The Oxford American is a quarterly magazine that focuses on the American South. The magazine was founded in late 1989 in Oxford, Mississippi, by Marc Smirnoff (born July 11, 1963).
The name "Oxford American" is a play on The American Mercury, H. L. Mencken's general interest magazine which Smirnoff long admired. The magazine's debut issue was published on Saturday, March 14, 1992. The cover of the first issue featured a fire-engine red background with white text and a "photo-realistic" painting by Oxford painter Glennray Tutor of an abandoned gasoline pump. Three more issues were published, including one featuring previously unpublished photographs by Eudora Welty. The magazine then ceased publication in mid-1994 for lack of funding.
