Coterie

Coterie during its life from 1919-1921 was one of several short-lived quarterly literary and artistic magazines published during or immediately after World War I. Hardly any survived for more than a few issues and Coterie was no exception, running for only 7 issues, including a double number (May 1919-Winter 1920/21). It was edited by Charman Lall and the final two issues by Russell Green. During its brief history, Coterie succeeded in attracting contributions from writers who were in the vanguard of the Modernist movement in Britain including T.S. Eliot, Aldus Huxley, Edith, Osbert and Sacheverell Sitwell, Herbert Read and Edmund Blunden. Artists illustrated in the magazine included Adrian Allinson (who designed the cover of no.2), Walter Sickert, William Rothenstein, William Roberts (who designed the cover of no.3), Amedeo Modigliani, Edward Wadsworth, John Flanagan, David Bomberg (who designed the cover of no.4), Ossip Zadkine, André Derain, Mary Stella Edwards (who designed the cover of no.5), Alexander Archipenko, René Durey, and Nina Hamnett (who designed the covers of nos.6/7 and was on the publication's Editorial Committee. There were few advertisements to subsidise the cost of the magazine so it was not a money-making venture and the contributors were not paid for their efforts.

During the period 1925-27, New Coterie was launched as a successor to the original. It consisted of six issues published between November 1925 and the summer of 1927. It is unclear who the editor was but it is thought that it may have been Russell Green who edited the last issue of Coterie. The front cover of each issue was designed by William Roberts. Other artists whose work is reproduced in New Coterie included Augustus John, William Rothenstein, Jean de Bosschère, Pearl Binder, Jacob Kramer, Karel Capek, Richard Wyndham, Nina Hamnett, Sidney Hunt, Bernard Meninsky, Frank Dobson, Eric Kennington, Cecil Salkeld, Stanley Spencer, and George William Bissill. Literary contributors included Nancy Cunard, Aldus Huxley, T.F. Powys, Rhys Davies, Liam O’Flaherty, D.H. Lawrence, Louis Golding and H.E. Bates.

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