Anthology
Readers do not need to know the full history of Pegasus before opening Pegasus Selected Poems 1923 1924. It brings together 32 entries, beginning with Life by Ernest Walsh, Encounter by Dorothy Page, and Crossing the Mojave by Lila Serles. The selection turns a large run of periodical material into something a reader can enter in an afternoon and return to over time. It is not meant to replace the journal’s history. Instead, it offers a clear doorway: representative writing, useful names, and enough context to connect each piece with the publication that first carried it.
This anthology gathers thirty-two poems from the ninety-nine credited poems in the seven surviving individual issues used for the Pegasus reading editions: Volume I, Numbers 1-6, and Volume II, Number 1. Selection inevitably involves judgment. The guiding considerations here were verbal precision, rhythmic and formal control, vividness of image, historical interest, and the ability of a poem to remain compelling outside the immediate circumstances of its magazine appearance The 32 itemized selections preserve both range and sequence, making the volume useful for sustained reading while keeping each work connected to the volume in which it first appeared. The introduction, contents, and editorial notes are there to help, but the writing remains at the center. Readers can move straight through the book, follow a favorite author, or begin with a title that looks inviting. Each route reveals a slightly different anthology, which is one reason the volume can support both a quick first visit and a slower return.
The order offers its own route. Early entries establish the first group of voices; near the middle, Segments by Howard McKinley Corning changes the view; the closing stretch reaches Octavia by Lilian White Spencer. Reading in order reveals echoes between pieces, while browsing by title or author makes the book useful for quick discovery. Neither approach requires a scholarly guide. The anthology works best when a familiar name leads toward an unfamiliar one, or when a poem encountered by chance becomes the reason to explore another issue or another book.
Among the people represented are Ernest Walsh, Dorothy Page, Lila Serles, Amy Sebree Smith, Fred Gronberg, John Drury, Rolfe Humphreys, Ruth Clay Price, Helene Mullins, and Howard McKinley Corning, with 17 more contributors included elsewhere in the book. The catalog connects their work with Los Angeles literary culture, American poetry, Little magazines, and Desert. These terms help with searching, but they do not set limits on what a reader may find. Brian Kim Stefans prepared the volume for Text/Tech Journals, with Los Angeles, California given as its place of publication. The aim is simple: bring scattered material together, identify it clearly, and let readers make their own connections.
A good first route is to read Life by Ernest Walsh, turn next to Segments by Howard McKinley Corning, and then try Octavia by Lilian White Spencer. From there, the contents and contributor list can guide a more personal path. Reader’s edition: 47 PDF pages. The digital reading edition uses a consistent page size and clear typography so that the material can be read on screen or downloaded without losing its order. Source scans used during preparation remain private and are not part of the public upload. What the reader receives is the finished editorial volume: a generous introduction to the journal, a useful reference, and an invitation to keep following the writers who appear in its pages.
Contributors
- Ernest Walsh — Poet
- Dorothy Page — Poet
- Lila Serles — Poet
- Amy Sebree Smith — Poet
- Fred Gronberg — Poet
- John Drury — Poet
- Rolfe Humphreys — Poet
- Ruth Clay Price — Poet
- Helene Mullins — Poet
- Howard McKinley Corning — Poet
- H. Thompson Rich — Poet
- Challiss Silvay — Poet
- Ben Field — Poet
- José Maria de Heredia · translated by Lilian White Spencer — Poet
- William Griffith — Poet
- Samuel M. Sargent, Jr — Poet
- Henri Faust — Poet
- Margaret Tod Ritter — Poet
- Lilian White Spencer — Poet
- George Sterling — Poet
- Virgil Geddes — Poet
- Agnes Cornell — Poet
- Tu Fu · translated by Witter Bynner and Kiang Kang-hu — Poet
- E. Richard Shipp — Poet
- Mathurin Dondo — Poet
- Samuel Putnam — Poet
- Margie-Lee Runbeck — Poet
Publication details
Full contents
- Life — Ernest Walsh [Poem, p. 2]
- Encounter — Dorothy Page [Poem, p. 4]
- Crossing the Mojave — Lila Serles [Poem, p. 6]
- Night-Skies — Amy Sebree Smith [Poem, p. 7]
- Bombast — Fred Gronberg [Poem, p. 8]
- Snow-Piece — John Drury [Poem, p. 1]
- Indifferent — Rolfe Humphreys [Poem, p. 2]
- The Wild-Cat Oil Well — Ruth Clay Price [Poem, p. 3]
- One Day — Dorothy Page [Poem, p. 6]
- Echo — Dorothy Page [Poem, p. 1]
- Conundrum — Helene Mullins [Poem, p. 2]
- Unframed — Howard McKinley Corning [Poem, p. 4]
- In Passing — H. Thompson Rich [Poem, p. 6]
- To a Nearly Completed Skyscraper — Challiss Silvay [Poem, p. 10]
- Carriso Gorge — Ben Field [Poem, p. 3]
- The Cathedral Window — José Maria de Heredia · translated by Lilian White Spencer [Poem, p. 6]
- Segments — Howard McKinley Corning [Poem, p. 7]
- Circe — William Griffith [Poem, p. 9]
- Lagoon — Samuel M. Sargent, Jr [Poem, p. 11]
- The Valley of the Muted Songbirds — Henri Faust [Poem, p. 3]
- Dusk — Margaret Tod Ritter [Poem, p. 6]
- Interlude — Lilian White Spencer [Poem, p. 7]
- The Master Earth — Ben Field [Poem, p. 13]
- Earth-Worms — George Sterling [Poem, p. 3]
- A Day — Virgil Geddes [Poem, p. 5]
- Three Desert Songs — Agnes Cornell [Poem, p. 6]
- Old Mortality — Tu Fu · translated by Witter Bynner and Kiang Kang-hu [Poem, p. 9]
- Fragments — E. Richard Shipp [Poem, p. 10]
- In Praise of My Glorious Queen the Night — Mathurin Dondo [Poem, p. 3]
- Sawtooth and Violet — Samuel Putnam [Poem, p. 8]
- Epic — Margie-Lee Runbeck [Poem, p. 10]
- Octavia — Lilian White Spencer [Poem, p. 13]
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.
*Pegasus Selected Poems 1923 1924*. Text/Tech Journals, digital edition, 2026.