Journal Issue
Published in February 1927, no. 5 of The Lyric West gives readers several clear ways into the magazine. It contains 34 named pieces or sections, beginning with Choice by Noel Stearn, Necessity by Alberta Bancroft, and Manna by Katharine Marie Barton. 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 Clinton Scollard’s The Drama’s End. The poem organizes a speaking voice through sentence-length lines around “Quite casually remarked my new-found friend”; shifts in syntax make inward argument audible without abandoning stanza, bringing ordinary experience as formally unsettled lyric material into the magazine’s field of subjects. Porter Myron Chaffee’s Life answers it from another angle: it compresses perception into short, image-bearing lines around “Life is a street car”; pause and white space become part of the measure. 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, Sacrilege by Edith Clarke Curtiss changes the view; the closing stretch reaches Woven in Lavender by Peggy Patching. 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 Noel Stearn, Alberta Bancroft, Katharine Marie Barton, Edith Mirick, Sarah Foss Wolverton, Robert A. Smith, Edna Worthley Underwood, and Rosa Zagnoni Marinoni, along with 25 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, and Little magazines—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 Choice by Noel Stearn, turn next to Sacrilege by Edith Clarke Curtiss, and finish with Woven in Lavender by Peggy Patching. 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
- Noel Stearn — Poet
- Alberta Bancroft — Poet
- Katharine Marie Barton — Poet
- Edith Mirick — Poet
- Sarah Foss Wolverton — Poet
- Robert A. Smith — Poet
- Edna Worthley Underwood — Poet
- Rosa Zagnoni Marinoni — Poet
- Elinor Chipp — Poet
- Frances Wierman — Poet
- Charles Howard Marsh — Poet
- Ramsay L. Harris — Poet
- A. M. Stephen — Poet
- W. W. Robinson — Poet
- C. T. Lanham — Poet
- Clinton Scollard — Poet
- Doris L. Bradley — Poet
- Edith Clarke Curtiss — Poet
- Cecil E. C. Hodgson — Poet
- Herbert Rose — Poet
- Ruby Weyburn Tobias — Poet
- Winifred Davidson — Poet
- Alice Ferrin Hensey — Poet
- Ethel Romig Fuller — Poet
- Ben Field — Poet
- Dorothy Stott Shaw — Poet
- Edith B. Spaulding — Poet
- Jessie Weber Kitt — Poet
- Lori Petri — Poet
- Laura DeWitt Soper — Poet
- Porter Myron Chaffee — Poet
- Elise Stearns — Poet
- Peggy Patching — Poet
Publication details
Full contents
- Choice — Noel Stearn [Poem, p. 121]
- Necessity — Alberta Bancroft [Poem, p. 122]
- Manna — Katharine Marie Barton [Poem, p. 123]
- Caravans — Edith Mirick [Poem, p. 123]
- Dead Trees — Sarah Foss Wolverton [Poem, p. 124]
- To the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra — Robert A. Smith [Poem, p. 125]
- Songs From the Andes — Edna Worthley Underwood [Poem, p. 126]
- Magdalene — Rosa Zagnoni Marinoni [Poem, p. 128]
- Awakening — Elinor Chipp [Poem, p. 128]
- Woman — Frances Wierman [Poem, p. 129]
- Of a Prostitute Redeemed — Charles Howard Marsh [Poem, p. 129]
- Ecclesiastes, 12: 1-7 — Ramsay L. Harris [Poem, p. 130]
- Challenge — A. M. Stephen [Poem, p. 131]
- Accents of Night — W. W. Robinson [Poem, p. 132]
- Armageddon — C. T. Lanham [Poem, p. 133]
- The Drama’s End — Clinton Scollard [Poem, p. 134]
- Hill Lament — Doris L. Bradley [Poem, p. 135]
- Sacrilege — Edith Clarke Curtiss [Poem, p. 136]
- Lady Wanderlust — Cecil E. C. Hodgson [Poem, p. 137]
- Mediocrity — Herbert Rose [Poem, p. 137]
- The Street of the Wind — Alberta Bancroft [Poem, p. 138]
- Storm — Ruby Weyburn Tobias [Poem, p. 139]
- In Storm — Winifred Davidson [Poem, p. 139]
- Carmen F., Half-Half — Alice Ferrin Hensey [Poem, p. 140]
- On Making a Fiddle — Ethel Romig Fuller [Poem, p. 143]
- Swords — Ben Field [Poem, p. 144]
- Rome — Dorothy Stott Shaw [Poem, p. 144]
- Words Unspoken — Edith B. Spaulding [Poem, p. 145]
- Penitence — Jessie Weber Kitt [Poem, p. 145]
- Blue — Lori Petri [Poem, p. 146]
- Red Rhododendrons — Laura DeWitt Soper [Poem, p. 146]
- Life — Porter Myron Chaffee [Poem, p. 146]
- Sky Egret — Elise Stearns [Poem, p. 147]
- Woven in Lavender — Peggy Patching [Poem, p. 147]
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. 6, no. 5, February 1927. Text/Tech Journals, reader’s edition.