A report to our readers from the editor, attempting to answer some of the questions most frequently heard from them. And a look at inflation and its special effect on the “little magazines.”
Inflation’s contributions to cultural conformity are not widely dealt with, and certainly not widely understood. I confine myself here to the dilemma of the so-called “little magazine”—that is, the journal tailored to the tastes of the thinking few, rather than to a more general readership. Such a journal must depend, for its survival, on what the readers themselves will pay to gratify their interest-because the advertisers will not come in, in heavy enough numbers, to pick up the bill. We all know that inflation and high taxation have the effect of discouraging the cultivation of costly intellectual pursuits. But what exactly is the role of the advertiser?
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