Cirrus@Austlit

The first issue of Meanjin was published at Brisbane in 1940, containing the poems of Clem Christesen, James Picot, Brian Vrepont and Paul Grano. Christesen was the founding editor and remained in that position until 1974, attempting to produce a 'journal of ideas, built around books, to encourage free expression and intelligent criticism, to put forward "advance guard" material, develop contacts abroad--a Literary Lend-lease'. To this end, Christesen attracted a diverse group of writers from Australia and overseas. In the 1940s Australian writers included poets such as Harold Stewart, Harry Hooton, Peter Hopegood, Max Harris, Rex Ingamells, Hugh McCrae and R. D. FitzGerald ; critics such as Vance and Nettie Palmer, A. R. Chisholm and R. G. Howarth; fiction writers such as Xavier Herbert and Katharine Susannah Prichard; and a variety of other commentators such as Norman Bartlett, Lloyd Ross, Brian Fitzpatrick and Manning Clark. Overseas writers whose work appeared in Meanjin included Anais Nin, Arthur Koestler and Jean-Paul Sartre. Accompanying the work of these writers were sketches, designs and woodcuts from a number of visual artists, including Margaret Preston, Frank Medworth, Noel Counihan and Roy Dalgarno.

Following an offer by Melbourne University to publish and manage the magazine, Christesen and his wife, Nina, moved to Melbourne in February 1945. Despite the financial security and institutional support, circulation dropped during the next twelve months. Christesen was forced to seek sponsorship from other sources to supplement the contribution from the university. By the late 1940s the distinct business connection with the university had ended but infrastructure was still provided, maintaining Meanjin 's institutional home.

The historian Jim Davidson had been acting as editor for some time before he was officially instated in 1975. During his eight-year term Davidson attempted to attract a new generation of readers to Meanjin, with special issues on Papua and New Guinea, Women and the Arts, and Aboriginal culture. Davidson also introduced interviews in a new format that brought the first change in size to Meanjin since 1951. In the first issue of 1982 Judith Brett was acknowledged as Associate Editor, taking over from Davidson in the next issue. Like Davidson, Brett responded to changes in Australian culture, extending the discussion of women writers begun in the late 1970s and introducing a focus on migrant writers. Throughout this period Meanjin continued to print the works of many of Australia's best creative writers. Contributors during this period included Bruce Dawe, John Tranter, Chris Wallace-Crabbe, Tom Shapcott, Jennifer Maiden, Les Murray, Patrick White, Frank Moorhouse, Morris Lurie, Laurie Clancy and Michael Wilding. In addition to established writers Meanjin also published the work of new writers, including Tim Winton, Nicholas Jose, Marion Halligan and Garry Disher.

Throughout the 1990s Meanjin went through several changes to format and faced a number of financial challenges. Jenny Lee's term as editor brought a more academic tone to the magazine and introduced regular thematic issues (but this has not always pre-determined the selection of creative writing). Many issues focused on cultural studies, postmodernism, postcolonialism and the state of the humanities. Other issues explored landscape, music, women's knowledge, Aboriginal issues and the Pacific region.

When Christina Thompson became editor in 1994, she brought another shift in tone, suggesting that Meanjin had become too academic, and pushed for a greater clarity in the contributions. Issues explored during Thompson's term included Canadian studies, corporatisation, suburban life, the Pacific region and queer studies. In the mid 1990s Meanjin faced severe financial setback when regular government funding was significantly reduced. Despite seeking outside funding, the diminished budget had an immediate effect. With inadequate funds to support productions costs, only three issues were produced in 1997. Thompson also experienced strong opposition from some Meanjin board members and did not seek reappointment.

In 1998 Melbourne University bought Meanjin to avoid its closure, imposing stronger control of the magazine's business dealings. Stephanie Holt, with a background in visual arts journalism, was appointed editor. During Holt's term, Meanjin explored issues on travel, crime, reconciliation, and revisited the idea of the cultural cringe. Former editor, Jim Davidson, later remarked that Holt had made Meanjin 'absolutely contemporary again'. But Holt faced some opposition at the end of her term and was controversially replaced by historian Ian Britain in 2001, causing several board members to resign in protest. Britain has since produced themed issues on museums, life writing, drugs and food.

In March 1952 Bill Wannan distributed the first roneoed copies of Realist Writer to the Melbourne Realist Writers' Group, an organisation sponsored by the Communist Party of Australia (CPA). Planned as a bulletin to share work within the group, Realist Writer sought to develop the genre of social realism in Australian literature. Beginning with the third issue, Stephen Murray-Smith accepted editorial responsibility, producing seven more issues before Realist Writer was incorporated into the first issue of Overland.

The first issue of Overland delared its motto, 'Temper democratic; Bias, Australian', adapting Joseph Furphy's description of Such is Life (1903). According to Murray-Smith, Overland sought to attract a 'mass audience' and he encouraged that audience to contribute to the development of the magazine. The first issue announced that Overland 'will aim high, but has no exclusive or academic standards of any kind. It will make a special point of developing writing talent in people of diverse background. We ask of our readers, however inexpert, that they write for us; that they share our love of living, our optimism, our belief in the traditional dream of a better Australia'. The selection of writing for publication eventually caused a break between Overland and the CPA in 1958. Murray-Smith's selection policy was primarily informed by aesthetic criteria rather than the ideological criteria promoted by the CPA. Unyielding pressure from the CPA to publish ideologically informed writing forced Murray-Smith to remove the magazine from its former sponsor and proceed independently.

According to Murray-Smith, up to 4,000 copies of Overland were regularly printed in its early years, but that number dropped after the break from the CPA. The circulation dropped further in the 1960s, remaining at around 2000 for several decades. Like most editors of small magazines, Murray-Smith was faced with the challenge of attracting funds for basic publishing costs. Extra contributions from subscribers were regularly acknowledged in the 'Floating Fund' column, a tradition that continues in 2003. Early attempts to win support from the Commonwealth Literary Fund were thwarted by selection committees unsympathetic to the magazine's communist origins. But, continuing financial support from the fund was eventually won in the early 1960s.

Murray-Smith continued as editor until his death in 1988. He was succeeded by the magazine's poetry editor, Barrett Reid, who continued in the position until first John McLaren and then Ian Syson completed their editorial terms in the 1990s. Syson was succeeded in 2003 by the former associate and assistant editors, Nathan Hollier and Katherine Wilson.

Overland attracted a loyal group of poetry contributors in its first three decades. Contributors during the first decade of Overland such as Bruce Dawe, Judith Wright, Dorothy Hewett, Nancy Cato, Noel Macainsh, Chris Wallace-Crabbe and Thomas Shapcott continued to contribute poetry in the 1980s and 1990s. Later contributors include Graham Rowlands, Eric Beach, Robert Adamson, Geoff Goodfellow, Geoff Page, Laurie Duggan, Kate Lilley and Jennifer Maiden.

In both poetry and fiction Overland has shown an interest in overseas literature, particularly contemporary Chinese literature. While the contributions of poetry and fiction from this large groups of writers remained relatively strong, the value of some feature articles has occasionally been questioned by various commentators because of a perceived divergence from writing styles suitable for a general audience. At an editorial conference in 1978, Ian Turner, speaking of Overland, said, 'We have lost our popular audience; now it is rather the radical intelligentsia, say 35 years of age and older'. Echoes of this statement (not exclusively about Overland) appeared in the mid 1990s. In 1998, Duncan Richardson and Allan Gardiner complained in the pages of Overland about the trend towards academic articles unsuitable for the 'non-elite' reader, directing blame at magazines not readers for falling subscriptions.

Despite such criticism, Overland has maintained a strong reputation for investigating important social issues. Early volumes were dominated by articles on Australian literary figures and their works, but this was accompanied by articles on the bombing of Hiroshima, censorship of D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover and social conditions in Aboriginal communities and Papua New Guinea. Later volumes have included essays on international conflict, immigration, multiculturalism, the practice of literary criticism, Australian historiography, sport and cinema.

Proud of its history, the newest editors of Overland, Nathan Hollier and Katherine Wilson have revisited the editorial doctrine that Murray-Smith printed in the first issue. In their first editorial they echoed Murray-Smith's call for contributions, hoping to strengthen the connection with the Australian working-class forged in the first years of Overland.