The Times Literary Supplement (or TLS) is a weekly literary review published in London by News International, a subsidiary of News Corporation.

It first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to The Times, but became a separate publication in 1914. The TLS is cooperating closely with The Times; its online version is hosted on The Times website and its editorial offices are based in the Times House, Pennington Street, London. Many distinguished writers have been contributors, including T. S. Eliot, Henry James, and Virginia Woolf, but reviews were normally anonymous until June 7, 1974. Martin Amis was a member of the editorial staff early in his career. Philip Larkin's poem Aubade was first published in the Christmas-week issue of the TLS in 1977. While it has long been regarded as one of the world's preeminent critical publications, its history is not without gaffes. For instance the publication missed James Joyce entirely.

The current editor is Peter Stothard, a former editor of The Times itself. He succeeded Ferdinand Mount in 2003.

The TLS in literature

The central place - for better or worse - of the TLS in modern Anglophone literary culture has led to it itself appearing in works of fiction. One of the most backhanded such mentions appears in the English translation of Samuel Beckett's novel Molloy (1953), in which Molloy relates that:

...in winter, under my greatcoat, I wrapped myself in swathes of newspaper, and did not shed them until the earth awoke, for good, in April. The Times Literary Supplement was admirably adapted to this purpose, of a neverfailing toughness and impermeability. Even farts made no impression on it.

Editors

• Bruce Richmond 1905
• D. L. Murray 1938
• Stanley Morison 1945
• Alan Pryce-Jones 1948
• Arthur Crook 1959
• John Gross 1974
• Jeremy Treglown 1981
• Ferdinand Mount 1991
• Peter Stothard 2003

External link

• Times Literary Supplement website

Literary magazines | Literary magazines of the United Kingdom