IN CIRCULATION : The Oxford American

It all began back in 1992. Fledgling magazine editor Marc Smirnoff, looking for contributions to the first issue of his new review of Southern literature “The Oxford American,” asked John Grisham to write a piece. The best-selling author of “The Firm,” “The Pelican Brief” and “A Time to Kill” responded with “The Faulkner Thing”--”?? a darkly funny account of his verbal duel with a television reporter trying (and failing) to trick the pop mystery novelist into calling himself the literary heir to the author of “The Sound and the Fury.” (“ ‘How do you compare yourself with William Faulkner?’ she asked. ‘Faulkner’s dead,’ I said, glancing in her general direction but being careful not to look at the camera.”) Sharp, irreverent and unlike anything its author had ever published before, the piece was just what Smirnoff wanted--almost.

“I did some editing on it,” the magazine editor recalled, speaking by phone from his office in Oxford, Miss. “I made little marks on the manuscript and sent it back to John. He made changes and sent it back to me until it became the fine little piece it is today. In fact, he liked the way I dealt with it so much he asked me to help him with the editing of his novels. We began to have a great working relationship. But when he agreed to become the publisher of the magazine this past August--well it pretty much shocked the bees out of me.”

It isn’t difficult to see what impressed Grisham. In just four issues, “The Oxford American” has established itself as one of the brightest periodicals to appear on the American literary scene in recent years. Designed--in Smirnoff’s words--”for the intelligent but non-academic general reader,” “The Oxford American” has offered lively inquiries into sociocultural life and times below the Mason-Dixon line by such leading Southern literary lights as Roy Blount Jr., Donna Tartt, Willie Morris, Florence King and Barry Hannah. It has also featured such first-rate articles as Alan Huffman’s re-examination of the murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers, Steve Vineberg’s appreciation of Tennessee Williams’ little-known play, “Eccentricities of a Nightingale” and the lengthiest and most revealing interview film critic Pauline Kael has ever given. Altogether it’s quite a package coming from an ex-bookstore clerk who isn’t even from the South.

“I’m from Mill Valley, California--land of hot tubs and Berkenstocks,” says Smirnoff. He migrated to Mississippi in 1987, partially spurred by his love of novelist Eudor Welty: “I’d bought a tape of her reading her short stories. I was curious to see whether people really talked that way.”

Smirnoff worked for the now-defunct “Southern Reader” (“a Village Voice-type weekly”) before starting “The Oxford Review.” “I tried to think about all the reasons why a magazine like this would fail, and I could never come up with any. We started the whole thing on an investment of about $9,000. I felt it was worth it to gamble everything I had on this because I always felt somebody was going to back it. Still, John didn’t just give us a blank check. He’s just put us into a position where we can become successful.”

Thanks to Grisham’s investment, beginning with the February issue (which includes a photo-essay by William Eggleston and articles on Elvis Presley and the Blues) the periodical will begin appearing on a bimonthly rather than quarterly basis. As for Grisham’s personal involvement, the magazine appears to be giving this supremely successful author something on the order of a second career.

“Originally we decided that John’s role would be fairly easygoing--reading the manuscripts when they came in and telling us what he thought. But he’s really gotten into it! The last time I talked to him he had all sorts of ideas.”

No, not at all like Faulkner.