Rolfe Arnold Scott-James (1878-1959) was an important British journalist, editor and literary critic in early twentieth-century literature. He is often cited as one of the first people to use the word "modernism

Modernism

Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...

" in his 1908 book Modernism and Romance, in which he writes, "there are characteristics of modern life in general which can only be summed up, as Mr. Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy, OM was an English novelist and poet. While his works typically belong to the Naturalism movement, several poems display elements of the previous Romantic and Enlightenment periods of literature, such as his fascination with the supernatural.While he regarded himself primarily as a...

 and others have summed them up, by the word, modernism" (ix).

Scott-James was educated at Brasenose College, Oxford

Oxford

The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...

 and graduated in 1901. The Dictionary of National Biography

Dictionary of National Biography

The Dictionary of National Biography is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published from 1885...

states that Scott-James "possessed a strongly developed social conscience: this manifested itself at many different points in his career in activities which, if distinct from his literary gifts, at the same time enriched them" (872). In 1914, Scott-James, then a close friend Wyndham Lewis

Wyndham Lewis

Percy Wyndham Lewis was an English painter and author . He was a co-founder of the Vorticist movement in art, and edited the literary magazine of the Vorticists, BLAST...

 became the editor of the New Weekly, which did not survive the outbreak of war later that year.
During the war, Scott-James enlisted as and fought in the Royal Garrison Artillery

Royal Garrison Artillery

The Royal Garrison Artillery was an arm of the Royal Artillery that was originally tasked with manning the guns of the British Empire's forts and fortresses, including coastal artillery batteries, the heavy gun batteries attached to each infantry division, and the guns of the siege...

 in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, and by the end of the war he had risen to the rank of Captain and in 1918 was awarded the Military Cross

Military Cross

The Military Cross is the third-level military decoration awarded to officers and other ranks of the British Armed Forces; and formerly also to officers of other Commonwealth countries....

.

In 1934, Scott-James took over the editorship of the influential magazine, the London Mercury

London Mercury

The London Mercury was the name of several periodicals published in London from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries. The earliest was a newspaper that appeared during the Exclusion Bill crisis; it lasted only 56 issues...

from J. C. Squire

J. C. Squire

Sir John Collings Squire was a British poet, writer, historian, and influential literary editor of the post-World War I period.- Biography :...

, in which he published many canonically recognized authors of modernism. The last issue of the London Mercury in April 1939 contained W. H. Auden

W. H. Auden

Wystan Hugh Auden , who published as W. H. Auden, was an Anglo-American poet,The first definition of "Anglo-American" in the OED is: "Of, belonging to, or involving both England and America." See also the definition "English in origin or birth, American by settlement or citizenship" in See also...

's "In Memory of W. B. Yeats."

Editorships and literary positions

• Literary Editor, Daily News, London (1902-1912)
• New Weekly
  New Weekly
  NW magazine is a weekly magazine published in Australia. It offers articles about media celebrities, Hollywood gossip, clothing, makeup, dieting, and entertainment. New Weekly was started by 1993 by then Australian Consolidated Press executive Richard Walsh, with a renaming to NW in 1998. ...
  
  , London (1914)
• Lead-Writer, the Daily Chronicle
  Daily Chronicle
  The Daily Chronicle was a British newspaper that was published from 1872 to 1930 when it merged with the Daily News to become the News Chronicle.-History:...
  
  , London (1919-1930)
• Assistant Editor, the Spectator
  The Spectator
  The Spectator is a weekly British magazine first published on 6 July 1828. It is currently owned by David and Frederick Barclay, who also owns The Daily Telegraph. Its principal subject areas are politics and culture...
  
  , London (1933-1935; 1939-1945)
• London Mercury
  London Mercury
  The London Mercury was the name of several periodicals published in London from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries. The earliest was a newspaper that appeared during the Exclusion Bill crisis; it lasted only 56 issues...
  
  , London (1934-1939)
• Britain To-day (1940-1954)

Works cited

• Scott-James, R.A. Modernism and Romance. New York and London: John Lane, 1908.
• Dictionary of National Biography, 1951-1960. Edited by E.T. Williams and Helen M. Palmer. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1971.