Journal Issue
Published in April 1925, no. 7 of The Lyric West gives readers several clear ways into the magazine. It contains 23 named pieces or sections, beginning with Angelique by Lew Sarett, New Century by George H. Dillon, and A Marriage Ceremony by Velma Byers Hutchinson. 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 Mary Brennan Clapp’s Ether. The poem compresses perception into short, image-bearing lines around “Then a prick, a sting”; pause and white space become part of the measure, bringing ordinary experience as formally unsettled lyric material into the magazine’s field of subjects. Paul Tanaquil’s Two Sonnets answers it from another angle: it keeps the pressure of a fourteen-line argument around “She sees to it he fills his belly, mends”; contemporary diction works inside the inherited sonnet frame. The explicit form named in Two Sonnets makes the issue’s negotiation visible: modern subject and diction are being worked through inherited measure, not simply set against it. 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, A Song of Shadows by Roberta Holloway changes the view; the closing stretch reaches Breakfast by Weare Holbrook. 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 Lew Sarett, George H. Dillon, Velma Byers Hutchinson, Georgia Rowles, Mary Brennan Clapp, Clifford Gessler, Jo Hartman, and Frances Wierman, 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, 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 Angelique by Lew Sarett, turn next to A Song of Shadows by Roberta Holloway, and finish with Breakfast by Weare Holbrook. The clean reading edition is designed for that kind of movement. Original scan: 36 PDF pages. Reader’s edition: 45 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
- Lew Sarett — Poet
- George H. Dillon — Poet
- Velma Byers Hutchinson — Poet
- Georgia Rowles — Poet
- Mary Brennan Clapp — Poet
- Clifford Gessler — Poet
- Jo Hartman — Poet
- Frances Wierman — Poet
- Anna George de Mille — Poet
- Norma Miller — Poet
- Paul Tanaquil — Poet
- Roberta Holloway — Poet
- Caroline Ainslie — Poet
- Otis Wade — Poet
- S. Bert Cooksley — Poet
- Ellinor L. Norcross — Poet
- Jennette Edwards — Poet
- Ronald Gordon — Poet
- Nellie Burget Miller — Poet
- Jaen Flower — Poet
- Paul Eldridge — Poet
- Ruth E. McKee — Poet
- Weare Holbrook — Poet
Publication details
Full contents
- Angelique — Lew Sarett [Poem, p. 195]
- New Century — George H. Dillon [Poem, p. 199]
- A Marriage Ceremony — Velma Byers Hutchinson [Poem, p. 200]
- Garden Magic After Rain — Georgia Rowles [Poem, p. 201]
- Two Poems — Mary Brennan Clapp [Poem, p. 202]
- Portrait — Clifford Gessler [Poem, p. 203]
- Sea Moods — Jo Hartman [Poem, p. 204]
- The Husband of Lady Godiva — Frances Wierman [Poem, p. 205]
- The Record — Anna George de Mille [Poem, p. 206]
- Two Lyrics — Norma Miller [Poem, p. 207]
- Two Sonnets — Paul Tanaquil [Poem, p. 208]
- A Song of Shadows — Roberta Holloway [Poem, p. 209]
- The Wind-Break — Caroline Ainslie [Poem, p. 210]
- Love Song — Otis Wade [Poem, p. 211]
- Judas Iscariot — S. Bert Cooksley [Poem, p. 212]
- Prudence — Ellinor L. Norcross [Poem, p. 213]
- Night-Riding — Jennette Edwards [Poem, p. 214]
- High-Horse Moon — Ronald Gordon [Poem, p. 215]
- Moods — Nellie Burget Miller [Poem, p. 216]
- Because — Jaen Flower [Poem, p. 217]
- Comments on Life — Paul Eldridge [Poem, p. 218]
- Wise Woman — Ruth E. McKee [Poem, p. 219]
- Breakfast — Weare Holbrook [Poem, p. 219]
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. 4, no. 7, April 1925. Text/Tech Journals, reader’s edition.