Phillips, William

▪ 2003

      American editor (b. Nov. 14, 1907, New York, N.Y.—d. Sept. 13, 2002, New York City), was the cofounder of Partisan Review, an influential magazine of politics, literature, and culture. He was the son of Russian immigrants. Phillips was educated at the City College (now University) of New York (B.S., 1928) and at New York University (M.A., 1930). In 1934 he joined the John Reed Club, which was associated with the Communist Party, and, with Philip Rahv, founded Partisan Review as its official organ. The two men quickly became dissatisfied with the club's dogma, and in 1937 they severed their ties with it. Although Partisan Review continued to be identified with left-wing politics, the emphasis gradually shifted to literature and the arts. Phillips was interested in modernism and the avant-garde, and under his leadership the magazine introduced new intellectual movements—including Existentialism and Abstract Expressionism—to its readers, and it featured works by newly discovered authors as well as leading writers and critics of the period. Mary McCarthy and Dwight Macdonald were early staff members, and among the many Americans whose work appeared in the magazine were writers James Agee, Bernard Malamud, and Saul Bellow; poets Delmore Schwartz and Robert Lowell; and critics Edmund Wilson and Susan Sontag. Europeans published in Partisan Review included George Orwell, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and Albert Camus. Phillips was made editor in chief in 1965, which led to Rahv's departure. The magazine came under the auspices of Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J., in 1969 and Boston University in 1978. Phillips continued to be active in the magazine, although his second wife, Edith Kurzweil, assumed the editorial duties in the 1990s. Phillips taught at a number of universities, and he edited several books, including the anthology 60 Years of Great Fiction from Partisan Review (1996). Among his writings was the memoir A Partisan View: Five Decades of the Literary Life (1983).

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