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Harold Loeb, a talented novelist, convinced Alfred Kreymborg in 1920 to become an editor of Broom under Loeb’s financial backing. Broom became a reality in November 1921—it was “heavy of weight, rich in color, fine in binding and printing…nothing quite like its aristocratic format had ever been seen in America” (Hoffman 103). Leob and Kreymborg were in charge during the magazine’s more conservative period, in which the magazine had an “admirable format and ambitious but conservative editorial direction” (261). The magazine was based in Rome from November 1921 until November 1922, during which year Kreymborg left the magazine because of a lack American experimental writers. The magazine then headed for Berlin, where only four issues were published before Loeb’s money was drained. Having recently acquired money, Matthew Josephson left for New York with his magazine, where the magazine only published five more issues, the last of which was never circulated.
Broom claimed to “publish any good writing, European or American, if the author were little known or unappreciated” (Hoffman). During its time in Europe, Broom had a clear international tone. The editors had planned on including both conventional and experimental writers but actually published more experimental writers. While in Europe, the magazine “introduced unknown or little known European writers and painters to America” (Hoffman 105). The magazine also reproduced paintings by artists such as Picasso and helped to establish the literary careers of young, unconventional American writers. Broom is not known for being a pioneering little magazine, but its “importance lies in the fact that it was in the vanguard of an intellectual movement, in the fact that it helped win the fight against the sentimentalities of the genteel tradition” (Hoffman 107).
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