Journal Issue
Published in December 1921, no. 8 of The Lyric West gives readers several clear ways into the magazine. It contains 29 named pieces or sections, beginning with On Christmas Eve by Neeta Marquis, A Redwood Forest in Winter by Neeta Marquis, and Rosa Mystica by Clark Ashton Smith. 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 the Telephone Book by Eda Lu Walton marks the issue’s most conspicuous opening toward modernist practice. The poem compresses perception into short, image-bearing lines around “Running down the long, black list”; pause and white space become part of the measure, bringing machines and accelerated travel into the magazine’s field of subjects. Elsewhere, On Christmas Eve and A Redwood Forest in Winter 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. In this Los Angeles setting, modernism appears less as a manifesto than as a widening of permissible rhythm, image, and subject within a magazine still hospitable to rhyme.
The contents page also works like a small map. Early entries establish the issue’s first set of voices; around the middle, Sand Dunes by John R. Moreland changes the view; the closing stretch reaches Supremacy by Ruth Harwood. 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 Neeta Marquis, Clark Ashton Smith, Joseph Andrew Galahad, Emeline Margaret Brady, Lucile Taylor, Zona Gale, Ernest Dexter, and Bertha McE. Knipe, along with 11 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, Little magazines, Sea and coast, and Love—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 On Christmas Eve by Neeta Marquis, turn next to Sand Dunes by John R. Moreland, and finish with Supremacy by Ruth Harwood. The clean reading edition is designed for that kind of movement. Original scan: 36 PDF pages. Reader’s edition: 51 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
- Neeta Marquis — Poet
- Clark Ashton Smith — Poet
- Joseph Andrew Galahad — Poet
- Emeline Margaret Brady — Poet
- Lucile Taylor — Poet
- Zona Gale — Poet
- Ernest Dexter — Poet
- Bertha McE. Knipe — Poet
- Eunice T. Gray — Poet
- Constance Lindsay Skinner — Poet
- John R. Moreland — Poet
- Harold Vinal — Poet
- Eda Lu Walton — Poet
- Wright Field — Poet
- J. M. Batchelor — Poet
- Ted Olson — Poet
- Genevieve Taggard — Poet
- Helen Frazee-Bower — Poet
- Ruth Harwood — Poet
Publication details
Full contents
- On Christmas Eve — Neeta Marquis [Poem, p. 5]
- A Redwood Forest in Winter — Neeta Marquis [Poem, p. 6]
- Rosa Mystica — Clark Ashton Smith [Poem, p. 7]
- Long White Roads — Joseph Andrew Galahad [Poem, p. 8]
- No Roses — Joseph Andrew Galahad [Poem, p. 8]
- The Portrait — Emeline Margaret Brady [Poem, p. 9]
- The Phantom — Lucile Taylor [Poem, p. 9]
- Half Thought — Zona Gale [Poem, p. 10]
- Beloved, It Is Daybreak on the Hills — Zona Gale [Poem]
- Sidney Lanier — Ernest Dexter [Poem, p. 11]
- The Walls of St. Francis — Bertha McE. Knipe [Poem, p. 12]
- The Agitator — Eunice T. Gray [Poem, p. 14]
- Creed — Constance Lindsay Skinner [Poem, p. 15]
- Rich Man, Poor Man — John R. Moreland [Poem, p. 15]
- Sand Dunes — John R. Moreland [Poem, p. 16]
- Sea Sadness — John R. Moreland [Poem, p. 17]
- Dryad — Harold Vinal [Poem, p. 17]
- Truth Absolute — Eda Lu Walton [Poem, p. 18]
- In Silence — Eda Lu Walton [Poem, p. 18]
- The Vision — Wright Field [Poem, p. 20]
- Dreams — Wright Field [Poem, p. 21]
- The Letter — J. M. Batchelor [Poem, p. 21]
- Pursuit — Ted Olson [Poem, p. 22]
- Moods of Women — Genevieve Taggard [Poem, p. 23]
- She Comes After Years to the Ocean — Genevieve Taggard [Poem, p. 23]
- Ultimate — Helen Frazee-Bower [Poem, p. 24]
- Night and the Sea — Helen Frazee-Bower [Poem, p. 25]
- Poetry Magic — Ruth Harwood [Poem, p. 25]
- Supremacy — Ruth Harwood [Poem, p. 26]
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. 8, December 1921. Text/Tech Journals, reader’s edition.