The Dalhousie Review, a brief history

The Dalhousie Review was founded in 1921 by its first editor, Herbert L. Stewart, Professor of Philosophy at Dalhousie University, and the journal has been in continuous operation since then. In a "Salutation" printed in the opening pages of the very first issue, Stewart described the new publication as a "journal of criticism," and he went on to define its purpose in the following way: "It is by the free discussion of contemporary problems that knowledge regarding them is most widely diffused, and for this the magazine provides a medium." Stewart wanted to situate the Review between the specialized scholarly journal on the one hand, and the popular press on the other. He believed that serious thinkers in different fields of enquiry could and should write about their concerns in such a way as to make them comprehensible to any educated reader.

Stewart edited The Dalhousie Review for twenty-six years, until January 1947. A roll-call of contributors during this period would include many persons of considerable stature within the culture of the Maritime Provinces and indeed of Canada as a whole. The following is a sample of the early contributors' names: Archibald MacMechan, R. MacGregor Dawson, Sir Robert Borden, Duncan Campbell Scott, Eliza Ritchie, E. J. Pratt, Douglas Bush, Charles G. D. Roberts, Frederick Philip Grove, Robert L. Stanfield, Hugh MacLennan, Hilda Neatby, Eugene Forsey, Thomas Raddall, Earle Birney, A.J.M. Smith. Even this bare list of names suggests that, since its inception, the Review has been receptive to diversity: to the work of political thinkers, historians, literary scholars, poets, and writers of fiction. But it is worth noticing that Stewart did not initially think of the Review as a literary journal, though from the beginning there were occasional poems interspersed among the articles on government, philosophy, history, literature, and aspects of popular culture. Many of the writers listed above went on to win major literary awards, and several of them gained widespread public recognition as well. One author (Borden) was a former Prime Minister of Canada; another (Stanfield) a future Premier of Nova Scotia.

In the fifty-year period following Stewart's resignation (1947-97), The Dalhousie Review went through a variety of transformations in editorial emphasis and visual design, but without ever abandoning the direction chosen by its first editor. One of the more significant changes was the practice, adopted in the fifties, of printing works of short fiction (alongside discursive articles and poetry). Contributors of articles during this fifty-year period include Norman Ward, Peter Waite, George Woodcock, Mavor Moore, J.M.S. Tompkins, Owen Barfield, Chinua Achebe, Nadine Gordimer, Margaret Atwood, Juliet McMaster, Wilfrid Sellars, Peter Schwenger, John Fekete, and Daniel Woolf. This list includes distinguished contributors from Great Britain (Barfield and Tompkins), Africa (Achebe and Gordimer), and the United States (Sellars) - a sign of the increasing globalization of intellectual culture during the period in question. During the same period the Review published creative work by well-known poets (Miriam Waddington and Alden Nowlan) and award-winning fiction writers (Malcolm Lowry and Guy Vanderhaeghe) as well as work by many new and less celebrated creative writers.

Ronald Huebert began his term as editor in 1997 with a strong mandate from Dalhousie University’s Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences to introduce the changes required to reanimate the relationship between the Review and its readers. As a result, the journal was completely redesigned, inside and out, in such a way as to achieve a contemporary look while at the same time drawing upon the Dalhousie tradition. The image chosen for the front cover was taken from an architectural drawing made by Andrew Cobb in 1913; specifically, it was a detail of a window for the Macdonald Library, constructed in 1914 and now known as the Macdonald Building.

Since 2007, Anthony Stewart has taken the helm of the Review’s editorship, steering the journal's passage into the digital age. Making accessible the journal’s extensive archive in a digital format, and offering online subscription services are two key features of the new website. The journal itself has been redesigned to reflect its new digital presence. The array of cover designs below illustrates an ongoing and active commitment to relating The Dalhousie Review’s external presentation to its content. Most recently, the journal has begun to focus on what it has historically done best—providing a forum for the fiction and poetry of new and established writers.

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The Dalhousie Review, a brief history The Dalhousie Review was founded in 1921 by its first editor, Herbert L. Stewart, Professor of Philosophy at Dalhousie University, and the journal has been in continuous operation since then. In a "Salutation" printed in the opening pages of the very first issue, Stewart described the new publication as a "journal of criticism," and he went on to define its purpose in the following way: "It is by the free discussion of contemporary problems that knowledge regarding them is most widely diffused, and for this the magazine provides a medium." Stewart wanted to situate the Review between the specialized scholarly journal on the one hand, and the popular press on the other. He believed that serious thinkers in different fields of enquiry could and should write about their concerns in such a way as to make them comprehensible to any educated reader. Stewart edited The Dalhousie Review for twenty-six years, until January 1947. A roll-call of contributors during this period would include many persons of considerable stature within the culture of the Maritime Provinces and indeed of Canada as a whole. The following is a sample of the early contributors' names: Archibald MacMechan, R. MacGregor Dawson, Sir Robert Borden, Duncan Campbell Scott, Eliza Ritchie, E. J. Pratt, Douglas Bush, Charles G. D. Roberts, Frederick Philip Grove, Robert L. Stanfield, Hugh MacLennan, Hilda Neatby, Eugene Forsey, Thomas Raddall, Earle Birney, A.J.M. Smith. Even this bare list of names suggests that, since its inception, the Review has been receptive to diversity: to the work of political thinkers, historians, literary scholars, poets, and writers of fiction. But it is worth noticing that Stewart did not initially think of the Review as a literary journal, though from the beginning there were occasional poems interspersed among the articles on government, philosophy, history, literature, and aspects of popular culture. Many of the writers listed above went on to win major literary awards, and several of them gained widespread public recognition as well. One author (Borden) was a former Prime Minister of Canada; another (Stanfield) a future Premier of Nova Scotia. In the fifty-year period following Stewart's resignation (1947-97), The Dalhousie Review went through a variety of transformations in editorial emphasis and visual design, but without ever abandoning the direction chosen by its first editor. One of the more significant changes was the practice, adopted in the fifties, of printing works of short fiction (alongside discursive articles and poetry). Contributors of articles during this fifty-year period include Norman Ward, Peter Waite, George Woodcock, Mavor Moore, J.M.S. Tompkins, Owen Barfield, Chinua Achebe, Nadine Gordimer, Margaret Atwood, Juliet McMaster, Wilfrid Sellars, Peter Schwenger, John Fekete, and Daniel Woolf. This list includes distinguished contributors from Great Britain (Barfield and Tompkins), Africa (Achebe and Gordimer), and the United States (Sellars) - a sign of the increasing globalization of intellectual culture during the period in question. During the same period the Review published creative work by well-known poets (Miriam Waddington and Alden Nowlan) and award-winning fiction writers (Malcolm Lowry and Guy Vanderhaeghe) as well as work by many new and less celebrated creative writers. Ronald Huebert began his term as editor in 1997 with a strong mandate from Dalhousie University’s Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences to introduce the changes required to reanimate the relationship between the Review and its readers. As a result, the journal was completely redesigned, inside and out, in such a way as to achieve a contemporary look while at the same time drawing upon the Dalhousie tradition. The image chosen for the front cover was taken from an architectural drawing made by Andrew Cobb in 1913; specifically, it was a detail of a window for the Macdonald Library, constructed in 1914 and now known as the Macdonald Building. Since 2007, Anthony Stewart has taken the helm of the Review’s editorship, steering the journal's passage into the digital age. Making accessible the journal’s extensive archive in a digital format, and offering online subscription services are two key features of the new website. The journal itself has been redesigned to reflect its new digital presence. The array of cover designs below illustrates an ongoing and active commitment to relating The Dalhousie Review’s external presentation to its content. Most recently, the journal has begun to focus on what it has historically done best—providing a forum for the fiction and poetry of new and established writers. . RETURN TO TOP	Editor ANTHONY STEWART Associate Editors SUE CAMPBELL IAN COLFORD BARBARA DARBY KRISTA KESSELRING ROBERT MARTIN MEGHAN NIEMAN JUDITH THOMPSON Production Manager JENNIFER LAMBERT Editorial Assistant LENA PATTERSON Editorial Advisory Board BRUCE BARBER BETTY BEDNARSKI MARIAN BINKLEY STEVEN BRUHM DEIRDRE DWYER SUSAN KERSLAKE KENNETH KIERANS EDWARD LOBB CARL MATHESON Comments/Suggestions DalhousieReview@Dal.ca Disclaimer Copyright 2010 Dalhousie University