Noggin (magazine)

Noggin was an American literary magazine published from 1921 until 1991 by Charles G. Berry and his wife, Linda.
The magazine published the work of dozens of leading poets, novelists, and critics of the era, including Robert Bly, Richard Hugo, Joseph Brodsky, Galway Kinnell, Mark Van Doren, and Robert Pinsky. The magazine grew in reputation during its publication, with Berry’s editorial eye, and was eventually purchased by Little, Brown & Co. Following its purchase, it continued to flourish until its demise in 1991.
Noggin was distributed through university libraries and bookstores. The journal’s name came from the fact that the publishers owned a used bookstore called “Noggin’s Used Books” in Evanston, Illinois. Before the Noggin name was used, it was originally titled The University Chronicle before it went to rebrand to the former in 1928.
The magazine ran for almost 59 years, with Charles Berry as its editor and literary adviser until his death in 1979. The editorship and leadership then passed to his wife, Linda Berry. It ceased publication in 1991. The magazine served as a launching pad for a great number of now-famous writers. Among these were the poets Robert Bly, Donald Hall, Galway Kinnell, and Robert Pinsky, the novelist Philip Roth, and the music critic Leslie Fiedler. The magazine was edited and published in Evanston, Illinois.
Noggin Press was also the publisher of the University of Chicago Classics series, one of the first to provide the classic literature to university libraries in softcover editions. The series grew to include over 300 titles and was purchased by Scribner’s in 1971. It acquired a collection of the papers of the poet Archibald MacLeish in the 1960s, and was the only collection in the world available to scholars of the author.
In December 2000, according to Variety and The Culture Watch Time website, Linda Berry announces the relaunch of Noggin magazine, publishing both the online magazine as well as a quarterly print version, but however, a few days later it was re-titled back and finalized to The University Chronicle due to trademark issues with Viacom and Sesame Workshop for the unrelated television channel.
== History ==
=== As the The University Chronicle (1921-1928) ===
The Noggin magazine was originally created as The University Chronicle, a poetry magazine edited by Charles Berry, a student at Northwestern University at the time. In the beginning, the magazine had a staff of only four people, but by the early 1930s, the magazine’s staff included an assistant editor, an editor, a business manager, and a production manager.
After years of producing the magazine, it was decided to change the name to something with a better ring to it. Noggin was the name chosen for its allusion to the brain’s physical shape. The names ideas before it went to "Noggin" were Bonehead, Fool’s Paradise, and Bunkum.
=== The rename and the beginning of the humble (1928-1939) ===
The new magazine name went to the University’s library at the beginning of 1928. At first the publishing and the distribution was done in the basement of the University’s library. The magazine gained support from a local businessman who was in the process of establishing a magazine in Chicago. His new magazine was to be called Poetry and he had great hopes of making it a prominent name in the country. After receiving a great deal of support from him, Charles Berry used this new capital and began to work towards expanding the magazine and its distribution capabilities. The tagline on the front cover was "The Poetry Magazine" until it retired in 1936.
He first sent out requests for contributions to over 200 well known poets and authors. In 1931, it expanded its staff to include more editors and the beginnings of a small review staff. This allowed the magazine to become better known to the public, which resulted in a large increase in subscriptions. The magazine was distributed to more and more college libraries at that time.
The magazine also began to gain recognition from the National Association of University Presses, and later the Library of Congress. In 1934, the magazine received its first grant, from the Carnegie Foundation, which allowed the magazine to greatly expand. The library’s circulation rose to over 50,000 copies, making it one of the most prominent magazines in the country.
=== Wartime era (1939-1945) ===
The magazine continued to grow in popularity until the outbreak of World War II, which saw many of the magazines’s subscribers go off to war. However, after the end of the war, the magazine’s popularity continued to grow until the end of the 1940s.
The magazine’s readership had risen to over 250,000 copies per year, making it the most widely circulated poetry magazine in the country. This increased circulation allowed the magazine to be distributed to bookstores across the country, which resulted in an even greater number of subscribers. In 1942, the magazine was chosen to be the official magazine of the United States government.
It was selected due to its wide reach, which allowed it to be used as a method of informing the American public about the war. As a result, the magazine began to receive support from the Office of War Information, which provided the magazine with a new, larger printing press. This support was especially important as the end of the war saw a downturn in the magazine’s circulation. The magazine’s popularity had dropped in the years prior to the war, and as a result, the staff at the magazine was reduced. In order to save the magazine, Charles Berry was forced to find other means of support.
In 1945, at the near close of World War II, Berry established the Noggin Press, which was to be the magazine’s new publishing arm. This was a huge risk for the magazine as it had not been successful in the past, but Berry was determined to make it work.
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