<p>Since 1979, the London Review of Books has stood up for the tradition of the literary and intellectual essay in English. Each issue contains up to 15 long reviews and essays by academics, writers and journalists. There are also shorter art and film reviews, as well as poems and a lively letters page.</p>
<p>A typical issue moves through political commentary to science or ancient history by way of literary criticism and social anthropology. So, for example, an issue can open with a piece on the rhetoric of war, move on to reassessing the reputation of Pythagoras, follow that with articles on the situation in Iraq, the 19th-century super-rich, Nabokov’s unpublished novel, how saints got to be saints, the life and work of William Empson, and an assessment of the poetry of Alice Oswald.</p>
<p>History</p>
The London Review of Books was founded in 1979, during the year-long lock-out at the Times. For the first six months, it appeared marsupially in the New York Review of Books. In May 1980, the London Review of Books jumped out of the parental pouch and became a fully independent literary paper.</p>
<p>Contributors</p>
<p>The special appeal of the London Review of Books lies in the way it combines topicality with depth and scholarship with good writing, and isn’t afraid to challenge received ideas. The generous space given to contributors means that, when they write for the LRB, they are not only giving valuable assessments of new work, but contributing new work themselves.</p>
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