Journal Issue
Published in May 1923, no. 2 of The Lyric West gives readers several clear ways into the magazine. It contains 26 named pieces or sections, beginning with May, the Artist by Marian Couthouy Smith, The Silence of the Pines by Marian Couthouy Smith, and The Rain by Bernard Raymund. 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 The Gallant Warrior by Belle Turnbull. The poem compresses perception into short, image-bearing lines around “So that is done!”; pause and white space become part of the measure, bringing ordinary experience as formally unsettled lyric material into the magazine’s field of subjects. Ruth E. McKee’s A Study in Pastels answers it from another angle: it organizes description through sentence-length lines around “You are very charming in your orchid-shaded gown”; emphasis shifts through image, enjambment, and changes in syntactic pace. 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, The Swing by Portia Martin changes the view; the closing stretch reaches Communion by Eleanor Hammond. 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 Marian Couthouy Smith, Bernard Raymund, Genevieve Taggard, Ethel Van Cise, Virginia Lyne Tunstall, Sidney Drake, Margaret Adelaide Wilson, and Ellen Burns Sherman, along with 15 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 War—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 May, the Artist by Marian Couthouy Smith, turn next to The Swing by Portia Martin, and finish with Communion by Eleanor Hammond. 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
- Marian Couthouy Smith — Poet
- Bernard Raymund — Poet
- Genevieve Taggard — Poet
- Ethel Van Cise — Poet
- Virginia Lyne Tunstall — Poet
- Sidney Drake — Poet
- Margaret Adelaide Wilson — Poet
- Ellen Burns Sherman — Poet
- Doris Packard — Poet
- Mary Brent Whiteside — Poet
- Lilian White Spencer — Poet
- Dorothea Myrtle Childs — Poet
- Portia Martin — Poet
- E. Richard Shipp — Poet
- W. H. Lench — Poet
- Sydney King Russell — Poet
- Jasper Barnett Cowdin — Poet
- Belle Turnbull — Poet
- Richard Warner Borst — Poet
- Ruth E. McKee — Poet
- Louise Stedman Bostick — Poet
- W. H. Bainbridge — Poet
- Eleanor Hammond — Poet
Publication details
Full contents
- May, the Artist — Marian Couthouy Smith [Poem, p. 3]
- The Silence of the Pines — Marian Couthouy Smith [Poem, p. 4]
- The Rain — Bernard Raymund [Poem, p. 5]
- Outer Circle — Genevieve Taggard [Poem, p. 6]
- Discovery — Ethel Van Cise [Poem, p. 8]
- The Char-Woman — Virginia Lyne Tunstall [Poem, p. 8]
- Now That He Sleep — Sidney Drake [Poem, p. 9]
- When I Was Happy — Margaret Adelaide Wilson [Poem, p. 10]
- The Great Imagist—Or — Ellen Burns Sherman [Poem, p. 11]
- The Intruder — Doris Packard [Poem, p. 11]
- The Seeking — Mary Brent Whiteside [Poem, p. 12]
- Atonement — Lilian White Spencer [Poem, p. 13]
- One Russet-Brown Tree — Dorothea Myrtle Childs [Poem, p. 13]
- The Swing — Portia Martin [Poem, p. 14]
- Dreamland — E. Richard Shipp [Poem, p. 15]
- We Are Like Gold-Fish — W. H. Lench [Poem, p. 16]
- Result — W. H. Lench [Poem, p. 16]
- Legend — Sydney King Russell [Poem, p. 17]
- Moods — Jasper Barnett Cowdin [Poem, p. 17]
- The Gallant Warrior — Belle Turnbull [Poem, p. 18]
- Under the Live Oak Tree — Richard Warner Borst [Poem, p. 19]
- A Study in Pastels — Ruth E. McKee [Poem, p. 20]
- Sunset — Louise Stedman Bostick [Poem, p. 20]
- Life — Louise Stedman Bostick [Poem, p. 20]
- The Badger and the “Yaller Dog” — W. H. Bainbridge [Poem, p. 21]
- Communion — Eleanor Hammond [Poem, p. 24]
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. 3, no. 2, May 1923. Text/Tech Journals, reader’s edition.