Contact originates from Williams imagist background with the focus being on the immediate object and McAlmon’s experience as a pilot: “Contact! was the command word used by pilots to denote the start of the enginge and subsequent flight” (Tashjian 75). The magazine’s title represents Williams and McAlmon’s belief that personal experience and locale should influence art. In order to accomplish this vision, a move away from European literary traditions proved necessary in order for a true American art form to appear. Williams in particular wanted the magazine to expose promising American experimental writers to the public and to each other. However, Williams clearly states in the opening issue that the magazine encourages foreign contributions.

Between 1921 and 1923, five issues were circulated. The first numbers were mimeographed and clipped together by Williams and McAlmon, and the final three were printed. The initial readership includined contributors to Broom and Others, but the magazine’s circulation only reach about two hundred. With McAlmon’s move to Paris and financial difficulties, Contact folded in 1923, only to be restarted by Williams in 1932. McAlmon remained as an associate editor and Nathanael West joined him on the masthead, while Williams served as primary editor. Three issues appeared with more emphasis placed on poetry. The most interesting contribution is the “Bibliography of Little Magainzes,” which represents one of the first attempts to catalogue little magazines.

Compiled by Theodore Waldo Emerson(Class of '06, Davidson College)