ABSTRACT
Between 1904 and 1919, Dutch author and critic Albert Verwey spearheaded the prominent magazine De beweging. Though it was a cultural commodity that needed to be sold, the autonomy of De beweging had to be defended and negotiated as well, sometimes at a significant cost. This chapter explores this paradox, focusing on the ways Verwey ‘sold the unsaleable’ and used the stories he told about his journal to market De beweging. Branding cultural objects comes down to not only telling a story about them, but also pitching that story against the stories others may create. I argue that Verwey’s ambition was to persuade other stakeholders to engage with his story by investing materially or symbolically in De beweging.
