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they were launching a magazine that would last beyond the end of the cen–
tury, or that either they themselves or the publication might become subjects
for scores of dissertations, books and articles. They were unencumbered by
thoughts of posterity and fame. Had they known that intellectual historians
later on might want to interpret their lives, or that subsequent generations
might be interested enough in their endeavors to color, or even misrepresent,
their doings, motives, struggles, and disagreements, they might have kept bet–
ter records, or forbidden editorial assistants to throw these out every time the
office moved. And it moved frequently, mostly due to lack of funds.
William Phillips and Philip Rahv were convinced that political interests
should not affect literary values. Because they were certain that, ultimately, the
voice of the intellect would win out, that momentary expediency might pre–
vail in the short run but not over the long haul, they kept their eyes and ears
on the large forces and movements. They always were on the lookout for astute
nonconformist opinions. These might be expressed in fiction and poetry as
well as in the polemical essays and book reviews they solicited. And they were
determined to keep art and politics apart because, at a time when commu–
nism was ever more glorified as the way of the future, they had become
painfully aware of the lethal effect of socialist realism on the creativity of
writers and artists. Thus they made sure that the magazine maintained its own
sense of direction while keeping its pages open to conflicting views.
Later on, when it remained unfashionable to explore left- liberal beliefs
critically,
Partisan Review
lent its pages to the discussion of such questions
as communist practices, repression in the Soviet Union, the Moscow trials,
World War II, Vietnam, the successive new radicalisms, and the differing
nuances of conservatism. The editors braved many an attack by both the
left and the right. Still, they never expected to be proven correct so soon
by the disintegration of the Soviet Union when all the criticism of com–
munism they had published was borne out by events. In other words, they
were vindicated sooner than they had expected.
As this index indicates,
Partisan Review
attracted and printed most of the
talented figures of our century and did so while they still were struggling
for recognition. Thus it would be pointless to list even a few of the con–
tributors to our pages who subsequently became household names in
American letters and abroad, or those from Western and Eastern Europe
we were the first to introduce to our shores. For almost every emerging
writer, poet, and critic has been represented, and almost every crucial issue
has been examined. Of course, a journal that primarily focuses on cultural
issues must address both immediate and long-range changes.
Partisan
Review
did so, as a glance at the following pages shows. All along, as well,
the magazine kept in touch with dissidents who were coming out of the
CUMULATIVE INDEX
I
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