''X, A Quarterly Review'', often referred to as ''X magazine'', was a British review of literature and the arts published in London which ran for seven issues between 1959 and 1962. It was co-founded and co-edited by

Patrick Swift Patrick Swift (1927–1983) was an Irish painter who worked in Dublin, London and the Algarve, Portugal. Overview In Dublin he formed part of the Envoy, A Review of Literature and Art, Envoy arts review / McDaid's pub circle of artistic and l ...

and

David Wright David Allen Wright (born December 20, 1982) is an American former professional baseball third baseman who spent his entire 14-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career with the New York Mets. Chosen by the Mets in the 2001 Major League Baseball dr ...

Authors and artists

Among the authors and artists included in ''X'' are: Dannie Abse, Craigie Aitchison, Michael Andrews, Frank Auerbach,

Francis Bacon Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626) was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England under King James I. Bacon argued for the importance of nat ...

, George Barker,

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...

, David Bomberg, Yves Bonnefoy, Anthony Cronin, René Daumal, Lucian Freud, David Gascoyne, Ghika,

Alberto Giacometti Alberto Giacometti (, , ; 10 October 1901 – 11 January 1966) was a Swiss sculptor, painter, Drafter, draftsman and Printmaking, printmaker, who was one of the most important sculptors of the 20th century. His work was particularly influenced ...

Robert Graves Captain Robert von Ranke Graves (24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985) was an English poet, soldier, historical novelist and critic. His father was Alfred Perceval Graves, a celebrated Irish poet and figure in the Gaelic revival; they were b ...

, John Heath-Stubbs, Aidan Higgins,

Geoffrey Hill Sir Geoffrey William Hill, Royal_Society_of_Literature#Fellowship, FRSL (18 June 1932 – 30 June 2016) was an English poet, professor emeritus of English literature and religion, and former co-director of the Editorial Institute, at Boston Uni ...

, Philippe Jaccottet,

Patrick Kavanagh Patrick Kavanagh (21 October 1904 – 30 November 1967) was an Irish poet and novelist. His best-known works include the novel ''Tarry Flynn'', and the poems "On Raglan Road" and "The Great Hunger". He is known for his accounts of Irish life th ...

, Oskar Kokoschka,

Malcolm Lowry Clarence Malcolm Lowry (; 28 July 1909 – 26 June 1957) was an English poet and novelist who is best known for his 1947 novel ''Under the Volcano'', which was voted No. 11 in the Modern Library's 100 Best Novels list.

, Hugh MacDiarmid,

Charles Marowitz Charles Marowitz (26 January 1934 – 2 May 2014) was an American critic, theatre director, and playwright, regular columnist on Swans Commentary. He collaborated with Peter Brook at the Royal Shakespeare Company, and later founded and direct ...

, Phillip Martin artist,

André Masson André-Aimé-René Masson (; 4 January 1896 – 28 October 1987) was a French artist. Biography Masson was born in Balagny-sur-Thérain, Oise, but when he was eight his father's work took the family first briefly to Lille and then to Brus ...

, John McGahern, O. V. de L. Milosz, Dom Moraes, Robert Nye,

Boris Pasternak Boris Leonidovich Pasternak (30 May 1960) was a Russian and Soviet poet, novelist, composer, and literary translator. Composed in 1917, Pasternak's first book of poems, ''My Sister, Life'', was published in Berlin in 1922 and soon became an imp ...

, Robert Pinget,

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an List of poets from the United States, American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Ita ...

, Malcolm Quantrill, Michel Saint-Denis, Martin Seymour-Smith, C. H. Sisson, Stevie Smith, Jules Supervielle,

Nathaniel Tarn Nathaniel Tarn (June 30, 1928 – June 26, 2024) was a French-American poet, essayist, anthropologist, and translator. He was born Edward Michael Mendelson in Paris to a French-Romanian mother and a British-Lithuanian father. He lived in Paris ...

, and Vernon Watkins.

Aims and objectives

From the foreword to ''X: Volume I'', Numbers 1-4 (Barrie & Rockliff 1961): "...the real thing, the productions of the individual vision... If two things are granted, and they are not often denied, (i) that the productions of the true artist are vital to a healthy society, (ii) that even in the best societies there is the constant risk that these very things will wither and die for want of the minimum support, then the collection of writing, poetry, and art brought together here needs no further apology... There is at the heart of any interesting idea of art or poetry an anarchic volatile centre – a sort of living principle – which will not tolerate categoric definition so that even the wildest of surrealist or anti-art proclamations militate against the sort of freedom the artist values. This does not mean that we exist to initiate a drift from principle and clear proposition. This means that only propositions that are sufficiently accurate to include the necessary complexity of any interesting artistic viewpoint are good enough for us. And that any attitude based upon the notion that there exists a total and rational explanation for the artistic impulse and activity is for us the enemy of real poetry. And so it is that throughout all the critical articles published in this journal will be found a questioning and sceptical curiosity about the prevailing and fashionable conceptions which now dominate the scene... the real enemy now is probably confusion-general; complete intellectual confusion with a prevalent readiness to pounce on anything that looks like a moral issue provided it be simple, accessible, and public enough- in short, safe. If we allow ourselves a convenient division of purpose the first aim, to bring to the light of day the work of the best with qualification that preference be given to the unknown and the neglected or the known but unhonoured, is a clear and basic function which demands absolute precedence, while the second, to question and expose the nature of prevailing and fashionable theory and practice, is a more complex function difficult to perform. The hardest thing that anybody can do is to think for himself, to like something because he likes it and not because he knows or is told that ten or ten thousand or ten million other people do. The artist is a man who experiences for himself and believes in the validity of that experience...They are individuals, not a group; not even a group of individuals. And if they have anything in common it is the seriousness with which they take their art—not that lugubrious dedication... but the apparent frivolity with which they ignore the terrible worries of our time in favour of the apparently selfish delight of creating some image of personal vision, some faint echo of the eternally liberation 'I am'."

History

David Wright's introduction to ''An Anthology from X'': "''X'', a quarterly review of literature and the arts, flourished, or at any rate existed, between the years 1959 and 1962. It took its name from the algebraic symbol for the unknown quantity—‘incalculable or mysterious fact or influence’ as the ''Concise Oxford Dictionary'' defines it. Neither the manifesto nor the editorial introduced the first number: its contents were the manifesto...Through the poet David Gascoyne, Swift had become acquainted with an extraordinary old lady, one of the last survivors of Bloomsbury. This was Mary Hutchinson, a cousin of

Lytton Strachey Giles Lytton Strachey (; 1 March 1880 – 21 January 1932) was an English writer and critic. A founding member of the Bloomsbury Group and author of ''Eminent Victorians'', he established a new form of biography in which psychology, psychologic ...

... It had long been her ambition to start a magazine devoted to literature and the arts, and as editors Swift and I seemed to her to be the answer. This was before the days when literary magazines could get financial backing from the Arts Council...However, Mrs Hutchinson and he were confident that she would be able to find a backer for the venture...Our benefactor was Michael Berry 911–2001 now Lord Hartwell, the owner of the ''

Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was foun ...

''. He undertook to guarantee the first four volumes of ''X'', and proved an ideal backer—he never interfered. Indeed, I never even met him...Apart from Swift and myself there was no other staff, for we had determined to cut out all unnecessary expenses...The first number of ''X'' was carefully planned, and well received. Philip Toynbee hailed it in

the Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...

as 'an event, if only because a literary magazine of this kind has not existed for a long time. The admirable impression of a review devoted to attacking both the corruptions of an established avant-garde and the dreary "retrenchments" of the age is reinforced by every article and poem which appear here.' In a leading article

the Times Literary Supplement ''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'' but became a separate publication ...

was also laudatory: 'A concern for "rethinking" about the nature of literary and artistic experience is apparent throughout the pages of ''X'', and gives the whole of the first issue a unity uncommon among periodicals now'... About 3,000 of the first number were sold, and the circulation remained at this figure, more or less, until its demise. Much of its impact was due to the layout that Patrick Swift designed, and to its unusual format, which was in fact determined by the dimensions of a menu card in a caff off Victoria Station where we happened to be having a cup of coffee. To begin with, we resolved to avoid insularity. Poems, essays, and graphics by European writers and artists...appeared in our pages... Swift was, of course, responsible for the art side of the magazine. These were the boom years of abstract art. Swift, twenty years ahead of his time... romotedthe work of then unknown or unfashionable figurative painters, among them the young Frank Auerbach, Michael Andrews, and Craigie Atchison, and such as-yet uncanonized painters as Lucian Freud,

, and the forgotten David Bomberg Kokoschka, Alberto Giacometti">Giacometti,

]. Examples of their work were reproduced; more importantly, it was Swift's idea that the artist should speak for themselves, which was achieved either by transcribing their tape-recorded conversation... or by publishing their notes. Swift's unearthing and editing of David Bomberg's outspoken and apocalyptic 'pensées', scattered about his miscellaneous papers, was an outstanding contribution... All exercises in criticism or exegesis published in ''X'' were written by practising painters, writers, or poets... Our first two numbers were filled with work by writers and artists we knew, or knew of. But by the time the third number of ''X'' appeared we were starting to attract unpublished writers of the kind we were looking for." David Wright in an interview with Poetry Nation: "I received a letter from the Irish painter Patrick Swift hey had first met in Soho in 1953inviting me to come in with him to edit a new quarterly. The backing was to come via the remarkable Mrs St John Hutchinson. We called the magazine ''X'', after its dictionary definition ‘the unknown quantity’. The actual backer I was never to meet, but through his generosity ''X'' was able to pay contributors on the scale of ''Encounter''. The first number came out at the end of 1959, the seventh and last in 1962. We were out to provide a platform for the individual vision, not accepted avant-gardisme or second-hand attitudes. While the list of contributors remained international, from among the native English ''X'' managed to recruit at least hreenew poets who certainly would not have been elsewhere given a hearing Brian Higgins, C. H. Sisson and Cliff Ashby ]." Other artists that were involved, to a greater or lesser extent, with Wright and Swift in the production of ''X'' included Dom Moraes ("co-opted as an unofficial assistant"), David Gascoyne (translator and reviewer of foreign books), Elizabeth Smart and Anthony Cronin (who also wrote under the pseudonym Martin Gerard); in several numbers George Barker, Cronin, Pierre Leyris and Gascoyne are included as correspondents.

PN Review ''P. N. Review'' is a periodic publication in the United Kingdom, on the subject of poetry. Each issue includes an editorial, letters, news and notes, articles, interviews, features, poems, translations, and a substantial book review section. It i ...

: "Apart from providing a platform for such then-neglected poets as

, George Barker, Stevie Smith and Hugh MacDiarmid, its editors hoped—though not too confidently—to uncover some of the 'unknown quantities' that they knew might be finding it difficult to get into print, either because their ideas and attitudes were not among those currently received, or their verse and prose not cut to the fashion of the day. In this respect the magazine did pretty well, considering its short life... Two novelists— John McGahern and Aidan Higgins—and several now well-known painters, including Frank Auerbach, Michael Andrews, and Craigie Aitchison, were first featured in its pages...But the best justification of the magazine, and of its editors' ambitions, was the discovery, or rather the recognition, of two or three authentic but unpublished—and at that time apparently unpublishable—poets..." CJ Fox (Canadian journalist and critic): "The contents of the seven issues of ''X'' that preceded its demise in 1962 vividly reflect the rebellious spirit that animated Swift's commentaries. From the older generation, Graves was enlisted to flay what he called the official 'trades union' of literature... From Barker came fighting verse excoriating the 'rigor leavis' of the academies while Cronin rounded on 'commitment' in poetry. The voice of the authentic ‘Painting Animal’ was heard from Swift's working colleague Michael Andrews and (out of the ‘dangerous European stew’) from Giacometti and Mason, while Bomberg (still an unfashionable ghost) made a disarming case for drawing as ‘Democracy’s visual sign’. ''X'' gave Sisson his first real exposure and Kavanagh, among other mavericks, his full head...

, scarcely known in Britain as a poet, sang hauntingly of the drunk man's bathos... Stevie Smith performed at her most unnerving. The purpose behind the whole operation was to nurture the 'anarchic volatile centre' of creativity in the arts and to promote 'the unknown and the neglected or the known but unhonoured'." Martin Green (writer, editor and publisher) in

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

: " 'X''promoted the work of then unfashionable writers and poets, including Stevie Smith, Hugh MacDiarmid, Patrick Kavanagh and Malcolm Lowry, and discussed the work of similarly unfashionable artists - Alberto Giacometti, Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, Frank Auerbach and David Bomberg". Christopher Barker (son of George Barker and Elizabeth Smart, who lived upstairs from Swift) in

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

(2006):"On many occasions through the early Sixties, writers and painters such as David Gascoyne, Paddy Kavanagh, Roberts MacBryde and Colquhoun and Paddy Swift would gather at Westbourne Terrace in Paddington, our family home at that time. They came for editorial discussions about their poetry magazine, ''X''." Elizabeth Smart: "The editors of ''X magazine'', Patrick Swift and David Wright, would meet at her flat in the beginning of the sixties to do interviews, and Elizabeth sometimes offered her drawing room as a sort of office where they would hammer out their editorials. The artist Craigie Aitchison recalled being interviewed there by Paddy Swift, and Elizabeth wrote their words down, including the bits from the pub where they adjourned afterwards."

The editors

Patrick Swift was an Irish painter. David Wright a South African-born poet. They met in London in 1953 in the small bar of the Duke of Wellington at the corner of Wardour and Old Compton Street. This was then the favoured rendezvous of the artistic set of poets and painters that made up Soho society. It was at this point that Swift and Wright first discussed the idea of creating a new literary magazine, a quarterly which would publish writing on artistic issues they felt to be of importance. David Wright:

I met Swift in (to quote his words) "the bohemian jungle of Soho, where practitioners of arts and letters were thick on the ground, though not professors of these activities". And in a sense ''X'' was born in that Bohemian jungle, a society which, as I now realize, was as extraordinary as it was short-lived.

David Wright had worked for

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

and edited Nimbus in 1956. Swift had contributed to ''Nimbus'' as well as Irish art periodicals,

Envoy Envoy or Envoys may refer to: Diplomacy * Diplomacy, in general * Envoy (title) * Special envoy, a type of Diplomatic rank#Special envoy, diplomatic rank Brands *Airspeed Envoy, a 1930s British light transport aircraft *Envoy (automobile), an au ...

and The Bell.

''X'': Volume One, Number One – Volume Two, Number Three

Volume One, Number One, November 1959 * George Barker '' Circular from America'' * Anthony Cronin ''The Notion of Commitment'' * Hugh MacDiarmid Two Poems (''Song of the Serapim; Reflections in a Slum'') *

(under the pseudonym James Mahon) ''Official Art and the Modern Painter'' * Frank Auerbach ''Fragments from a Conversation'' *

''L’Image'' * Robert Pinget ''Simultaneously'' *

Two Poems (''Living in the Country; Lecture Hall'') * Anthony Cronin (under the pseudonym Martin Gerard) ''Is Your Novel Really Necessary?'' * Stevie Smith Two Poems (''The Last Turn of the Screw; Thoughts about a Person from Porlock'') * Ghika ''Contemporary Relations between Painting, Sculpture, Architecture.'' *

''The Dream, the Sphinx, and the Death of T.'' * René Daumal ''A Fundamental Experiment'' * David Gascoyne ''Remembering the Dead'' *''On The Margin'' ''Reproductions of paintings by Frank Auerbach, and a drawing by Alberto Giacometti.'' Volume One, Number Two, March 1960 * Anthony Cronin ''R.M.S. Titanic'' * George Barker How to Refuse a Heavenly House *

''November Days'' * Michel St. Denis ''Remembering Two Friends'' ( Matthew Smith and

Albert Camus Albert Camus ( ; ; 7 November 1913 – 4 January 1960) was a French philosopher, author, dramatist, journalist, world federalist, and political activist. He was the recipient of the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 44, the s ...

) * Anthony Cronin (under the pseudonym Martin Gerard) ''Goodbye to All That: A Child's Guide to Two Decades'' * Mary Hutchinson ''Kaleidoscope of Childhood'' * Charles-Albert Cingria ''Green Wood and Dry'' * Michael Andrews ''Notes and Preoccupations'' * Oskar Kokoschka ''Lettre de Voyage'' *''Poets on Poetry: I'' ** Hugh MacDiarmid ** Vernon Watkins **

** Stevie Smith *''On The Margin'' ''Reproductions of drawings by Michael Andrews, Oskar Kokoschka and René Auberjonois, and of a painting by Michael Andrews''. Volume One, Number Three, June 1960 * Brian Higgins Five Poems; and Two Poems *

''November 5th Address'' *

''The Flying Moment'' * David Bomberg ''The Bomberg Papers'' * H.A. Gomperts ''Hunting to Live'' *

''Dissonances'' *Marie Riefstahl-Nordlinger ''On Reading 'Marcel Proust - a Biography * George Barker ''VIII Beatitudes to Denver'' *

''Prolegomenon to George Barker'' *

''Adam at Evening'' *''Poets on Poetry: II'' ** Jules Supervielle ** Yves Bonnefoy ** Henri Thomas ** Philippe Jaccottet *A letter from Derek Hill *''On The Margin'' ''Reproductions of paintings by David Bomberg and drawings by

.'' Volume One, Number Four, October 1960 *

''Conversations in Courtship''; ''Verse is a Sword: Unpublished Letters'' * C. H. Sisson Six Poems *

''New Wave in a Dead Sea'' * Robert Nye ''Going to the Dogs'' * Craigie Atchison ''Fragments from a Conversation''; ''Three Paintings'' * Anthony Cronin A'' Question Of Modernity'' * Lucian Freud Two Paintings * C. H. Sisson ''Christopher Homm's Sunday Dinner'' *Noel Stock ''The Serious Artist'' *

(under the pseudonym James Mahon) ''The Painter in the Press'' * O. V. de L. Milosz ''The Hymn of Understanding'' * Anthony Cronin (under the pseudonym Martin Gerard) ''Molloy becomes Unnamable'' * Robert Pinget ''Le jardin le recyclé'' * George D. Painter ''A Reply to Mme Riefstahl-Nordlinger'' *''On the Margin'' Volume Two, Number One, March 1961 *''A Foreword to Volume Two'' * C. H. Sisson (under the pseudonym William Paton) ''The Profession of Letters or Down with Culture'' *Claire McAllister ''Defence and Admonition'' * Malcolm Quantrill ''Death of an Opportunity'' * George Barker ''III Roman Odes'' * Helen Lessore ''A Note on the Development of Francis Bacon's Painting'' *

Seven Paintings * C. H. Sisson ''Natural History'' *

Two Sonnets * John McGahern ''The End or the Beginning of Love'' * Dannie Abse ''The Magician'' * H.A. Gomperts ''Hunting to Live: II'' * Robert Nye ''Perseus in Philistia'' *Miranda Rothschild Two Poems *Geoffrey Hazard ''The Last Quarter Brings the Cold'' * Anthony Cronin ''Getting Wurred In'' * Stevie Smith Three Poems * Vernon Watkins ''Poem for Conrad'' *A letter from

Robert Hardy Timothy Sydney Robert Hardy (29 October 1925 – 3 August 2017) was an English actor who had a long career in theatre, film and television. He began his career as a classical actor and later earned widespread recognition for roles such as Siegf ...

*''On the Margin'' ''Paintings by

.'' Volume Two, Number Two, August 1961 *

Four Poems (''Be Patient for the Wolf; Hebephrene's Steep; Delirium in Vera Cruz; Reading Dom Quixote'') *''Art and Morality:'' **Introduction (''Prefatory Note'' by

) ** George Barker ''The Hyppogryph and the Water-Pistol'' **

(under the pseudonym James Mahon) ''Mob Morals and the Art of Loving Art'' ** Anthony Cronin (under the pseudonym Martin Gerard) ''It Means What It Says'' ** C. H. Sisson ''Leisure and the Arts'' **

''On a Liberal Education'' * John Heath-Stubbs ''Use of Personal Pronouns: A Lesson in English Grammar'' * Brian Higgins ''Four Poems'' * Phillip Martin ''Affiche''; ''Four Paintings'' * Georges Duthuit ''Can the Image be Abolished?'' * Brian Higgins ''Sit Thi Dahn Pat Cuddy'' *Noel Stock ''Danger: Biographers at Work'' * Timothy Behrens Two Paintings *

''A Vision'' *James Lovell ''Alive, Alive O!'' * Ghika ''A Pine Tree''; ''The Innermost Flesh of Vital Space'' * Anthony Cronin Two Poems (Fairway's' Betting Office, Dublin, 1949; Responsibilities'') * J.C. Ashby Two Poems *''On the Margin'' Volume Two, Number Three, July 1962 * Martin Seymour-Smith Six Poems; ''C.H. Sisson'' *''An Editorial'' * George Barker ''On a Distant Prospect of English Poetry & Downing College'' *William Clarke Four Poems *

Seven Portraits * C. H. Sisson Ten Poems * Brian Higgins Six Poems * Martin Green ''Coming up for Air'' * John Heath-Stubbs ''Tantum Religio...'' * John Fairfax ''The City'' *Christopher Humble Two Poems * J.C. Ashby Three Poems * Dom Moraes ''Myth One'' *Howard Griffin ''Delphi'' *

''The Cattle Fair'' * Thomas Blackburn Two Poems * Aidan Higgins ''Langrishe, Go Down'' *

''Mermaid Tavern'' *

''Remembering Benares'' *

''Reflections on Love'' *Walter McElroy ''The Hunchback'', ''From

Tristan Corbière Tristan Corbière (18 July 1845 – 1 March 1875), born Édouard-Joachim Corbière, was a French poet born in Coat-Congar, Ploujean (now part of Morlaix) in Brittany, where he lived most of his life before dying of tuberculosis at the age of ...

'' * Hugh MacDiarmid ''From 'The Snares of Varuna *''On the Margin''

An anthology from ''X''

''Selected by David Wright'' (Oxford University Press, 1988) Articles and writings: Frank Auerbach (Fragments from a Conversation ith Patrick Swift,

(L'Image),

(The Dream, the Sphinx and the Death of T.),

(Dissonances), Michael Andrews (Notes and Preoccupations),

(November 5 Address), George Barker (Circular from America; How to Refuse a Heavenly House), Craigie Atchison (Fragments from a Conversation ith Patrick Swift, Anthony Cronin (The Notion of Commitment; Goodbye to All That; A Question of Modernity; Getting Wurred In; It Means What It Says), David Bomberg (The Bomberg Papers osthumously: Swift unearthed and edited Bomberg's posthumous papers, Hugh MacDiarmid (Reflections in a Slum), David Gascoyne (Remembering the Dead),

(The Flying Moment; The Cattle Fair), C. H. Sisson (The Professor of Letters; Natural History), John McGahern (The End of the Beginning of Love), Martin Seymour-Smith (C.H. Sisson), Martin Green (Coming Up for Air), Hugh MacDiarmid (In Memoriam James Joyce). ''Art and Morality'': Prefatory Note; George Barker (The Hippogryph and the Water-Pistol); Patrick Swift (Mob Morals and the Art of Loving Art); Anthony Cronin (It means What it Says); C.H.Sisson (Leisure and the Arts); Patrick Kavanagh (On a Liberal Education). ''Poets on Poetry'': Hugh MacDiarmid, Vernon Watkins, Patrick Kavanagh, Stevie Smith. Poems by Stevie Smith,

, Brian Higgins,

, C. H. Sisson, George Barker,

, Dannie Abse, Vernon Watkins,

, John Heath-Stubbs, Anthony Cronin, Cliff Ashby, Martin Seymour-Smith, William Clarke and Thomas Blackburn. List of Illustrations:

(Portraits of George Barker, C.H.Sisson, David Wright and Patrick Kavanagh), David Bomberg (Self-portrait), Michael Andrews (The Gardener), Frank Auerbach (Head of E.O.W), Craigie Atchison (Tree and Wall Landscape).Drawings:

(Head; plans for 'The Dream, the Sphinx and the Death of T.'),

(Illustrations for 'Dissonances')

Quotes about

*David Wright's and Patrick Swift's legendary ''X'' set the common agenda for a generation of European painters, writers and dramatists. ** Michael Schmidt, ''

'', 2006 *A remarkable publication which, in some respects, was light years ahead of its time. **

Brian Fallon Brian Michael Fallon (born January 28, 1980) is an American musician, singer and songwriter. He is best known as the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, and main lyricist of the rock band the Gaslight Anthem, with whom he has recorded six studio al ...

(chief arts critic to ''

The Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It was launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is Ireland's leading n ...

'' for 35 years) *Brilliant but short-lived. **Cambridge paperback guide to ''Literature in English'' *''X'' is a magazine dedicated to genius, passion and intelligence. It has the ease and authority of all excellent creations. **'' Time and Tide'' *''X'' is beautifully designed and well printed; in fact it has finally established a standard of production which other and future literary periodicals will have to live up to. ** Paul Potts, Literary feast, ''Tribune'', 1960 *One can't say that ''X'' is an unknown quantity any more... It's the Counter-Revolution. **''

New Statesman ''The New Statesman'' (known from 1931 to 1964 as the ''New Statesman and Nation'') is a British political and cultural news magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first c ...

'', 1960 *It certainly fills a need, for none of our established magazines can be described as a workshop for new talent... The art articles are outstanding—the young or less-known painters benefit from the handsome format and from the excellence of their own prose styles; some intelligent editing is going on here... ''X'' is performing a real service... Individualism, an interest in the soul, a respect for our revolutionary past, indifference to the topical label, a love of good painting and something rather painstaking which is not afraid of dullness, characterises this new quarterly. **

Cyril Connolly Cyril Vernon Connolly CBE (10 September 1903 – 26 November 1974) was an English literary critic and writer. He was the editor of the influential literary magazine ''Horizon (British magazine), Horizon'' (1940–49) and wrote ''Enemies of Pro ...

, ''

'' *We were out to provide a platform for the individual vision, not accepted avant-gardisme or second-hand attitudes. **David Wright in ''Poetry Nation'' *The purpose behind the whole operation was to nurture the 'anarchic volatile centre' of creativity in the arts and to promote 'the unknown and the neglected or the known but unhonoured'. **CJ Fox (Canadian journalist and critic)''Patrick Swift 1927–83'' (Gandon Editions, 1993)

References

Bibliography and further reading

* ''An Anthology from X'', selected by David Wright (Oxford University Press, 1988) * ''X, Volume 1'', Numbers 1–4, November 1959 – October 1960 (Barrie & Rockliff 1961). Limited to 800 copies. Hardcover. * Lilly Library,

Indiana University Bloomington Indiana University Bloomington (IU Bloomington, Indiana University, IU, IUB, or Indiana) is a public university, public research university in Bloomington, Indiana, United States. It is the flagship university, flagship campus of Indiana Univer ...

''X magazine'' files
*

The British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

: full collection of ''X'', Volume One & Volume Two (search under: 'X. A Quarterly Review etc

David Wright Obituary - The Independent

David Wright - ''Poetry Nation''
* ''The Chameleon Poet: A Life of George Barker'', Robert Fraser (Jonathan Cape, 2001) * ''Young John McGahern: Becoming a Novelist'', Denis Sampson (Oxford University Press 2012) *'' Frank Auerbach'', Robert Hughes (critic), Robert Hughes, Thames and Hudson (1990;92) * ''The Collected Poems of Elizabeth Smart'', David Gascoyne (ed.) (Paladin, London, 1992) * ''By Heart'', Elizabeth Smart - A Life, Rosemary Sullivan, p. 274, (Flamingo, London, 1992)
Fourteen Letters (to David Wright)
C.H. Sisson, ''PN Review'' 39, Vol. 11, No. 1, July–August 1984 * RTÉ Radio. John McGahern and Patrick Swift by Denis Sampson. Recorded Sunday, 29 March 2009. Go to minute 46:5

* Crawford Municipal Art Gallery, Cork, Patrick Swift exhibitio

* Patrick Swift on David Wright, PN Review 14, Volume 6 Number 6, July–August 198

* ''Patrick Swift 1927–83'' (), Gandon Editions, 1993; with contributions on Swift by George Barker, Anthony Cronin,

, John McGahern, Brian Higgins, C. H. Sisson, Katherine Swift (artist), Katherine Swift,

and Martin Green (author). * CH Sisson on THE STAMP OF LIFE by Anthony Cronin, Collected Poems 1950–1973, PN Review 11, Volume 6 Number 3, January–February 198

* Cliff Ashby, ''PN Review'' 14, Volume 6 Number 6, July–August 1980

* ''Dead as Doornails'', Anthony Cronin (Dublin, Dolmen Press, 1976)
Quotes about X magazine
"I wrote a first novel with a pretentious title, The End or Beginning of Love... They liked it and published an extract. That was my first time in print. The magazine was influential, though, like most magazines of the kind, it was short lived... The extract in ''X'' attracted interest from a number of publishers. Fabers, among other publishers, wrote to me. T. S. Eliot was working at the firm then." * Isola di Rifiut

* ''Patrick Kavanagh: A Biography'', Antoinette Quinn (author), Gill & Macmillan Ltd; 2nd Revised edition (Sep 2003) * ''Love Of The World'', John McGahern, Essays, Edited by Stanley van der Ziel (Faber and Faber 2009); "The Bird Swift" by McGahern * ''On the Look-out'', CH Sisson (Carcanet Press, Manchester, 1989) * ''On the side of the angels'', Elizabeth Smart, edited by Alice van Wart (Harper-Collins, London, 1994) * "Literary feast", X, a Quarterly Review, Paul Potts, ''Tribune'', 29 July 1960 * "Magazines and the cold war", Philip Toynbee, ''The Observer'', 3 December 1961 * "More art than letters", Malcolm Bradbury, ''The Guardian'', 19 December 1961 * "Out of the soho jungle", Anthony Thwaite, ''The Observer'', 4 September 1988 * "Poésie sans frontières", Michael Schmidt, ''The Guardian'', Saturday 15 July 2006 * ''Lucian Freud - Youth: 1922–1968'', William Feaver, Bloomsbury, 2019, pp. 509–511 {{DEFAULTSORT:X (Magazine) 1959 establishments in the United Kingdom 1962 disestablishments in the United Kingdom Visual arts magazines published in the United Kingdom Defunct literary magazines published in the United Kingdom Magazines published in London Magazines established in 1959 Magazines disestablished in 1962