|
About The
Republic of Letters
Home> About
"The Republic
of Letters is of very ancient origin . . .
It embraces the whole world and is composed
of all nationalities, all social classes,
all ages and both sexes . . . All
languages, ancient as well as modern, are
spoken. The arts are joined to letters, and
artisans have their place in it; but its religion
is not uniform, and its manners (as in all
republics) are a mixture of good and bad.
Piety and licentiousness are both to be found . . . Praise
and honor are awarded by popular acclaim."
—M. de
Vigneul-Marville, 1699.
News from the Republic of Letters is based on first-class writing by first-class writers. TRoL is open minded and accepts manuscripts across a catholic range of subjects, lengths, and languages. Its primary function is to print first-rate material. TRoL looks for new authors and undiscovered talent, as well as toward well-established writers. TRoL is an international magazine which often includes translations of foreign texts and authors from around the world.
TroL is affiliated with two European magazines: L'Atelier du roman, edited by Lakis Proguidis, and Sud, edited by Francesco Forlani.
TRoL magazine was founded as collaboration between Saul Bellow and Keith Botsford, an editing relationship of more than fifty years, which includes TRoL, the Noble Savage, ANON, and Editors: The Best of Five Decades.
TRoL began publication in broadsheet format in 1997, then changed to a bound edition in 2003. (printed by The Toby Press). In 2008, TRoL reverted to its original broadsheet format. Starting in 2009 the magazine will be published by Sylph Editions.
Sylph Editions publishes limited-edition art and photography books, monographs, theoretical essays and different forms of experimental writing. The emphasis is on works in which image and text coexist, conceived as one. Every work is meticulously produced, care given equally both to content and to form.
Sylph Editions | Lewes, East Sussex | UK
News from the Republic of Letters is not sponsored by any institution. From the beginning it has been paid for by the editors. Please Subscribe, Become a Citizen of the Republic!
Saul Bellow wrote:
"One of the more
attractive oddities of the United States is
that our minorities are so numerous, so huge.
A minority of millions is not at all unusual.
But there are in fact millions of literate
Americans in a state of separation from others
of their kind. They are, if you like, the
readers of Cheever, a crowd of them too large
to be hidden in the woods. Departments of
literature across the country have not succeeded
in alienating them from books, works old and
new. My friend Keith Botsford and I felt strongly
that if the woods were filled with readers
gone astray, among those readers there were
probably writers as well.
To learn in detail of
their existence you have only to publish a
magazine like The Republic of Letters.
Given encouragement, unknown writers, formerly
without hope, materialize. One early reader
wrote that our paper, "with its contents
so fresh, person-to-person," was "real,
non-synthetic, undistracting." Noting
that there were no ads, she asked, "Is
it possible, can it last?" and called
it "an antidote to the shrinking of the
human being in every one of us." And
toward the end of her letter our correspondent
added, "It behooves the elder generation
to come up with reminders of who we used to
be and need to be." This is what Keith
Botsford and I had hoped that our "tabloid
for literates" would be. And for two
years it has been just that. We are a pair
of utopian codgers who feel we have a duty
to literature. I hope we are not like those
humane do-gooders who, when the horse was
vanishing, still donated troughs in City Hall
Square for thirsty nags."
—The
New York Times, Writers
on Writing, 1999
|
