Journal Issue
Published in August 1921, no. 4 of The Lyric West gives readers several clear ways into the magazine. It contains 34 named pieces or sections, beginning with Hymn to the Dark by Constance Lindsay Skinner, Nak-Ku Replies by Constance Lindsay Skinner, and Song by Chas. F. Lummis. That opening offers a direct path through the issue, but it is not the only one. A reader can follow the printed order, pause over a familiar contributor, or start with a title that catches the eye. No special background is needed. The magazine explains itself gradually through the choices it makes and through the company each piece keeps.
Modernism enters this number through High Noon on the Slough by Ernest Dexter. The poem organizes description through sentence-length lines around “Rows of low wharves seen from the opposite shore”; emphasis shifts through image, enjambment, and changes in syntactic pace, bringing Western landscape without the usual pastoral polish into the magazine’s field of subjects. D. B. Kimball’s [The Western Pegasus Is an Uncut Broncho] answers it from another angle: it compresses perception into short, image-bearing lines around “The Western pegasus is an uncut broncho”; pause and white space become part of the measure. The presence of a named form such as Sonnet makes the contrast especially legible: innovation occurs beside inherited measure, not after its disappearance. In Los Angeles, modernism does not erase regional or traditional verse; it puts new pressure on both, asking poets to treat rhythm and perception as unsettled problems.
The contents page also works like a small map. Early entries establish the issue’s first set of voices; around the middle, The Lizard on the Ledge by Glenn Ward Dresbach changes the view; the closing stretch reaches Birthdays by Anna E. Satterlee. The works differ in length, subject, and manner, yet their placement creates connections that a simple list of names cannot show. The pleasure comes from those changes. A short piece can clear the air after a longer one, a new voice can redirect the mood, and an unexpected title can make an earlier page look different when the reader thinks back to it.
The contributor list includes Constance Lindsay Skinner, Chas. F. Lummis, Clark Ashton Smith, John Drury, Gertrude Brice Farwell, Edward H. Pfeiffer, Ernest Dexter, and Harry Noyes Pratt, along with 16 additional contributors. Some readers will arrive looking for a particular name; others will meet these contributors here for the first time. Either approach works. The publication details add useful context: the issue was edited by Roy Towner Thompson, published by The Lyric West, and issued from Los Angeles, California. A journal is also a made object, assembled by people deciding what to print, how to order it, and which voices should share a number. Reading from beginning to end lets those choices appear naturally.
The catalog subjects—Los Angeles literary culture, American poetry, and Little magazines—are useful starting points, especially for searching, but they do not set limits on what a reader may find. For a first visit, begin with Hymn to the Dark by Constance Lindsay Skinner, turn next to The Lizard on the Ledge by Glenn Ward Dresbach, and finish with Birthdays by Anna E. Satterlee. The clean reading edition is designed for that kind of movement. Original scan: 36 PDF pages. Reader’s edition: 50 PDF pages. It keeps the contents in a stable, legible form and makes names and titles easier to find. A source facsimile remains part of the project’s private editorial record, but it is not included in the public upload. What appears here is the reading copy: a practical way to spend time with the issue and discover which pieces invite a return.
Contributors
- Constance Lindsay Skinner — Poet
- Chas. F. Lummis — Poet
- Clark Ashton Smith — Poet
- John Drury — Poet
- Gertrude Brice Farwell — Poet
- Edward H. Pfeiffer — Poet
- Ernest Dexter — Poet
- Harry Noyes Pratt — Poet
- Grace Atherton Dennen — Poet
- Glenn Ward Dresbach — Poet
- Doris Packard — Poet
- Anna Porter — Poet
- Alberta Johnston Denis — Poet
- Ernest McGaffey — Poet
- Pierrepont Willard — Poet
- Belle Cooper — Poet
- Sada Cowan — Poet
- Harold Vail — Poet
- W. M. Heath — Poet
- Grace Wallace — Poet
- Paul Tanaquil — Poet
- Gladys Wilmot Graham — Poet
- Lenore Schutze — Poet
- Anna E. Satterlee — Poet
Publication details
Full contents
- Hymn to the Dark — Constance Lindsay Skinner [Poem, p. 3]
- Nak-Ku Replies — Constance Lindsay Skinner [Poem, p. 4]
- Song — Chas. F. Lummis [Poem, p. 5]
- In Lemuria — Clark Ashton Smith [Poem, p. 6]
- The Infinite Quest — Clark Ashton Smith [Poem, p. 6]
- Evening in the West — John Drury [Poem, p. 7]
- Hurried — John Drury [Poem, p. 7]
- Soul of Earth — Gertrude Brice Farwell [Poem, p. 8]
- Liberated — Gertrude Brice Farwell [Poem, p. 9]
- July — Edward H. Pfeiffer [Poem, p. 9]
- Early Morning at Suisun — Ernest Dexter [Poem, p. 10]
- High Noon on the Slough — Ernest Dexter [Poem, p. 11]
- Late Evening at Suisun — Ernest Dexter [Poem, p. 11]
- The Shadow Trail — Harry Noyes Pratt [Poem, p. 12]
- Moments — Grace Atherton Dennen [Poem, p. 14]
- The Awakening — Grace Atherton Dennen [Poem, p. 14]
- The Game—Panama — Glenn Ward Dresbach [Poem, p. 16]
- The Lizard on the Ledge — Glenn Ward Dresbach [Poem, p. 17]
- The Tryst — Doris Packard [Poem, p. 18]
- At the Zoo — Anna Porter [Poem, p. 18]
- A Sierra Juniper — Anna Porter [Poem, p. 18]
- Japanese Iris — Alberta Johnston Denis [Poem, p. 19]
- Ballade of the Maya Maiden — Ernest McGaffey [Poem, p. 20]
- Decision — Pierrepont Willard [Poem, p. 21]
- The Quest — Belle Cooper [Poem, p. 22]
- The Tiger — Sada Cowan [Poem, p. 23]
- To a Bit of Jade — Sada Cowan [Poem, p. 23]
- Spring Beauty — Harold Vail [Poem, p. 24]
- The Voice — W. M. Heath [Poem, p. 24]
- A Preference in Angels — Grace Wallace [Poem, p. 25]
- The Return of the Prodigal — Paul Tanaquil [Poem, p. 26]
- Candles — Gladys Wilmot Graham [Poem, p. 26]
- Sonnet — Lenore Schutze [Poem, p. 27]
- Birthdays — Anna E. Satterlee [Poem, p. 27]
Rights and citation
Copyright remains with the respective authors, artists, publisher, or successors.
Copyright Status Unresolved
Rights in the individual contributions and the periodical compilation have not been fully resolved.
*The Lyric West*, vol. 1, no. 4, August 1921. Text/Tech Journals, reader’s edition.