions of poetry and fables. The periodical also includes reviews, announcements, biographies, and a recurring section on new books.
Submitted by: Palmer, Alison: section 1, Fall 2008
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