This Strange Enemy: Marianne Moore and the Rejection of Work in Progress

Abstract: Marianne Moore’s refusal to publish sections of James Joyce’s Work in Progress in The Dial in late-1926 and early-1927 has, in the past, invited attention from Joyce and Moore scholars alike. The rejection was regarded as a mark of Moore’s conservative literary taste and as a notable loss for the pages of The Dial . This essay furthers Victoria Bazin’s argument that the rejection was, in fact, a non-event rather than a momentous lapse in Moore’s editorial judgment. Further, it reconstitutes a history of this rejection by looking at the sparse but important intersections between Joyce and Moore, and at the welldocumented editorial history of The Dial . It ultimately argues that the rejection was propelled by the specific needs of the magazine at the time in conjunction with Moore’s general editorial style during her years at The Dial .