Journal Issue
Published in January 1923, no. 9 of The Lyric West gives readers several clear ways into the magazine. It contains 24 named pieces or sections, beginning with The New Frontiers by Margery Swett, Agatha by Gwynnyth J. Ritchey, and The Minuet by Paula Revere. 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.
The number’s sharpest formal turn belongs to Hugo Folliard’s Contemporary Literature. The poem compresses perception into short, image-bearing lines around “There is something strange in words”; pause and white space become part of the measure, bringing ordinary experience as formally unsettled lyric material into the magazine’s field of subjects. Elsewhere, The New Frontiers and Agatha 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 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, Sycamores in Winter by Constance Lindsay Skinner changes the view; the closing stretch reaches The Painter by Claribel Weeks Avery. 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 Margery Swett, Gwynnyth J. Ritchey, Paula Revere, Joseph Andrew Galahad, Ted Olson, John Curtis Underwood, Beatrice Stevens, and Snow Longley, along with 12 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, Desert, 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 The New Frontiers by Margery Swett, turn next to Sycamores in Winter by Constance Lindsay Skinner, and finish with The Painter by Claribel Weeks Avery. The clean reading edition is designed for that kind of movement. Original scan: 38 PDF pages. Reader’s edition: 55 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
- Margery Swett — Poet
- Gwynnyth J. Ritchey — Poet
- Paula Revere — Poet
- Joseph Andrew Galahad — Poet
- Ted Olson — Poet
- John Curtis Underwood — Poet
- Beatrice Stevens — Poet
- Snow Longley — Poet
- Elizabeth K. McGowen — Poet
- H. Thompson Rich — Poet
- Albert Edmund Trombly — Poet
- Constance Lindsay Skinner — Poet
- Marx C. Sabel — Poet
- Marx G. Sabel — Poet
- Hugo Folliard — Poet
- Robert Alden Sanborn — Poet
- Edna Goit Briatnall — Poet
- Grace Atherton Dennen — Poet
- Charles J. Quirk — Poet
- Claribel Weeks Avery — Poet
Publication details
Full contents
- The New Frontiers — Margery Swett [Poem, p. 3]
- Agatha — Gwynnyth J. Ritchey [Poem, p. 4]
- The Minuet — Paula Revere [Poem, p. 4]
- Promise — Joseph Andrew Galahad [Poem, p. 5]
- Conservative — Ted Olson [Poem, p. 5]
- The Last Divide — John Curtis Underwood [Poem, p. 6]
- The Critic — John Curtis Underwood [Poem, p. 7]
- My Love — Beatrice Stevens [Poem, p. 7]
- THE DYING FAVORITE SPEAKS — Snow Longley [Poem, p. 8]
- The Deserted House — Elizabeth K. McGowen [Poem, p. 10]
- To Earth’s Great Dreamers — H. Thompson Rich [Poem, p. 11]
- End of the Year — Albert Edmund Trombly [Poem, p. 11]
- Sycamores in Winter — Constance Lindsay Skinner [Poem, p. 12]
- Punishment — Marx C. Sabel [Poem, p. 12]
- Remembering — Marx G. Sabel [Poem, p. 12]
- Contemporary Literature — Hugo Folliard [Poem, p. 13]
- The Children and Thomas — Robert Alden Sanborn [Poem, p. 14]
- Deathless — Edna Goit Briatnall [Poem, p. 17]
- The End of the Feud — Grace Atherton Dennen [Poem, p. 18]
- I Hope That I Remember — Grace Atherton Dennen [Poem, p. 20]
- The Southern Cross — Charles J. Quirk [Poem, p. 21]
- Grand Coteau Louisiana — Charles J. Quirk [Poem, p. 21]
- Daybreak in the City — Charles J. Quirk [Poem, p. 21]
- The Painter — Claribel Weeks Avery [Poem, p. 28]
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. 9, January 1923. Text/Tech Journals, reader’s edition.