''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp.

History

The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ( ...

'' but became a separate publication in 1914. Many distinguished writers have contributed, including T. S. Eliot,

Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...

and Virginia Woolf. Reviews were normally anonymous until 1974, when signed reviews were gradually introduced during the editorship of

John Gross John Gross FRSL (12 March 1935 – 10 January 2011) was an eminent English man of letters. A leading intellectual, writer, anthologist, and critic, '' The Guardian'' (in a tribute titled "My Hero") and ''The Spectator'' were among several pu ...

. This aroused great controversy. "Anonymity had once been appropriate when it was a general rule at other publications, but it had ceased to be so", Gross said. "In addition I personally felt that reviewers ought to take responsibility for their opinions." Martin Amis was a member of the editorial staff early in his career. Philip Larkin's poem "Aubade", his final poetic work, was first published in the

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...

-week issue of the ''TLS'' in 1977. While it has long been regarded as one of the world's pre-eminent critical publications, its history is not without gaffes: it missed

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the Modernism, modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important ...

entirely, and commented only negatively on Lucian Freud from 1945 until 1978, when a portrait of his appeared on the cover. Its editorial offices are based in The News Building, London. It is edited by Martin Ivens, who succeeded Stig Abell in June 2020. The ''TLS'' has included essays, reviews and poems by

D. M. Thomas Donald Michael Thomas (born 27 January 1935), is a British poet, translator, novelist, editor, biographer and playwright. His work has been translated into 30 languages. Working primarily as a poet throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Thomas's 1981 ...

, John Ashbery, Italo Calvino,

Patricia Highsmith Patricia Highsmith (January 19, 1921 – February 4, 1995) was an American novelist and short story writer widely known for her psychological thrillers, including her series of five novels featuring the character Tom Ripley. She wrote 22 nove ...

Milan Kundera Milan Kundera (, ; born 1 April 1929) is a Czech writer who went into exile in France in 1975, becoming a naturalised French citizen in 1981. Kundera's Czechoslovak citizenship was revoked in 1979, then conferred again in 2019. He "sees himsel ...

, Philip Larkin,

Mario Vargas Llosa Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa, 1st Marquess of Vargas Llosa (born 28 March 1936), more commonly known as Mario Vargas Llosa (, ), is a Peruvian novelist, journalist, essayist and former politician, who also holds Spanish citizenship. Vargas Ll ...

, Joseph Brodsky, Gore Vidal, Orhan Pamuk, Geoffrey Hill and

Seamus Heaney Seamus Justin Heaney (; 13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature.

, among others. Many writers have described the publication as indispensable;

, novelist and the 2010 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, had once described the ''TLS'' as "the most serious, authoritative, witty, diverse and stimulating cultural publication in all the five languages I speak".

Editors

* 1902: James Thursfield * 1902: Bruce Richmond * 1938: D. L. Murray (David Leslie Murray) * 1945: Stanley Morison * 1948: Alan Payan Pryce-Jones * 1959: Arthur Crook * 1974:

* 1981:

Jeremy Treglown The biographer, cultural historian and critic Jeremy Treglown (born 24 May 1946) is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Warwick. He was editor of ''The Times Literary Supplement'' through the 1980s and Chair of the Arvon Foundation, 2017-2 ...

* 1991: Ferdinand Mount * 2003: Peter Stothard * 2016: Stig Abell * 2020: Martin Ivens

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Times Literary Supplement 1902 establishments in the United Kingdom Book review magazines Literary magazines published in the United Kingdom Magazines established in 1902 Magazines published in London Newspaper supplements News UK Weekly magazines published in the United Kingdom

History

Editors

See also

References

Further reading

External links