Exile from Eden: Miron Grindea’s ADAM International Review

ADAM International Review was the longest-running literary journal published under a single editor in Europe in the twentieth century. Edited by Miron Grindea from 1936 until his death in 1995, the magazine promoted ‘active humanism’ and ‘comparative’ or ‘world literature’ as the grounds for cultural re-evaluation and international collaboration, following the brutalities of Nazism and faced with the existential threat posed by the Cold War. This article examines Grindea’s unique species of ‘eclectic’ editorship, using ADAM as a case study to highlight the significant role played by individual magazine editors in forging and sustaining open, capacious international literary networks. Grindea was idealistic about his editorial mission, but as the twentieth century wore on found himself increasingly out-of-step with the times, instead seeking consolation in the past. This prompts a series of questions. How effective is a magazine when the editor prioritizes archival recovery above the discovery of new work? How useful are international cultural commitments when ‘internationalism’ has been curated by an individual? And what becomes of a magazine when the personality of its editor dominates?