[Australian Modernism]. ['Comment'] MacLEOD, Sheila and Victor B. NEUBURG (editors)

Comment. Incorporating Poets' Corner [a broken run of 16 issues]

London, 'Comment', 1935 to 1937.

Quarto, 16 issues, generally 8 pages each (each volume is numbered continuously).

Saddle-stapled, as issued; staples rusty; three issues stamped 'Specimen' above the masthead; trifling signs of use and age, but overall in very good condition.

This British literary weekly journal was edited by Sheila MacLeod (the nom de plume of Runia Tharp) and her partner, the poet and occultist Victor B. Neuburg (1883-1940). He writes in the editorial in the first number that 'Two and a half years' experience as editor of "The Poets' Corner" in a Sunday newspaper ["The Sunday Referee"] has revealed a public numbering many thousands that is alive and awake to new influences and new ideas that a changing world is beginning to manifest. Accordingly, "Comment" will favour no school exclusively. The editors will subordinate personal predelictions and affinities to an outlook catholic and international'. Wikipedia records Neuburg 'was an associate [and lover] of Aleister Crowley and the publisher of the early works of Pamela Hansford Johnson and Dylan Thomas.... [At "The Sunday Referee"] he encouraged new talent by awarding weekly prizes. One prize went to the then-unknown Dylan Thomas and the publisher of "The Sunday Referee" sponsored Thomas's first book, "18 Poems"' in 1934. As it happens, the first number in this run contains an uncollected short story by Pamela Hansford Johnson, 'The Fugitive'. The journal is not related to Cecily Crozier's subsequent Australian publication of the same name (later 'A Comment'), which ran for 26 issues from September 1940 to Winter 1947. However, the choice of title is perhaps not coincidental: its British namesake contains numerous contributions (chiefly concert and art exhibition reviews) by Brian Crozier, Cecily's brother. This run comprises Volume I, Number 1 (7 December 1935), and Numbers 2, 3, 4, 6, 12, 13, 14 and 21; Volume II, Numbers 30, 33, 34, 36, 45 and 50; and Volume III, Number 57 (23 January 1937). The British Library catalogue indicates the journal ceased publication the following week with Number 58. [16 items].

Item #127245

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