Quadrant (magazine)

Quadrant
Cover of November 2014 issue
Type Monthly journal
Format Magazine
Owner(s) Quadrant Magazine Ltd.
Editor Keith Windschuttle
Founded 1956 (1956)
Political alignment Conservative
Language English
ISSN 0033-5002
Website www.quadrant.org.au

Quadrant is an Australian literary and cultural journal. Quadrant reviews literature, as well as featuring essays on ideas and topics such as politics, history, universities, and the arts. It also publishes poetry and short stories.

History

The magazine was founded in Sydney in 1956[1][2] by Richard Krygier, a Polish–Jewish refugee who had been active in social-democrat politics in Europe and James McAuley, a Catholic poet, known for the anti-modernist Ern Malley hoax. It was originally an initiative of the Australian Committee for Cultural Freedom, the Australian arm of the Congress for Cultural Freedom, an anti-communist advocacy group funded by the CIA.[3]

It has had many notable contributors including Les Murray, who has been its literary editor since 1990,[4]:240 Peter Ryan, who wrote a column from 1994 to 2015, Heinz Arndt, Sir Garfield Barwick, Frank Brennan, Ian Callinan, Hal Colebatch, Peter Coleman, Sir Zelman Cowen, Anthony Daniels, Joe Dolce, David Flint, Lord Harris of High Cross, Paul Hasluck, Dyson Heydon, Sidney Hook, A. D. Hope, Barry Humphries, Clive James, John Kerr, Michael Kirby, Frank Knopfelmacher, Peter Kocan, Christopher Koch, Andrew Lansdown, John Latham, Douglas Murray, Patrick O'Brien, Sharon Olds, George Pell, Pierre Ryckmans, Roger Sandall, Roger Scruton, Greg Sheridan, James Spigelman, Sir Ninian Stephen and Tom Switzer, as well as several Labor and Liberal political figures, including Bob Hawke, John Howard, Tony Abbott, Mark Latham and John Wheeldon.

In the immediate aftermath of the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing Quadrant's online editor Roger Franklin wrote an article titled "The Manchester Bomber's ABC Pals"[5] Referring to the Manchester bombing and Monday night's Q&A television program, the article said, "Had there been a shred of justice, that blast would have detonated in an Ultimo TV studio" (it was later amended to, "What if that blast had detonated in an Ultimo TV studio?") and then continued, "Unlike those young girls in Manchester, their lives snuffed out before they could begin, none of the panel’s likely casualties would have represented the slightest reduction in humanity’s intelligence, decency, empathy or honesty."[6][7] ABC Managing Director Michelle Guthrie called the article a "vicious and offensive attack" and called for the article to "be removed and apologised for".[8] Others are criticized the article. Quadrant editor-in-chief Keith Windschuttle eventually acknowledged that the article was "intemperate" and "a serious error of judgment", and he apologised for the offence it had caused.[9] The article was removed from the Quadrant website on 25 May 2017.

Stance and values

The magazine holds a conservative stance on political and social issues.[3]

In October 1992, Dame Leonie Kramer, then the Chairman of the magazine's Board of Directors, discussed the "deep values" of Quadrant:

  1. "the intrinsic value of cultural and intellectual freedom and of inquiry..."
  2. "cultural and intellectual freedoms, indeed negative liberties generally, depend upon an abundance of autonomous institutions and an open society..."
  3. "political democracy... support of particular democratic institutions, and a culture that accepts peaceful and democratic modes of government and change of government..."
  4. "liberal democracy, that is democracy that respects individual liberty... insists that government be limited: by other holders of political and economic resources, by legally protected private property, by free media, and most of all by the rule of law, that is the restraint and channelling of power by law..."
  5. "the virtues, and commonly the wisdom, borne by traditions in social and moral life... It has not pretended that traditions have all the answers or should be treated with uncritical reverence... It has, however, recommended that... long established moral and social practices be treated with respect and caution."
  6. "an economic order in which markets are allowed to work - within the rule of law (and the framework of property rights) - as sources of information, as ingredients and supporters of liberty and as facilitators of competitive private enterprise and individual choice..."[10]

In March 2008, the magazine was describing itself as sceptical of "unthinking Leftism, or political correctness, and its 'smelly little orthodoxies'".[3]

Editors

OrderPeriodEditorBackground / comments
1. 1956–1967 James McAuley Catholic poet
2. 1967–1988 Peter Coleman Writer, journalist, and former New South Wales and Federal Liberal politician
3. 1988–1989 Roger Sandall Writer, anthropologist, Senior Lecturer at University of Sydney
4. 1990–1997 Robert Manne Lecturer at La Trobe University; resigned after repeated disputes with the magazine's editorial board[11]
5. 1997–2007 Paddy McGuinness Journalist and self-described contrarian
6. 2008–2015, 2017– Keith Windschuttle[12] Writer and historian
7. 2015–2017 John O'Sullivan[13] Political advisor and editor

Management structure

Editorial staff

  • Editor Quadrant magazine: Keith Windschuttle[13]
  • Editor, International, Quadrant magazine: John O'Sullivan[13]
  • Editor, Quadrant Online: Roger Franklin
  • Literary Editor: Les Murray
  • Deputy Editor: George Thomas

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Australian Magazines of the Twentieth Century". Austlit. Retrieved 1 January 2012.
  2. ↑ Laurie Clancy (2004). Culture and Customs of Australia. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 125. ISBN 978-0-313-32169-6. Retrieved 30 April 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 "About Us". Quadrant. Quadrant Magazine Ltd.
  4. ↑ Alexander, Peter F. Les Murray: a Life in Progress. Oxford University Press UK, 2000
  5. ↑ The Manchester Bomber's ABC Pals, May 23rd 2017
  6. ↑ "Quadrant apologises to ABC boss over 'vicious' bombing article". ABC News. 2017-05-24. Retrieved 2017-05-24.
  7. ↑ O'Malley, Nick (2017-05-24). "Quadrant editor issues 'unreserved' apology to the ABC over 'sick and unhinged' Manchester blast article". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2017-05-24.
  8. ↑ Response from ABC Managing Director Michelle Guthrie to Quadrant editors, ABC, Wednesday 24 May 2017
  9. ↑ The standards that ‘Quadrant’ seeks to uphold, The Monthly, Robert Manne, May 2017
  10. ↑ Dame Leonie Kramer, "The Values of Quadrant", in:Quadrant, No. 290, Vol. XXXVI, No. 10, October 1992, p. 2.
  11. ↑ "Australian literary magazines". Department of Culture and Recreation. Commonwealth of Australia. Archived from the original on 8 December 2010. Retrieved 2 January 2011.
  12. ↑ Cubby, Ben (24 October 2007). "Windschuttle to edit Quadrant". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. Retrieved 2008-06-15.
  13. 1 2 3 "Notes from the editor", Quadrant, March 2017, p. 4.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.