The first 48-page issue of Vision appeared in May 1923 with more than a dozen Norman Lindsay (q.v.) sketches of nymphs and satyrs prominently displayed. Planned as a vehicle for the aesthetic philosophy of Lindsay and to a lesser extent the ideas of poet Hugh McCrae (q.v.), its editors hoped the magazine would usher in an Australian renaissance to bolster the literary and artistic traditions rejected by European modernists. The editors also believed that the magazine would invigorate an Australian culture they claimed was stifled by the regressive provincialism of publications such as the Bulletin.
Proposed during regular meetings at a Sydney coffee cellar, the magazine was edited by Frank C. Johnson, Jack Lindsay (Norman's son) and Kenneth Slessor (qq.v.). Johnson, an assistant at Dymock's book store, acted as business manager, setting the price of the magazine at 3 shillings and sixpence per copy. He also attracted a variety of advertisers, including Penfolds, Studebaker, Kodak and The Shakespearean Quarterly. Slessor and Lindsay performed the major editorial tasks and provided most of the contributions, including a number of pseudonymous contributions from the latter.
The intellectual programme of the magazine was presented in regular forewords and essays by Norman and Jack Lindsay. Prominent modernists were criticised and often lampooned for their rejection of conventional form and their jaded outlook on modern life. The magazine further asserted its anti-modernist stance by proclaiming 'free verse will not be considered' in its calls for contributions. Proceeding from Norman Lindsay's principles of beauty, passion, youth, vitality, sexuality and courage, Vision consistently provided readers with potentially offensive content. But the editors welcomed any negative attention, stating in the fourth issue, 'Vision has . . . published a vast amount of material which would have been destroyed in moral fury by any other periodical. It blushes for the compliment.' But, despite the strong ideological position exhibited by the magazine in the 1920s, the circumstances of its publication and its later influence were the subject of a significant debate in the pages of Southerly (1952-53) between Jack Lindsay, Kenneth Slessor and Norman Lindsay.
The contributions of Slessor and Jack Lindsay were accompanied by the work of a number of other writers, including Hugh McCrae, Dorothea Mackellar, R. D. FitzGerald and Dulcie Deamer. Many of these contributions exhibit the direct influence of Norman Lindsay's ideas. When the fourth issue of Vision appeared in February 1924, it advertised plans for a larger format in the next issue. Promising one hundred pages with illustrations, uncensored material and popular serials, Vision was to appear bi-quarterly at a new price of one shilling and sixpence. But this did not occur and the editorial team of Vision disbanded. Jack Lindsay subsequently moved to London where he continued the intellectual programme of Vision by founding with P. R. Stephenson the London Aphrodite.
The London Aphrodite
P. R. Stephensen
(editor),
Jack Lindsay
(editor),
1928
London
:
Fanfrolico Press
,
1928-1929
Z901508
1928
periodical
(5 issues)
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).
Editor's note: Ross Gibson builds a literary bridge between two Sydney publications that appeared at the time of the building of the Harbour Bridge and ponders the fate of Sydney in the light of their visions.
The two publications referred to are the literary magazine Vision and Frank Cash's account of the building of the bridge, Parables of the Sydney Harbour Bridge: Setting Forth the Preparation for, and Progressive Growth of, the Sydney Harbour Bridge, to April 1930.
Editor's note: Ross Gibson builds a literary bridge between two Sydney publications that appeared at the time of the building of the Harbour Bridge and ponders the fate of Sydney in the light of their visions.
The two publications referred to are the literary magazine Vision and Frank Cash's account of the building of the bridge, Parables of the Sydney Harbour Bridge: Setting Forth the Preparation for, and Progressive Growth of, the Sydney Harbour Bridge, to April 1930.
