Journal Issue
This May 1922 number of The Lyric West is best met through the writing itself. It contains 27 named pieces or sections, beginning with In Venice—Long Ago by Antoinette DeCoursey Patterson, Temporal by Lucy Hale Sturges, and Noon by Lucy Hale Sturges. 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.
Calcutta by Mabel W. Phillips marks the issue’s most conspicuous opening toward modernist practice. The poem compresses perception into short, image-bearing lines around “Draped in a nun’s veil”; pause and white space become part of the measure, bringing the modern city into the magazine’s field of subjects. Elsewhere, In Venice—Long Ago and Temporal 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, Mandolines under the Moon by Constance Lindsay Skinner changes the view; the closing stretch reaches To One Named Rue by Hugo Folliard. 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 Antoinette DeCoursey Patterson, Lucy Hale Sturges, Mabel W. Phillips, E. MacAlister Hepburn, Edna Worthley Underwood, Lucile Evans, Marjorie Charles Driscol, and Idella Purnell, along with 17 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, 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 In Venice—Long Ago by Antoinette DeCoursey Patterson, turn next to Mandolines under the Moon by Constance Lindsay Skinner, and finish with To One Named Rue by Hugo Folliard. The clean reading edition is designed for that kind of movement. Original scan: 36 PDF pages. Reader’s edition: 53 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
- Antoinette DeCoursey Patterson — Poet
- Lucy Hale Sturges — Poet
- Mabel W. Phillips — Poet
- E. MacAlister Hepburn — Poet
- Edna Worthley Underwood — Poet
- Lucile Evans — Poet
- Marjorie Charles Driscol — Poet
- Idella Purnell — Poet
- Miriam Allen deFord — Poet
- Bernardine Algert — Poet
- Janet Lewis — Poet
- Constance Lindsay Skinner — Poet
- Allen Clark — Poet
- Sydney King Russell — Poet
- Nellie Burget Miller — Poet
- Mary Sinton Leitch — Poet
- Andrew Dewing — Poet
- Mary Brent Whiteside — Poet
- Maud Hogue Hess — Poet
- Beulah May — Poet
- Nancy Ellen White — Poet
- Ellen Morrill Mills — Poet
- Edward H. Pfeiffer — Poet
- Joseph Andrew Galahad — Poet
- Hugo Folliard — Poet
Publication details
Full contents
- In Venice—Long Ago — Antoinette DeCoursey Patterson [Poem, p. 3]
- Temporal — Lucy Hale Sturges [Poem, p. 6]
- Noon — Lucy Hale Sturges [Poem, p. 6]
- Romance — Lucy Hale Sturges [Poem, p. 7]
- Calcutta — Mabel W. Phillips [Poem, p. 7]
- The Dancer — E. MacAlister Hepburn [Poem, p. 7]
- Fans — Edna Worthley Underwood [Poem, p. 8]
- O Love That Is Born of the Moon — Lucile Evans [Poem, p. 9]
- In Babylon — Marjorie Charles Driscol [Poem, p. 10]
- Afternoon Song — Idella Purnell [Poem, p. 11]
- Footsteps — Miriam Allen deFord [Poem, p. 12]
- Encore Printemps — Bernardine Algert [Poem, p. 12]
- The Wild Crab-Apple Tree — Janet Lewis [Poem, p. 14]
- Mandolines under the Moon — Constance Lindsay Skinner [Poem, p. 15]
- I Am Your Lover — Allen Clark [Poem, p. 16]
- The Young David — Sydney King Russell [Poem, p. 16]
- A Pagan in Church — Nellie Burget Miller [Poem, p. 17]
- Silence — Mary Sinton Leitch [Poem, p. 18]
- Kwannon — Andrew Dewing [Poem, p. 19]
- Journey — Mary Brent Whiteside [Poem, p. 20]
- The Cabin — Maud Hogue Hess [Poem, p. 20]
- Redondo Beach — Beulah May [Poem, p. 21]
- May Moon — Nancy Ellen White [Poem, p. 22]
- Spring, the Herald — Ellen Morrill Mills [Poem, p. 22]
- In a Wood — Edward H. Pfeiffer [Poem, p. 23]
- To the Star of Song — Joseph Andrew Galahad [Poem, p. 24]
- To One Named Rue — Hugo Folliard [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. 2, no. 2, May 1922. Text/Tech Journals, reader’s edition.