[THE LITTLE REVIEW]. ANDERSON, Margaret, editor. POUND, Ezra, editor. HEAP, Jane, editor. The Little Review. Vol. I, No. 1 through Vol. XII, No. 2. Chicago, New York, and Paris: 1914-1929.

[THE LITTLE REVIEW]. ANDERSON, Margaret, editor. POUND, Ezra, editor. HEAP, Jane, editor. The Little Review. Vol. I, No. 1 through Vol. XII, No. 2. Chicago, New York, and Paris: 1914-1929.



Together, 81 of 82 numbers (lacking supplement to Vol. XII, No. 1), plus one duplicate number (Vol. VI, No. 4), various 8vo and 4to sizes. Illustrated throughout. (Variously worn with browning and some light marginal chipping to a few numbers, but overall a very nice set). All in original publisher's printed wrappers (a few numbers with light chipping and occasional losses); housed in 7 cloth slipcases.

 

 A VIRTUALLY COMPLETE RUN OF ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL PUBLICATIONS OF ITS TIME

 

 Margaret Anderson founded The Little Review in Chicago in 1914. Anderson, and co-editor Jane Heap, published works by a number of transatlantic modernists, cultivating early examples of experimental writing and art, and including early examples of surrealist artwork and Dadaism in later issues.  Throughout its run, The Little Review included work by Sherwood Anderson, Hart Crane, Hilda Doolittle, T. S. Eliot, Emma Goldman, James Joyce, Amy Lowell, Mina Loy, Gertrude Stein, and William Carlos Williams, and art by Hans Arp, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Ferdinand Léger, Pablo Picasso and Joseph Stella.



INCLUDING THE FIRST PRINTED PORTION OF JAMES JOYCE'S ULYSSES

 

 Ezra Pound, the journal's "foreign correspondent," was instrumental in convincing Anderson and Heap to serialize Ulysses.  Ultimately, they ran 23 installments covering the narrative from the "Telemachus" episode (chapter 1, March 1918) through the first portion of "Oxen in the Sun" (chapter 14; September-December 1920). Once Ulysses began to attract attention, distribution of the periodical became difficult, and the U. S. Post Office began seizing issues on the grounds of obscenity in January 1919 (that issue present in this set). Issues in May 1919, January 1920, and July-August 1920 (all present in this set) were also seized, and in September of 1920, an official complaint was lodged with the New York Court of Special Sessions.  Anderson and Heap ultimately lost at trial, and were fined 50 dollars each.



The September-December 1920 issue, bound in black wrappers (in mourning?), includes commentary from both Heap ("Art and the Law") and Anderson ("An Obvious Statement (for the millionth time)"): "Mr. Sumner is operating in realms in which it can be proved that he cannot function intelligently... James Joyce has never writen [sic] anything, and will never be able to write anything, that is not beautiful." Subsequent issues include commentary on the censorship and publication of Ulysses. After it was announced that Shakespeare and Company would published Ulysses in book form, Jane Heap concludes the Autumn 1921 issue with a brief note: "before we could revive from our trial for Joyce's 'Ulysses' it was announced for publication in book form. We limp from the field."



COMPLETE SETS ARE VERY RARE ON THE MARKET: Only one nearly-complete run of The Little Review has appeared at auction in the last 40 years (sold Sotheby's New York, 1977).