'BLAST No. 1' Summary

BLAST No. 1 is the first and only issue of the magazine of the short-lived Vorticist movement in British art. Edited by Wyndham Lewis and published on 20 June 1914, the magazine includes the Vorticist Manifesto, with their blasts and blesses of all and sundry in British art, and several pieces by Wyndham Lewis, including his play Enemy of the Stars. Other notable contributions include The Saddest Story by Ford Maddox Hueffer (later Ford Madox Ford), which would later become the first chapter of The Good Soldier, and a short story by Rebecca West, her first published work. BLAST No. 1 also published black and white illustrations of artwork by Wyndham Lewis, Edward Wadsworth, Frederick Etchells, W. Roberts, Jacob Epstein, Gaudier Brzewska, Cuthbert Hamilton and Spencer Gore, including some of the first abstract paintings to be produced by British artists.