What began as a mimeographed publication of a few stapled sheets grew within three years into a larger magazine of tentatively national significance (it had editorial representatives in Vancouver although its core circulation was small—about 75 copies per issue).
This placed the editorial policy of First Statement somewhat in opposition with that of Preview, which tended to favour such British anti-modernists as W. H. Auden and Dylan Thomas.
Despite these differences, the rivalry between the two magazines was never strong, and A. M. Klein, F. R. Scott, and other important poets published in both periodicals.
Smith published New Provinces in 1936); Layton's first two monographs, Here and Now (1945) and Now is the Place (1948); Anderson's A Tent for April and Miriam Waddington's Green World (both 1945), along with collections by Raymond Souster and Anne Wilkinson.
In 1945 First Statement merged with Preview to become Northern Review, a larger and more widely distributed publication that lasted until its managing editor Sutherland's death from cancer in 1956.