Journal Issue
Open this October 1921 issue of The Lyric West and the contents begin making their own introductions. It contains 29 named pieces or sections, beginning with Thunderdrums by Lew Sarett, The Believer by Ted Olson, and To a Skull by Wright Field. 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.
In Mist, Bernardine Algert brings the issue’s modernist pressure into focus. The poem organizes description through sentence-length lines around “Do droop the eucalyptus trees”; emphasis shifts through image, enjambment, and changes in syntactic pace, bringing ordinary experience as formally unsettled lyric material into the magazine’s field of subjects. Elsewhere, Thunderdrums and The Believer keep the experimental turn in contact with the issue’s broader lyric range. Short lyrics, longer sequences, and unevenly unfolding free verse share the same contents list, making formal difference part of the issue’s reading rhythm. The issue catches Los Angeles poetry culture in transition: polished song remains public currency, but modernist compression and contemporary speech have begun to alter what a lyric can hold.
The contents page also works like a small map. Early entries establish the issue’s first set of voices; around the middle, Indian Summer by E. G. Fitzbucke changes the view; the closing stretch reaches Comment by Julia Baynton Green. 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 Lew Sarett, Ted Olson, Wright Field, Thomas V. Calkins, Caroline Ainslie, Edward H. Pfeiffer, Ben Field, and Emily Ferl, 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 Thunderdrums by Lew Sarett, turn next to Indian Summer by E. G. Fitzbucke, and finish with Comment by Julia Baynton Green. 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
- Lew Sarett — Poet
- Ted Olson — Poet
- Wright Field — Poet
- Thomas V. Calkins — Poet
- Caroline Ainslie — Poet
- Edward H. Pfeiffer — Poet
- Ben Field — Poet
- Emily Ferl — Poet
- Sydney King Russell — Poet
- Virginia McCormick — Poet
- Clark Ashton Smith — Poet
- E. G. Fitzbucke — Poet
- Alice Rogers Hager — Poet
- Helen Runyon Bulknap — Poet
- O. J. Bowles — Poet
- Dorothy S. Lyndall — Poet
- Bernardine Algert — Poet
- Editha Howell — Poet
- Paul Tanaquil — Poet
- Miriam Allen deFord — Poet
- Gwendolen Haste — Poet
- Grace Atherton Dennen — Poet
- Esther Yarnell — Poet
- Julia Baynton Green — Poet
Publication details
Full contents
- Thunderdrums — Lew Sarett [Poem, p. 3]
- The Believer — Ted Olson [Poem, p. 6]
- To a Skull — Wright Field [Poem, p. 7]
- Finale — Ted Olson [Poem, p. 8]
- The Sand Devil — Thomas V. Calkins [Poem, p. 8]
- Lonely Street — Caroline Ainslie [Poem, p. 9]
- Caliban Aspiring — Edward H. Pfeiffer [Poem, p. 10]
- Oil — Ben Field [Poem, p. 10]
- Reply to Melancholy — Emily Ferl [Poem, p. 12]
- Woodland Fear — Sydney King Russell [Poem, p. 12]
- Desire — Sydney King Russell [Poem, p. 13]
- SORROW — Virginia McCormick [Poem, p. 13]
- Poems — Virginia McCormick [Poem, p. 13]
- The Absence of the Muse — Clark Ashton Smith [Poem, p. 14]
- Indian Summer — E. G. Fitzbucke [Poem, p. 14]
- Japanese Cycle — Alice Rogers Hager [Poem, p. 15]
- Correspondences — Helen Runyon Bulknap [Poem, p. 17]
- Aerial — O. J. Bowles [Poem, p. 18]
- Clouds — O. J. Bowles [Poem, p. 18]
- The Dancer — Dorothy S. Lyndall [Poem, p. 18]
- The Moon — Dorothy S. Lyndall [Poem, p. 19]
- Mist — Bernardine Algert [Poem, p. 20]
- The Return — Editha Howell [Poem, p. 20]
- Two Men — Paul Tanaquil [Poem, p. 21]
- At Night — Miriam Allen deFord [Poem, p. 22]
- The Stoic — Gwendolen Haste [Poem, p. 22]
- Pastels — Grace Atherton Dennen [Poem, p. 23]
- The Sky-Rocket — Esther Yarnell [Poem, p. 24]
- Comment — Julia Baynton Green [Poem, p. 25]
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. 6, October 1921. Text/Tech Journals, reader’s edition.