Journal Issue
The December 1922 issue of The Lyric West brings its writers together without asking them to sound alike. It contains 27 named pieces or sections, beginning with Travail by Margaret Todd Ritter, The Child of the Childless by Mary Sinton Leitch, and Descent by Nora B. Cunningham. 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 Chamber Music by R. Ellsworth Larson. The poem compresses perception into short, image-bearing lines around “I have not seen you”; pause and white space become part of the measure, bringing fractured perception and inward life into the magazine’s field of subjects. Elsewhere, Travail and The Child of the Childless 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, Charlemagne by Maurice S. Sullivan changes the view; the closing stretch reaches The Old Quarry by Jesse Hugo Feldman. 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 Margaret Todd Ritter, Mary Sinton Leitch, Nora B. Cunningham, Harry Noyes Pratt, Gertrude Brice Farwell, Saidee Gerard Ruthrauff, Dorothy E. Collins, and Edwine Behre, along with 18 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 Travail by Margaret Todd Ritter, turn next to Charlemagne by Maurice S. Sullivan, and finish with The Old Quarry by Jesse Hugo Feldman. The clean reading edition is designed for that kind of movement. Original scan: 36 PDF pages. Reader’s edition: 58 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
- Margaret Todd Ritter — Poet
- Mary Sinton Leitch — Poet
- Nora B. Cunningham — Poet
- Harry Noyes Pratt — Poet
- Gertrude Brice Farwell — Poet
- Saidee Gerard Ruthrauff — Poet
- Dorothy E. Collins — Poet
- Edwine Behre — Poet
- Beatrice West Borst — Poet
- Josephine Van Dolzen Pease — Poet
- Idella Purnell — Poet
- E. Vashti Taggart — Poet
- Marie Emilie Gilchrist — Poet
- Maurice S. Sullivan — Poet
- Ruth Bassett — Poet
- Harold Herbert Rogers — Poet
- Marion Couthouy Smith — Poet
- Aurania Rouveyrol — Poet
- Harriet Hall Shumaker — Poet
- Gustav Davidson — Poet
- R. Ellsworth Larson — Poet
- Paul S. Nickerson — Poet
- Ames Peterson — Poet
- Paul Tanaquil — Poet
- Wright Field — Poet
- Jesse Hugo Feldman — Poet
Publication details
Full contents
- Travail — Margaret Todd Ritter [Poem, p. 3]
- The Child of the Childless — Mary Sinton Leitch [Poem, p. 4]
- Descent — Nora B. Cunningham [Poem, p. 6]
- Beloved — Harry Noyes Pratt [Poem, p. 7]
- Mother-Heart Songs — Gertrude Brice Farwell [Poem, p. 8]
- My Mother Was Sweet — Saidee Gerard Ruthrauff [Poem, p. 10]
- Motherless — Dorothy E. Collins [Poem, p. 10]
- Sketches from the Tyrol — Edwine Behre [Poem, p. 10]
- The Soul of a Woman — Beatrice West Borst [Poem, p. 11]
- Any Time, O Lord — Josephine Van Dolzen Pease [Poem, p. 14]
- The Beauty-Circle — Idella Purnell [Poem, p. 15]
- Watchman and Star — E. Vashti Taggart [Poem, p. 16]
- Weather Report — Marie Emilie Gilchrist [Poem, p. 16]
- Charlemagne — Maurice S. Sullivan [Poem, p. 16]
- Well Seasoned — Ruth Bassett [Poem, p. 16]
- Wind Impressions — Harold Herbert Rogers [Poem, p. 17]
- Winter Dusk — Harold Herbert Rogers [Poem, p. 17]
- The Sea Speaks — Marion Couthouy Smith [Poem, p. 18]
- Over Again — Aurania Rouveyrol [Poem, p. 19]
- Lovers — Harriet Hall Shumaker [Poem, p. 20]
- Non Mihi Solus — Gustav Davidson [Poem, p. 21]
- Chamber Music — R. Ellsworth Larson [Poem, p. 22]
- Compensation — Paul S. Nickerson [Poem, p. 23]
- The Last Song — Ames Peterson [Poem, p. 24]
- Ancient — Paul Tanaquil [Poem, p. 24]
- Death’s Gift — Wright Field [Poem, p. 25]
- The Old Quarry — Jesse Hugo Feldman [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. 8, December 1922. Text/Tech Journals, reader’s edition.