I'm interested to notice the commentary on the finances of TNA that appears on page 816. It claims that the rise in the price hasn't met the costs of producing the journal, and proposes as a solution that the whole thing be cut from 32 to 24 pages, noting: "another thing, most readers, I believe (if they are like me), read from cover to cover: and a little less will be a relief; like the wise thrush, we can even read our articles twice over!" As, in a sense, a long-time reader of TNA I think this will be (was? we'll see) a good step for them.
I think I mentioned the attack on Harold Monro in the last issue--but I don't think I mentioned the catalog of his grammatical errors and cliches that were the bulk of the assault. It was brutal. In the correspondence pages, Monro responds not to the criticism of himself, but in a conciliatory (and, perhaps, uncharitable way) to the criticism of the poets he published, saying they aren't connected with his Poetry Bookshop. Orage, though, is not to be conciliated: on the same page as the notes on finances, he reiterates that the poets are indeed connected to Monro and aren't good poets.
One E. A. B. contributes "American Notes" immediately after, including an entertaining account of a new journal that calls itself the Unpopular Review. It was some kind of proto-Little Review, in that it was intending to be an elite publisher. E. A. B. is not impressed.
Alice Morning, aka Beatrice Hastings, writes a short story in "Pastiche" titled "The Plum Tree," another of her stories starring "Valerie" who I believe is a caricature of Katharine Mansfield. This one is typically antifeminist, about annoying women invading a men's club. Poking around the MJP I found the first "Valerie" story today, titled "Modernism" and published in the January 18 1912 issue. Hopefully I can do a throwback post on it, because that's just too good to pass up.
On further Hastings-watch: I think that "Your Novel Reviewer" who responds to criticisms leveled in the correspondence pages of the last issue, is none other than BH. The tone is too familiar, as is the gendering of literary ability as masculine (regardless of the sex of the person writing). I'll return to this at some point.
Quick notes:
Romney, of "Military Notes," hypothesizes that Japan could knock the USA out of a war by launching a surprise attack on the Pacific Fleet and the West Coast. In 1914.
Ludovici continues his defense of aristocracy (proto-fascism) in the correspondence pages.
And, finally, T.E. Hulme introduces two brilliant visual pieces, including this by Nevinson:
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