I dig the name too... as a reference the face of a clock or sun dial, or another kind of scientific gauge: an instrument by which the outside world is measured. Pretty clever.

And I think history will show that there are only so many possible paths of development for precocious lit mags. Dictated by some law of physics, perhaps.

The Dial is one of the great "little magazines" that played such an important role in the history of American literature -- it was an important outlet for the modernists of the teens and twenties too.

As for the name, Emerson's introduction to the first volume helps clear some of that up:

"And so with diligent hands and good intent we set down our Dial on the earth. We wish it may resemble that instrument in its celebrated happiness, that of measuring no hours but those of sunshine. Let it be one cheerful rational voice amidst the din of mourners and polemics. Or to abide by our chosen image, let it be such a Dial, not as the dead face of a clock, hardly even such as the Gnomon in a garden, but rather such a Dial as is the Garden itself, in whose leaves and flowers and fruits the suddenly awakened sleeper is instantly apprised not what part of dead time, but what state of life and growth is now arrived and arriving."

"Diligent hands and good intent" -- now that's what an upstart lit mag is all about.