COUNTERPOINT
In 1945, in the last days of World War Two, while still an Oxford student, Ronald Senator founded and edited the revue Counterpoint and the book publications under that imprint. John Lehman, the editor of the London Review, compared London during the war to Athens during the Peleponesian War, meaning the wealth of artistic talent which flowered in spite of, or even because of, the privations and shortages of a siege. From that wealth Counterpoimt garnered many artistic and literary gems, and notably from writers and painters almost unknown at that time but destined to become famous. And its lavish colour illustrations were a feast for eyes deprived by the wartime dearth of paper for printing.
Among the writers whom Senator discovered or chose to publish were Dylan Thomas, Lawrence Durrell, Roy Campbell, Walter de la Mare, R. S. Thomas, Edmund Blunden, Norman Nicholson, Ruthven Todd, and John Heath Stubbs.. Among the painters were Lucian Freud, Paul Nash, Cecil Collins, Bryan Wynter, Eileen Agar, Gerald Wilde, Mervyn Peake, Michael Ayrton, John Craxton, Keith Vaughan, John Minton, Ceri Richards, Robert Colquehoun, and Leslie Hurry. Among the critics were David Sylvester, Bernard Denvir, Geoffrey Grigson, Peter Vansittart, Wilfred Mellers, and John Anthony Thwaites.
Thus Counterpoint publications have a key historical value today in presenting early or embryonic work of highly significant figures in the world of letters and the visual arts.
Copies of Counterpoint and of Counterpoint publications may be seen in the libraries of the leading universities and research institutes of the USA as well as of the UK, including the British Library and the Tate Britain.