Journal Issue
The June 1923 issue of The Lyric West brings its writers together without asking them to sound alike. It contains 39 named pieces or sections, beginning with Interval by John Curtis Underwood, The Flight by George Sterling, and June Midnight by Norma Miller. 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 Pauline Garner Curran’s Neisan. The poem organizes description through sentence-length lines around “The koto loom is on the floor”; emphasis shifts through image, enjambment, and changes in syntactic pace, bringing East Asian forms and translated perspectives into the magazine’s field of subjects. Marjorie Loomis Cherry’s A Ride answers it from another angle: it organizes description through sentence-length lines around “The wind-shield misted with the rain”; 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 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, Lines on a Piece of White Paper by Reed Williams changes the view; the closing stretch reaches Yellow Acacia by Edith Gutterson. 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 John Curtis Underwood, George Sterling, Norma Miller, Marion C. Kells, Beth Cheney Nichols, Elinor Manning Prescott, Idella Purnell, and William Griffith, along with 27 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 Desert—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 Interval by John Curtis Underwood, turn next to Lines on a Piece of White Paper by Reed Williams, and finish with Yellow Acacia by Edith Gutterson. The clean reading edition is designed for that kind of movement. Original scan: 36 PDF pages. Reader’s edition: 62 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
- John Curtis Underwood — Poet
- George Sterling — Poet
- Norma Miller — Poet
- Marion C. Kells — Poet
- Beth Cheney Nichols — Poet
- Elinor Manning Prescott — Poet
- Idella Purnell — Poet
- William Griffith — Poet
- R. Helyn Martin — Poet
- Addie Cropsey Hudson — Poet
- William Foster Elliot — Poet
- John Northern Hilliard — Poet
- Elvira Foote — Poet
- Elizabeth G. Coatsworth — Poet
- Georgia Rowles — Poet
- Mary Sintou Leitch — Poet
- Dixie McCarty — Poet
- Frank Ernest Hill — Poet
- Reed Williams — Poet
- Gordon Malherbe Hillman — Poet
- Robert Louis Burgess — Poet
- Floyd Meredith — Poet
- S. Omar Barker — Poet
- Edith Miniter — Poet
- Mary Brennan Clapp — Poet
- Agnes M. Miall — Poet
- Andred W. Bunch — Poet
- Jean Paine — Poet
- Ben Field — Poet
- Susan Thompson — Poet
- Pauline Garner Curran — Poet
- Marjorie Loomis Cherry — Poet
- Vera Heathman Cole — Poet
- Martha Webster — Poet
- Edith Gutterson — Poet
Publication details
Full contents
- Interval — John Curtis Underwood [Poem, p. 3]
- The Flight — George Sterling [Poem, p. 4]
- June Midnight — Norma Miller [Poem, p. 6]
- My Crown — Marion C. Kells [Poem, p. 6]
- Spring Budding — Beth Cheney Nichols [Poem, p. 7]
- The Swallow — Elinor Manning Prescott [Poem, p. 7]
- Poetry — Idella Purnell [Poem, p. 8]
- Noon Song — Idella Purnell [Poem, p. 8]
- Ideal — William Griffith [Poem, p. 9]
- Failure — R. Helyn Martin [Poem, p. 9]
- The Singing Trail — Addie Cropsey Hudson [Poem, p. 10]
- Desert Dusk — William Foster Elliot [Poem, p. 11]
- Romance — John Northern Hilliard [Poem, p. 12]
- Redolence — Elvira Foote [Poem, p. 13]
- The Mystic — Elizabeth G. Coatsworth [Poem, p. 14]
- Tankas — Georgia Rowles [Poem, p. 14]
- The Secret — Mary Sintou Leitch [Poem, p. 15]
- The Ride — Dixie McCarty [Poem, p. 15]
- The Pass — Frank Ernest Hill [Poem, p. 16]
- Lines on a Piece of White Paper — Reed Williams [Poem, p. 17]
- Lucile — Gordon Malherbe Hillman [Poem, p. 17]
- I Rejoice That the Swallow — Robert Louis Burgess [Poem, p. 17]
- Sacrifice — Floyd Meredith [Poem, p. 18]
- Heritage — Floyd Meredith [Poem, p. 18]
- Foreknowledge — S. Omar Barker [Poem, p. 19]
- Flanders Field—Today — Edith Miniter [Poem, p. 19]
- Honey 3300 Years Old — Mary Brennan Clapp [Poem, p. 19]
- To a Portrait — Agnes M. Miall [Poem, p. 20]
- Sacrament — Andred W. Bunch [Poem, p. 20]
- A Worshipper — Jean Paine [Poem, p. 21]
- Winged Victory — Ben Field [Poem, p. 22]
- Prairie Night — Susan Thompson [Poem, p. 22]
- A Lighthouse — Pauline Garner Curran [Poem, p. 23]
- Neisan — Pauline Garner Curran [Poem, p. 23]
- Shadows — Pauline Garner Curran [Poem, p. 23]
- A Ride — Marjorie Loomis Cherry [Poem, p. 23]
- An Offering — Vera Heathman Cole [Poem, p. 23]
- A Wash-Piece — Martha Webster [Poem, p. 24]
- Yellow Acacia — Edith Gutterson [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. 3, June 1923. Text/Tech Journals, reader’s edition.