The Times Literary Supplement (or TLS, on the front page from 1969) is a weekly literary review published in London by News International, a subsidiary of News Corporation.

History

The TLS first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to The Times, but became a separate publication in 1914. Many distinguished writers have been contributors, including T. S. Eliot, Henry James, and Virginia Woolf, but reviews were normally anonymous until 1974, during which year signed reviews were gradually introduced. Martin Amis was a member of the editorial staff early in his career. Philip Larkin's poem Aubade, effectively his final poetic work, was first published in the Christmas-week issue of the TLS in 1977. While it has long been regarded as one of the world's pre-eminent critical publications, its history is not without gaffes. For instance, the publication missed James Joyce entirely.

The TLS cooperates closely with The Times; its online version is hosted on The Times website, and its editorial offices are based in Times House, Pennington Street, London. The current editor is Peter Stothard, a former editor of The Times itself. He succeeded Ferdinand Mount in 2003.

The TLS in literature

The central place – for better or worse – of the TLS in modern Anglophone literary culture has led to it appearing in works of fiction. One of the most backhanded such mentions appears in the English translation of Samuel Beckett's novel Molloy (1953), in which Molloy relates that:

... in winter, under my greatcoat, I wrapped myself in swathes of newspaper, and did not shed them until the earth awoke, for good, in April. The Times Literary Supplement was admirably adapted to this purpose, of a neverfailing toughness and impermeability. Even farts made no impression on it.

Editors

• James Thursfield 1902
• Bruce Richmond 1905
• D. L. Murray 1938
• Stanley Morison 1945
• Alan Pryce-Jones 1948
• Arthur Crook 1959
• John Gross 1974
• Jeremy Treglown 1981
• Ferdinand Mount 1991
• Peter Stothard 2003

Further reading

• Derwent May Critical Times: The History of the "Times Literary Supplement", 2001, Harper Collins, ISBN-10 0007114494 - The official history

See also

• The New York Review of Books
• London Review of Books

External links

• Times Literary Supplement website