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| Norton Review | |
|---|---|
| Title | Norton Review |
| Category | Literary review |
| Frequency | Quarterly |
| Publisher | W. W. Norton & Company |
| Firstdate | 20th century |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Norton Review is a literary and cultural periodical published by W. W. Norton & Company that surveyed contemporary literature, art, and intellectual life. It functioned as a forum for long-form criticism, review essays, and original fiction, featuring contributions from prominent writers and critics. The journal balanced coverage of canonical figures with attention to emerging voices, engaging debates connected to major cultural institutions and public intellectuals.
Founded in the 20th century by editors associated with W. W. Norton & Company, the periodical emerged amid conversations involving The New York Review of Books, The Atlantic, Harper's Magazine, and The New Yorker. Early issues juxtaposed commentary on serial publications such as The Saturday Review and pamphlets distributed by The New Republic with responses to exhibitions at institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and retrospectives at the Museum of Modern Art. During the Cold War era debates highlighted figures associated with The New Left, responses to writings by George Orwell, and discussions that intersected with the policy arguments present in texts by John Maynard Keynes and critics aligned with Friedrich Hayek. Through wars and cultural shifts—references to the aftermath of the Vietnam War and the rise of postcolonial criticism linked to scholars from Oxford University and Harvard University—the review traced intellectual currents shaping literary canons.
The editorial line combined rigorous peer proposals with editorial curation influenced by the practices of T. S. Eliot's editorship at The Criterion and the institutional standards seen at Cambridge University Press and Oxford University Press. Essays often engaged primary sources from archives at The Library of Congress and manuscript holdings at Yale University and Princeton University. Review pieces frequently considered recent monographs from authors published by Penguin Books, Random House, and Faber and Faber, while commentary touched on dramatic works staged at the Royal Shakespeare Company and orchestral programming at the New York Philharmonic. The review commissioned translations of poetry associated with translators who worked on texts by Pablo Neruda, Anna Akhmatova, and Rainer Maria Rilke, situating them alongside criticism of films by directors like Ingmar Bergman and Akira Kurosawa. Editorial standards emphasized archival citation, dialog with contemporary criticism in journals such as Critical Inquiry and Modern Language Quarterly, and attention to prize-winning literature recognized by awards like the Pulitzer Prize and the Man Booker Prize.
Contributors included established novelists, critics, and historians aligned with institutions including Columbia University, Stanford University, and King's College London. Notable essays examined the works of figures such as Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, and Marcel Proust alongside modern commentators on the poetry of W. B. Yeats and essays on the fiction of Toni Morrison. The review published provocative interventions by public intellectuals who had lectured at The New School and held fellowships at The Brookings Institution and The Hoover Institution. Scholarly pieces engaged archival discoveries from collections like the British Library and correspondence curated at the Morgan Library & Museum. Fiction and short stories appeared from contributors associated with creative-writing programs at Iowa Writers' Workshop and the University of Iowa, while art criticism spotlighted retrospectives at venues including the Tate Modern and the Guggenheim Museum.
Critical reception paralleled debates in periodicals such as The Times Literary Supplement, The New York Times Book Review, and London Review of Books. Scholars cited the review in articles appearing in PMLA and readers compared its voice to that of editors from Encounter (UK) and cultural commentators who wrote for Commentary (magazine). The journal influenced curricular choices at universities including Yale, Columbia, and University of California, Berkeley and helped shape syllabi alongside anthologies published by Norton Anthology editors. Its essays were referenced in conferences hosted by organizations like the Modern Language Association and the American Historical Association, and selections from the review were sometimes reprinted in collected volumes by presses such as Routledge and Cambridge University Press.
Issues were issued on a quarterly schedule with special thematic numbers that surveyed topics ranging from twentieth-century poetics to global postcolonial literatures. Editions included illustrated covers produced in collaboration with designers who had worked on books for Penguin Classics and typographers trained at institutions like the Cooper Union. Subscriptions were available through channels shared with other Nortons publications and back issues have been catalogued in library systems including WorldCat and the holdings of the New York Public Library. Collected anthologies and "Best of" compilations drew on essays across decades and were reissued in paperback and hardcover by W. W. Norton & Company.
Category:Literary magazines