Pegasus, Vol. 1, No. 2 (March 1923)

This March 1923 number of Pegasus is best met through the writing itself. It contains 18 named pieces or sections, beginning with Snow-Piece by John Drury, Indifferent by Rolfe Humphreys, and Success by Lila Munro Tainter. 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 second number looks more fully like a little magazine: Fred Gronberg appears as associate editor, a contents page maps the issue, and the editorial office is fixed at 2372 First Street, San Diego. Its poems range from John Drury's spare urban snow scene to Ruth Clay Price's pounding oil-field rhythms and Beatrice L. Morse's eucalyptus. The issue's geography is correspondingly broad, but its editorial center remains local and handmade. The named form Song sits beside shorter songs and descriptive lyrics, making the issue’s craft visible in rhyme, stanza, and carefully managed closure. That combination gives the San Diego number a regional modernity of its own: harbor, desert, city, and intimate address enter print through inherited forms being adjusted to Western subjects.

The contents page also works like a small map. Early entries establish the issue’s first set of voices; around the middle, Resonance by Edna Constance Willard changes the view; the closing stretch reaches August Ninth by Ivan T. Dowell. 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 John Drury, Rolfe Humphreys, Lila Munro Tainter, Ruth Clay Price, Granger Blanden, Beatrice L. Morse, Hugh Dalzell, and Dorothy Page, 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 W. H. Lench, published by W. H. Lench, and issued from San Diego, 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, and Desert—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 Snow-Piece by John Drury, turn next to Resonance by Edna Constance Willard, and finish with August Ninth by Ivan T. Dowell. The clean reading edition is designed for that kind of movement. Original scan: 16 PDF pages. Reader’s edition: 23 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.