Vol. 1, No. 1: Then and Now

 

The first issue of SHR, Spring 1967

The editor's comment in the first issue of SHR urges the following:

Our appeal to all of you--artists, scholars, teachers, scientists, humanists--is therefore a simple one:  send us scholarly, informal, and creative writings thoughtfully conceived to enrich the mind and stir the heart.

The founding editors, Norman Brittin, Eugene Current-Garcia and Taylor Littleton set for us a mission--to seek work that enlarges the humanities and, at the same time, touches the individual.  The macro and the micro.  The exterior and the interior.  The physical frame and the beating heart.

Since, then, SHR has published continually.  We've had stories selected for Shannon Ravennel's BEST OF THE SOUTH anthology (Jesse Lee Kercheval's "Gravity").  We've introduced emerging writers, and published the work of established authors and scholars.  For forty-four years, the SHR office has been witness to thousands upon thousands of pages, of stories that have made the editors weep, poems that have cut to the quick, and essays that have thrown light upon their subjects in new ways. 

Today, SHR celebrates our first blogpost.  The blog, titled THE TORCH, is so named for the first logo of this magazine.  The passing torch is a classic symbol, one that connotes learning and illumination.  Though the logo is gone from our covers, having eschewed it for issue-appropriate art, its symbol has not disappeared from our mission.  We're proud to resurrect it here. 

The first issue of SHR is a product of its age.  An essay by James K. Feibleman titled, "A Philosophy for the Space Age" begins:

The space age is here, and we have the problem of learning how to live with it.

Like the space age, the internet age has changed the way we live.  And though a blog is, admittedly, a small step in the right direction, we're eager to bring SHR to the internet party.

We are grateful to Auburn University for their support, as well as to the Southern Humanities Council--two bodies that have been there since the beginning.

 

Our most recent issue features a poem by Nobel Prize winner in chemistry, Roald Hoffmann, titled, "The God's Face." 

Hoffmann will give a poetry reading today at 4 pm, in the Student Center at Auburn University.

You may order a copy of this issue at our website.

C.M.A.