McSweeney's Is Taking Over the World

McSweeney's, the hipper-than-thou literary quarterly founded by Dave Eggers in 1998, has become possibly the most influential American literary journal, critic and novelist Stephen Amidon writes in the London Times. Once the champ of spotting new talent, Granta magazine is now taking a backseat to Eggers' baby, and looking stale in comparison.

Amidon praises Eggers for reconciling art and commerce, writing, "What really sets Eggers’s empire apart is that it possesses that most elusive and valued of modern attributes: a brand." It encompass book and magazine publishing, a quarterly DVD magazine allegedly intended to replicate the emotional impact of dolphins mating, and a satirical website that promulgates such features as "Jenna Bush’s Book-Tour Diary of Hope." (More McSweeney's stories.)