As the editor of transition, the most important and influential of the expatriate magazines of the 1920s and 1930s, Eugene Jolas must be accounted a major figure in the literary history of the modernist period. As a poet, Jolas is of considerably less importance, though still of some interest. In his writing he attempted to provide examples of the kind of poetry he called for in his editorials and manifestos; he wished in fact to be the kind of writer published in transition. But his earnest efforts to experiment with poetic language and form remained too often at the level of surface imitation.

Jolas's parents came from Lorraine, an area whose ownership was disputed, and frequently fought over, between France and Germany; the split was reflected within the family itself, Jolas's mother speaking German and his father speaking French. They had immigrated to America, where Jolas was born...