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About The Republic of Letters
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"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



©2007 News from the Republic of Letters All rights reserved.

 

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