The long-lasting publishing legacy of The Dial helped bolster the magazine’s reputation as the experimental voice of transcendentalist and modernist theater, music, art, and literature across its lifetime. The magazine often switched hands in leadership in its 89 years, but its golden age was under the editorship of Scofield Thayer (1920-25), James Watson, Jr.(1920-29), and Marianne Moore (1925-29).

During this decade, Thayer, Watson, and Moore led contributors to a high level of experimental writing and criticism. Some of The Dial’s most influential writers include T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Marianne Moore, William Carlos Williams, and e.e. cummings. These writers published influential works in modernist poetry, bringing new form to their verse thanks to the freedom given within each issue of The Dial. The Dial is most famous for its publishing of T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land” in 1922.

Under Thayer’s editorship, The Dial celebrated the regular publication of artworks, in addition to literature, from both America and Europe. This approach increased the magazine’s reputation as a cosmopolitan source on the newest and most experimental creative work (Sparks). Artists like Picasso, Brancusi, and Walker Grant were featured in The Dial’s November 1922 issue surrounding discussion of classical art (Sparks). Contributors like Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, and John Eglinton reported on the European scene from Paris, London, and Dublin, respectively. Such loaded contributions created a fine reputation for Thayer’s The Dial that lasted until its last issue in 1929.

Compiled by Catherine H. Walker (Class of '06, Davidson College)