S4N

Fitts' "A STATEMENT OF IDEA", published in the first issue, explored the idea of the magazine as the group of friends being able to "benefit from exchange and cooperation" in the form of "writing an article, short or long story, in any form whatsoever, on any subject in which the writer is interested, and that he would type and circulate the collected contributions".[1] This exchange of ideas between contributors fuelled the magazine's dedication "to controversy and contention" [3] and push the boundaries of literary ideas through published content.

S4N's name came about first as a stand in for a magazine title, as one had not been chosen by the publication of the first issue. Space for Title (Not Yet Decided), was put in place on the first issue, and by the fourth issue the S-4-N short form for Space for Name was agreed upon by the original contributors as a permanent moniker. Until October 1920 S-4-N was retained, whereupon the dashes were excluded and it became simply S4N.[1]

In its November 1923 issue, S4N published a poem by one of their most significant contributors, E.E.Cummings, titled "Poem, or Beauty Hurts Mr. Vinal". The publication of this work by Cummings, who was labelled by S4N as "the vulgarest of the newer younger generation … and besides, a knockout of a person" [3] fostered an atmosphere of contention, as Harold Vinal, to whom the poem's title refers, was a regular poetry contributor to S4N. The poem was a satiric take on Vinals' dislike of "the harshness of expression" in the poetry of that time (Rumble 259). Contention between these contributors due to content, and the fact that a poem by Vinal was published "one short poem away from Cumming's own",[1] exemplifies the atmosphere of controversy fostered within this literary magazine, both in content and aesthetic layout of the magazine itself.

The modernist ideas that inspired fierce debate within the magazine came from contributions of former Secession editor, Gorham Munson in particular. His appearance, along with other former Broom and Secession contributors, effectively changed the magazine's direction as a whole. Munson's idea of a "'Literary Secession' … [which can be defined as] a deviation into purely aesthetic concerns".[1] was the defining idea that radicalized the magazine. Munson's authoritative first article, appearing in the November 1922 issue, was the biggest step S4N took in breaking away from literary tradition towards new ideas of literary modernism. In this same issue in which Munson's new ideas were revealed, other contributing articles show the animated debate surrounding Munson's ideas. As contributors weighed in as for or against, the broad range of responses culminated in a heated debate about the direction of the magazine. Although divisive discussions about Munson's ideas of modernism shaped the next few issues, by 1923 Munson had joined the editorial board of S4N,[4] signifying if nothing else Fitts' approval of the new direction of the magazine. This division among American expatriates "proved far more important to [this] new generation … than either Eliot or Pound at that stage".[4]

In S4N's final publication, Issue 33, which was published in 1925, Fitts outlined plans for a new version of S4N that would be international in distribution and content by publishing in various languages, would offer payment to contributors, and finally, would "give full reign to what Fitts termed 'Commedia dell'Arte' in which the weapon of 'aesthetic ridicule' would expose 'impromptu asininities, amusing contradictions in an individual'".[1] These aspirations of a new S4N were based on the conditions that the magazine would 'cease as currently organized and funded ... [as] the magazine now owed $232.50 through late or non-payment of subscriptions.[1] Fitts' goal was to amalgamate with another magazine by January 1926 and publish issues monthly, which resulted in one issue of Modern S4N Review, which was the result of combining with The Modern Review, a magazine also from Massachusetts.[1] Backed by an Advisory Board with original S4N members Guthrie, Williams, and Wilder, and also the powerful Munson, the only two issues published "looked rather like S4N, 33 … and somewhat indeed like Broom and Secession, or a Secession 'in memorandum' and transposed to American soil".[1] The cause of dissolution of this second edition of S4N is not entirely clear. Scholar Walker Rumble alludes to Fitts' print shop-contracted tuberculosis as ending his printing career and thus the unique aesthetics that made S4N.[2] Others conclude that a plethora of personal problems for Fitts, and the idea that "that magazine had overreached itself",[1] led to its closure. In the mid 1930s, Fitts moved on from printing and publishing and left Northampton for Washington.[2]