Recurrence, Vol. IV, No. 15 (Winter 1954)

This Winter 1954 number of Recurrence is best met through the writing itself. It contains 15 named pieces or sections, beginning with Wind by Eric Barker, Coast Fog by Eric Barker, and Fine Rain Beginning by Candace T. Stevenson. 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.

Wind and Tumultuous Altars give the issue a strong interest in water and weather. Across 14 poems, rhyme often serves as a way of tightening turns of thought: brief lyrics sit beside longer stanzaic arguments, while the sequence of titles keeps the pacing exact. What stands out is those changes of scale, as a single image is often answered by a more extended poem on the next leaf. The movement from Wind to Tumultuous Altars gives the number a specific arc while leaving its voices formally distinct.

The contents page also works like a small map. Early entries establish the issue’s first set of voices; around the middle, Desolation by Joseph Payne Brennan changes the view; the closing stretch reaches Contributors. 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 Eric Barker, Candace T. Stevenson, Sara King Carleton, Ethel Jacobson, Joseph Joel Keith, Joseph Payne Brennan, Leah Bodine Drake, and Babette Deutsch, along with 3 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 Grover Jacoby, published by Variegation Publishing Company, 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 little magazines, American poetry, Rhyme, Formalist poetry, and Love poetry—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 Wind by Eric Barker, turn next to Desolation by Joseph Payne Brennan, and finish with Contributors. The clean reading edition is designed for that kind of movement. Original scan: 19 PDF pages. Reader’s edition: 19 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.