The short-lived little magazine Vision (1923-24) was primarily an attempt to circulate the ideas of Norman Lindsay in an Australian culture that the editors believed was too parochial. After the editors of Vision disbanded in 1924, Jack Lindsay (Norman's son) established the Fanfrolico Press with Jack Kirtley who had printed his collection of poetry Fauns and Ladies in 1923. In 1925 they printed Lindsay's translation of Aristophanes' Lysistrata (illustrated by Norman Lindsay), the first book to carry the imprint of the Fanfrolico Press. Then, in 1926, hoping to further develop the press and continue the intellectual programme of Vision, Jack Lindsay and Kirtley moved to London.
After producing a number of limited editions illustrated by Norman Lindsay, Kirtley returned to Australia in 1927. He was replaced at the press by Jack Lindsay's friend, P. R. Stephensen, and this new partnership began work on a London extension of Vision to be called The London Aphrodite. Lindsay and Stephensen planned to publish only six issues, the first appearing in August 1928 with vociferous editorial manifestos from both men. The London Aphrodite continued the attacks on modernist writers begun in Vision and many of the poems and stories conformed to Norman Lindsay's pastoral images of sexuality. Opposing the rejection by European modernists of traditional forms and intellectual concerns, a passage from the final page of the first issue declared 'The London Aphrodite is a deliberate attempt to reaffirm Beauty, critically and constructively, in six numbers only concerned with delight not disintegration.'
Although The London Aphrodite was based in London, many of its contributors were Australian expatriates living in Great Britain or elsewhere in Europe. Those writers included P. R. Stephenson, W. J. Turner, Brian Penton and Philip Lindsay who had followed his older brother to London. In addition, many of the contributors to Vision also appeared in the pages of The London Aphrodite, ensuring that it retained much of the character and tone of its predecessor. The dominant voice of Jack Lindsay asserted the anti-modernist stance of the magazine with particular reference to the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and the Irish poet W. B. Yeats.
The six issues of The London Aphrodite achieved a modest success. According to Jack Lindsay, subscription sales raised enough money to finance a full reprint of 1,500 bound copies (Fanfrolico and After, 1962).
