The magazine was entered as second-class matter at the New York Post Office, reflecting its New York base during its late-1910s phase and enabling regular distribution under postal privileges.
Scofield Thayer and James Sibley Watson Jr. purchased The Dial from owner Martyn Johnson, setting up the magazine’s transformation into a major U.S. venue for modernist literature and criticism in the 1920s.
The first issue under the Thayer–Watson regime appeared (Vol. 68, No. 1), marking the start of The Dial’s most influential modernist decade and signaling an expanded commitment to avant-garde writing and art.
W. B. Yeats’s poem “The Second Coming” was first printed in The Dial, exemplifying the magazine’s role in circulating key modernist poetry to U.S. readers and consolidating its transatlantic literary network.
Editors Thayer and Watson announced the creation of the $2,000 Dial Award to honor a contributor’s “service to letters,” using patronage to attract and retain major modernist writers.
The first Dial Award was granted to Sherwood Anderson for work published in the magazine during 1921, establishing the award as both recognition and material support within modernist literary culture.
Eliot received the Dial Award, a major act of patronage associated with The Waste Land’s U.S. publication in The Dial and illustrating the magazine’s strategy of pairing prestige with financial support.
The November 1922 issue (Vol. 73, No. 5) included the first American publication of T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, a landmark event that cemented The Dial’s centrality to Anglophone modernism.
Marianne Moore won the Dial Award in 1924, underscoring the magazine’s influence in shaping modernist taste and highlighting Moore’s growing authority within The Dial’s editorial and contributor networks.
Moore served as editor during the magazine’s late-1920s run, strengthening The Dial’s position as a gatekeeping forum for modernist poetry, criticism, and visual art while extending her own cultural authority.
A June 1929 report noted that The Dial announced publication would cease after its July issue, capturing contemporary awareness of the financial fragility of high-literary magazines with limited advertising.
The Dial ended its modernist era by suspending publication after the July 1929 issue, closing one of the most influential U.S. venues for modernist writing, criticism, and art reproduction of the 1920s.
The Dial (U.S.): modernist poetry, reviews, and New York networks (1917-1929)
