20th century Postwar-World War II Paris offered a vibrant and affordable literary scene that attracted many writers on the G.I. Bill and provided creative independence from the U.S. publishing establishment. An editorial statement by
William Styron in the inaugural Spring 1953 issue described the magazine's intended aim:
The Paris Review hopes to emphasize creative work—fiction and poetry—not to the exclusion of criticism, but with the aim in mind of merely removing criticism from the dominating place it holds in most literary magazines. […] I think
The Paris Review should welcome these people into its pages: the good writers and good poets, the non-drumbeaters and non-axe-grinders. So long as they're good. The
Reviews founding editors included Humes, Matthiessen, Plimpton,
William Pène du Bois,
Thomas Guinzburg, and
John P. C. Train. The first publisher was
Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan. Du Bois, the magazine's first art editor, designed the iconic
Paris Review eagle to include both American and French representation: An American eagle holding a pen and wearing a
Phrygian cap. The magazine's first office was located in a small room of the publishing house
Éditions de la Table ronde. Other notable locations of
The Paris Review include a
Thames River grain carrier anchored on the Seine from 1956 to 1957. The Café de Tournon in the
Rue de Tournon on the
Rive Gauche was the meeting place for staffers and writers, including du Bois, Plimpton, Matthiessen,
Alexander Trocchi,
Christopher Logue, and
Eugene Walter. The first-floor and basement rooms in Plimpton's
72nd Street apartment became the headquarters of
The Paris Review when the magazine moved from
Paris to
New York City in 1973. The magazine's circulation was 9,700 in 1989.
21st century Brigid Hughes was appointed as the magazine's second editor (and first female editor) in January 2004, following Plimpton's death the prior year. The last issue that was published during her tenure as editor-in-chief is the March 2005 edition. Hughes was succeeded by
Philip Gourevitch in spring 2005. Lorin Stein was named editor of
The Paris Review in April 2010. He oversaw a redesign of the magazine's print edition and its website, both of which were met with critical acclaim. In September 2010, the
Review made available online its entire archive of interviews. On December 6, 2017, Stein resigned in response to an internal investigation into allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct toward women in the workplace. In October 2012,
The Paris Review published an anthology,
Object Lessons, comprising a selection of 20 short stories from
The Paris Review's archive, each with an introduction by a contemporary author. Contributors include
Jeffrey Eugenides (with an introduction to a story by
Denis Johnson),
Lydia Davis (with an introduction to a story by
Jane Bowles), and
Ali Smith (with an introduction to a story by Lydia Davis). On October 8, 2012, the magazine launched its app for the
iPad and
iPhone. Developed by Atavist, the app includes access to new issues, back issues, and archival collections from its fiction and poetry sections—along with the complete interview series and the Paris Review Daily. In November 2015,
The Paris Review published its first anthology of new writing since 1964,
The Unprofessionals: New American Writing from The Paris Review, including writing by well-established authors like
Zadie Smith,
Ben Lerner, and
John Jeremiah Sullivan, as well as emerging writers like
Emma Cline,
Ottessa Moshfegh,
Alexandra Kleeman, and
Angela Flournoy. In late 2021, for the first issue with Stokes as editor-in-chief and Na Kim as art director, the journal was given a redesign by Matt Willey of Pentagram that hearkened back to the look that it had in the late 1960s and early 1970s: a minimalist style, a cover with a sans serif font and a great deal of white space, a smaller trim size, and paper that was physically softer.
CIA In January 2007, an article published by
The New York Times supported the claim that founding editor Matthiessen had been employed by the
Central Intelligence Agency at the time of the magazine's founding and reported that he used
The Paris Review as a cover while he was stationed in Paris, not a collaborator, for his spying activities. Historians such as
Frances Stonor Saunders have noted that the
Review was not directly funded by the CIA, although it operated within the same postwar network of literary and cultural institutions supported by the CIA-backed
Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF). Specifically, archival records indicate that
The Paris Review occasionally benefited indirectly through the sale of reprints to CCF-affiliated journals such as
Encounter and
Preuves, and by sharing contributors and editors with those magazines. Matthiessen later expressed regret for his CIA involvement, maintaining that
The Paris Review was editorially independent and was never directed or influenced by U.S. government interests. ==Emerging writers==