Quadrant

a journal of the Australian Association for Cultural Freedom (part of the International Congress for Cultural Freedom, an anti-communist organ of the 1950s). It was established in 1956 under the editorship of James McAuley, who saw it as a vehicle for his essentially European and traditionalist vision. Modelled on Britain's Encounter, it was intended as a political, social, and literary magazine to rival the left-wing Australian journal Overland, and the nationalist bias of Meanjin. By the 1960s Quadrant had become a forum for conservative but liberal discourse, drawn from participants at home and abroad. McAuley was sole editor until 1964 when he was joined by Donald Horne. Under their editorship, together with Vivian Smith as literary editor, Quadrant became a major literary journal and has maintained its standing. It has a preference for high quality poetry of fairly traditional form, and for mainly autobiographical prose. Quadrant: Twenty Five Years (1982) is a celebratory anthology.