Some things don't change
Sophie Cunningham
December 22
I was re-reading some old Meanjin editorials and came across this one from 4:1 (Autumn 1945).
'We reiterate that our central aim is to publish a magazine of ideas, built around literature and art, to encourage discussion and criticism, to present advance-guard writing as well as the more traditionally-based creative work, to develop cultural contacts with other countries – a literary lend-lease . . . in short, to work for a healthy climate of opinion and literary activity.
No Australian concerned with literature and art can fail to feel that something new is stirring throughout the country. In the cities, in country districts, there is a renew activity, a quickening of interest, a fresh hope for the nation’s future. This alertness, this heightened consciousness, is evident also in the cultural field. The role of a journal such as Meanjin is to present the public examples of the country’s present-day literary and art work, to record, interpret and discuss trends and problems associated with its life and growth.' C. B. Christesen
Our Friends
- Overland
- Alien Onion
- Ampersand Duck
- Andrew McDonald
- A Pair of Ragged Claws
- Arts Victoria
- Australia Council for the Arts
- Ben Eltham
- Bookshow blog
- CAL
- City of Tongues
- Crikey
- darkly wise, rudely great
- David Astle
- Elmo Keep Does Stuff
- The Ember
- Fly the Falcon blog
- Going Down Swinging
- Griffith Review
- Hackpacker
- Harvest
- HEAT
- Island
- Killings blog
- Literary Minded
- Lorraine Crescent
- Lynden Barber
- Mandy Ord
- Marcus Westbury
- Matilda
- Meanland
- Melbourne University Publishing
- Mel Campbell
- The Monthly
- Musings of an Inappropriate Woman
- Oslo Davis
- Paul Callaghan
- Read, Think, Write
- Sleepers Publishing
- Sorrow at Sills Bend
- SPLOG
- Tom Cho
- Virgule
- Wet Ink
- Wheeler Centre
Comments
22 Dec 09 at 12:57
Some very wise and powerful words, and ones that (in this humble reader's opinion) continue to define Meanjin.
P.S. As much as I love your current cover designs, I just swooned quite heavily over those ones.
...22 Dec 09 at 14:53
I love those old covers too.
...