Editorial Restraints

Silvina Ocampo’s debut short story collection, Viaje olvidado (Forgotten Journey), came out in 1937. Her publisher was the book-making arm of Sur, the influential literary magazine — the same magazine that went on to trash the book when it hit the shelves. The reviewer commented on the “irritating ­mistakes” that filled Ocampo’s colloquial Argentine prose and described the imagery as “attacked by ­torticollis.” The reviewer was the editor of Sur, so she had some discretion when it came to saying what she wanted to say. The reviewer also happened to be Ocampo’s eldest sister, Victoria.

I think of that piece in Sur whenever a potential writer for this magazine flags a potential conflict of interest, mentioning, for example, that he once had dinner, years ago, with the author of a book I’d like to have reviewed or that she once sat on a conference...