Bachy, No. 5 (1975)

Published in 1975, no. 5 of Bachy gives readers several clear ways into the magazine. It contains 17 named pieces or sections, beginning with Musin' about Lit by Charles L. Johnson, Parkview Emergency Room by Bob Rippy, and Photographs by John Findlater. 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.

Musin' about Lit by Charles L. Johnson sets the first measure of the issue. From there, Parkview Emergency Room and Photographs widen its range of voices and approaches. The fiction supplies a narrative counterweight to the poems and criticism, giving the issue a shape as well as a roster. Its mix of writing and images shapes the reading experience: literary sequences are interrupted by 4 visual portfolios, while prose and verse move at different speeds across the issue rather than being isolated in separate magazines. The fiction—beginning with Earthquake Season (Rachel's Story)—adds sustained scene and character to that collage, giving the shorter poems a narrative counterweight instead of treating them as the whole event.

The contents page also works like a small map. Early entries establish the issue’s first set of voices; around the middle, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Telephone by Bob Greenfield changes the view; the closing stretch reaches Travels North in February, 1974 by Bob Webb. 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 Charles L. Johnson, Bob Rippy, John Findlater, Paul D. Brooks, Anne Valley Fox, Gary E. Ligi, Jan Gealor, and Kate Ellen Braverman, along with 9 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 Editorial collective, published by Papa Bach Paperbacks, 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, Poetry and prose, Visual art, and Sea and coast—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 Musin' about Lit by Charles L. Johnson, turn next to The Loneliness of the Long Distance Telephone by Bob Greenfield, and finish with Travels North in February, 1974 by Bob Webb. The clean reading edition is designed for that kind of movement. Original scan: 166 PDF pages. Reader’s edition: 173 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.