Upon meeting Heap, she persuaded her to contribute to the magazine and eventually assume the role of co-editor. In 1916, the two decided that the level of work printed in The Little Review was below their expectations and the public’s ability. In the August 1916 edition, Anderson challenged her readers and contributors saying that, “if there is only one beautiful thing for the September number it shall go in and the other pages will be left blank” (Anderson, "A Real Magazine," Vol. III.5, pg 2). The September issue featured thirteen blank pages and a set of cartoons depicting the bored editors.

In response to these numbers, Ezra Pound offered to become The Little Review’s foreign editor. Anderson quickly agreed giving Pound the space he wanted in which he, T.S. Eliot, James Joyce, and Wyndham Lewis could publish without interference. Critics often emphasize Ezra Pound's contribution to the magazine, but The Little Review was Anderson’s mission to make art more meaningful. The Little Review: A Magazine of the Arts making no compromise to the public taste challenged people with the new and experimental, two of the defining features of the modernist movement.