Editing Partisan Review (section)

===Moves to Rutgers and Boston University===

In 1963, William Phillips negotiated a move of the editorial offices of ''Partisan Review'' to the campus of [[Rutgers University]] in [[New Brunswick, New Jersey|New Brunswick]], [[New Jersey]]. The university agreed to provide not only free office space and utilities, but also to cover the salary of an editor, an assistant editor, a secretary, and various [[graduate assistants]] to help with office tasks. In return, the university would gain prestige from association with the well-regarded literary journal and make uses of the services of the editor and assistant editor as lecturers in the school's English Department.{{sfn|Becker | 1993| p= 322}}

This arrangement proved satisfactory for both parties until June 1978, when Phillips approached the University's then-mandatory faculty retirement age of 70. Learning that no exception would be made for him, Phillips began shopping for a new home for ''Partisan Review''.{{sfn|Becker | 1993| p= 324}} The decision was ultimately made to relocate the magazine's editorial offices to [[Boston University]], where publication would be continued under the editorship of Phillips and Steven Marcus, with Edith Kurzweil remaining as the magazine's Executive Editor.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bu.edu/library/gotlieb-center/collections/partisan-review/ |title=Partisan Review |work=Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center |publisher=Boston University|access-date=May 18, 2024}}</ref> Under terms of the new hosting agreement, ownership rights of ''Partisan Review's'' extensive archive were to be transferred to the new institution.{{sfn|Becker | 1993| p= 324}}

Having invested more than $1 million in ''Partisan Review'' over the years and stored the publication's archive since 1963, Rutgers physically blocked the transfer of ''PR's'' files to the new institution.{{sfn|Becker | 1993| p= 324}} A standoff resulted and attorneys for both parties hastily came to an agreement by which Phillips was allowed to remove back issues, financial files, and current documents necessary for the magazine's publication to Boston University with Rutgers holding the archival originals until the matter could be legally settled.{{sfn|Becker | 1993| p= 325}} An inventory of the magazine's papers was conducted and photocopies of critical documents made and the matter headed for court.{{sfn|Becker | 1993| p= 325}} 

In the lawsuit which followed, Phillips ultimately prevailing based on his contention that the magazine's records had been housed at Rutgers merely as a revokable "deposit" rather than a permanent gift.{{sfn|Becker | 1993| p= 326}}  Rutgers was allowed to microfilm the magazine's pre-1978 records with the originals were transferred to Boston University.{{sfn|Becker | 1993| p= 327}} 

The magazine's circulation was 8,150 in 1989.<ref name=NYT1989>{{cite news|title=A New Chapter in the Life of Story |first= Eleanor |last=Blau|date=Oct 3, 1989|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/10/03/arts/a-new-chapter-in-the-life-of-story.html?searchResultPosition=32}}</ref>