Journal Issue
Open this Winter 1955 issue of Recurrence and the contents begin making their own introductions. It contains 15 named pieces or sections, beginning with Aerials by Eloise Downer, This Lovely Miracle by Eric Barker, and The Irony by Carleton Drewry. 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.
Aerials and How Still They Grow give the issue a strong interest in shifting scenes and states of mind. 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 Aerials to How Still They Grow 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, The Mirror by Ann Stanford 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 Eloise Downer, Eric Barker, Carleton Drewry, Clyde Terry, Eleanor Glenn Wallis, Margaret Haley Carpenter, Ann Stanford, and Charles Edward Eaton, along with 4 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 Aerials by Eloise Downer, turn next to The Mirror by Ann Stanford, and finish with Contributors. The clean reading edition is designed for that kind of movement. Original scan: 13 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.
Contributors
- Eloise Downer — Poet
- Eric Barker — Poet
- Carleton Drewry — Poet
- Clyde Terry — Poet
- Eleanor Glenn Wallis — Poet
- Margaret Haley Carpenter — Poet
- Ann Stanford — Poet
- Charles Edward Eaton — Poet
- Raymond Roseliep — Poet
- Oliver Hale — Poet
- Hannah Kahn — Poet
- Madge Hales — Poet
Publication details
Full contents
- Aerials — Eloise Downer [Poem, p. 43]
- This Lovely Miracle — Eric Barker [Poem, p. 44]
- The Irony — Carleton Drewry [Poem, p. 45]
- Virginal — Clyde Terry [Poem, p. 46]
- Gilded Love Song — Clyde Terry [Poem, p. 47]
- Ebb Tide — Eleanor Glenn Wallis [Poem, p. 48]
- Treacherous Acres — Margaret Haley Carpenter [Poem, p. 49]
- The Mirror — Ann Stanford [Poem, p. 50]
- Sunflower, An Aztec Memory — Charles Edward Eaton [Poem, p. 51]
- La Gioconda — Raymond Roseliep [Poem, p. 52]
- The Realist — Oliver Hale [Poem, p. 53]
- Strangeling — Hannah Kahn [Poem, p. 54]
- Chimes — Hannah Kahn [Poem, p. 55]
- How Still They Grow — Madge Hales [Poem, p. 56]
- Contributors [Contributor notes, p. 57]
Rights and citation
Copyright 1955 by Grover Jacoby
Copyright Status Unresolved
The issue bears a 1955 copyright notice; rights in individual contributions and the compilation have not been fully resolved.
*Recurrence*, vol. V, no. 19, Winter 1955. Text/Tech Journals, reader’s edition.