POINTS 10


The tenth issue of POINTS was published in late summer-early fall of 1951 and was noted as POINTS 10 – June-September 1951.  This slip in the publication schedule would make it difficult to maintain the previous record of publishing four issues per year, and as we shall see, the next issue of POINTS would be a combined issue of numbers 11/12 appearing in winter of 1951/1952.


Commentary © James A. Harrod, COPYRIGHT PROTECTED; ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Notes by the Editor

This issue of POINTS is in a way a milestone. We have now been appearing more or less irregularly since February 1949, so we are in our third year and have finally reached our 10th issue. When this magazine started it was hoped that it would come out every two months, therefore this issue would have been No. 14 had all gone as hoped. All the same we have managed to keep going and in the future we shall definitely appear at least four times a year. There are inevitably two difficulties in publishing a little magazine; one, the financial question and, the other, the problem of finding suitable material.   The first, unfortunately always important, can be arranged if one is lucky. The second is always hard to overcome, for, as a matter of principle, we prefer not to go out and solicit writers, unless we are particularly keen to print something on a certain subject. We want writers to come to us, in particular writers we do not know, and we publish their works strictly on merit. We admit that we print certain writers frequently or should I say a particular writer frequently?— namely Mr. Grossman. This editor has a weakness for D. Jon Grossman, a weakness hard to give up, and in the next issue of POINTS we will probably have another article by him, his opinion of contemporary French writing; in the same issue we also hope to have an article in French on a certain French viewpoint of contemporary American writing.

There is another fact I would like to tell our readers. There has recently been a definite decline in American contributions to this review. When we first started the vast majority of our contributors were Americans, now our best and most numerous contributions come from Ireland and England and occasionally Canada, where it seems to us that the most sensitive and intelligent writing by young writers today is being done. One reason for this change may be that the U.S. is flooded with little magazines and they get first choice of the young home writers; another may be that young American writing at the moment is on the skids. In Europe today one cannot help but help feeling that the American intellect is re-entering another vacuum, just pick up any American newspaper to see why.

In this issue we have departed from our usual policy by publishing two short-stories by the same author. We felt that these two stories by Adrian Vincent were so good, superior by far to what we usually have the privilege to read, and with so little to choose between them that we are printing them both.

POINTS No. 11 will be out in October 1951. We continue to urge young writers to send in their work, everything will be read and returned if unacceptable, providing of course that return postage is sent. We can never receive too many short-stories and articles although we are nearly always surfeited with poetry. May we also remind readers that we welcome letters and, if of general interest, whether critical or in praise, they will be printed in our "Letters to the Editor" section.

Sindbad Vail

The meeting noted in the last issue of the “AMERICAN STUDENTS’ AND ARTISTS’ CENTER” included a prepared presentation by the new associate editor of POINTS, Michael Johnson.  His essay is presented below following the listing of contents and contributors.

Sindbad VAIL – Notes by the Editor

Adrian VINCENT – A Point in Time

Adrian VINCENT – Colony for the Lost

Marcel LAMBRECHT – Histoires quotidiennes

Jacques BRENNER – Faits divers

Charles Stuart INGLE – Love among the Californians

Derek STANFORD – Two Poems: Stroke of Midnight

                                                         Daybreak Junction

Geoffrey JOHNSON – Quicksilver

Harold BRAV – Sex, (the) Pure and (the) Simple

Peter VICKERS – A Story About Knights and Witches and Thnigs

Paul HAINZELAIN – Deux Poèms: Le Jardin                                           Réveil

Peter Dale SCOTT – History

Lee Richard HAYMAN – Silent Aside to the Impossible Ghost

Françoise FLEURENT – L’Indésirable

Michael JOHNSON – Dubious Grapes: The Writer, Society And John Steinbeck

ALBERT STRIDSBERG – Book Review: ENGLISH STORIES FROM NEW WRITING

ALBERT STRIDSBERG – Book Review: THE TWILIGHT OF THE ELEPHANT

D. JON GROSSMAN – Book Review: THE ABC OF READING

Michael JOHNSON – Book Review: I CAME BACK

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Marcel BISIAUX – Nos Lecteurs nous écrivent

NOTES ON NEW CONTRIBUTORS

HAROLD BRAV : 27, American.  Born in Detroit and at present studying History at the Sorbonne on the Gl Bill, already has a B.A. in French History at Wayne University.  Has worked as a taxi driver in America. This is his first publication.     

JACQUES BRENNER : 29, French. Has had a collection of poems published by Gallimard and four novels by Les Editions de Minuit. 

Literary critic of Paris-Normandie.

FRANCOISE FLEURENT : 26, French. Has published several short-stories in magazines and reviews. Won an award in piano playing at the Conservatoire de Nancy.

PAUL HAINZELAIN : 31, French. Published a book of poems, Les Soleils Perdus, in 1949. Writes only poetry and has published in several local reviews of central France.

LEE RICHARD HAYMAN : American. Has published in various reviews, including Botteghe Oscure  (Rome), Prospect (England), and Poetry (Australia).

CHARLES STUART INGLE : 23, American. This piece, one of a series of scenarios for nightmares, is his first publication.

MARCEL LAMBRECHT : 24, Belgian. Has only previously published some poems and short pieces in Belgian reviews. At present writing a novel.

PETER DALE SCOTT : 22, Canadian. Born Montreal. At present literary Editor of the Oxford review ISIS. Recently won a poetry contest judged by C. Day Lewis. Has been published in college magazines in Canada and Oxford.

PETER VICKERS : 24, English.  Has worked as an engineer and is a translator. At present living in Paris. This is his first publication.

ADRIAN VINCENT : 33, English. Born in London, but spent early childhood in Paris. Five years a prisoner of war, working in the mines in Poland. Now living in London and working in the publicity Department of a major American film company. Has done a certain amount of book reviewing and has had several stories accepted for publication, which failed to reach print owing to collapse of magazines. This therefore is his first published story.  

It is most likely a coincidence, but Lee Richard Hayman who appeared in the same issue of POINTS went on to a distinguished career as a teacher and John Steinbeck scholar.  Or perhaps he attended the meeting or read the essay and that influenced his later career choices.

Readers who have been following the publishing career of Sindbad Vail and POINTS who wish to learn more about Sindbad Vail can find bits and pieces of his life in the following works. 

Dearborn, Mary V.; Mistress of modernism : the life of Peggy Guggenheim; Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 2004

Gill, Anton; Art lover : a biography of Peggy Guggenheim; New York : HarperCollins, c2002

Guggenheim, Peggy; Out of this century : confessions of an art addict; New York : Universe Books, c1979

Weld, Jacqueline Bograd, Peggy, the wayward Guggenheim, New York : Dutton, c1986