Journal Issue
This November 1921 number of The Lyric West is best met through the writing itself. It contains 31 named pieces or sections, beginning with She Dreams of Autumn by Edward H. Pfeiffer, The Gift of Beauty by John R. McCarthy, and Greasewood by Gertrude Crank. 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.
Here the break with genteel lyric convention begins in Pauline Barrington’s Los Angeles. The poem compresses perception into short, image-bearing lines around “About a mission it began to grow”; pause and white space become part of the measure, bringing the modern city into the magazine’s field of subjects. Edna Goit Brintnall’s Chinatown answers it from another angle: it organizes description through sentence-length lines around “A low narrow doorway—indistinct stair”; emphasis shifts through image, enjambment, and changes in syntactic pace. Short lyrics, longer sequences, and unevenly unfolding free verse share the same contents list, making formal difference part of the issue’s reading rhythm. In Los Angeles, modernism does not erase regional or traditional verse; it puts new pressure on both, asking poets to treat rhythm and perception as unsettled problems.
The contents page also works like a small map. Early entries establish the issue’s first set of voices; around the middle, Loneliness by W. H. Lench changes the view; the closing stretch reaches Gathering Figs by Virginia Burton Bradley. 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 Edward H. Pfeiffer, John R. McCarthy, Gertrude Crank, Beulah May, Rosamond Eddy, Jessie Rittenhouse, Louise Stedman Bostick, and Dorothea Myrto Childs, along with 15 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 Roy Towner Thompson, published by The Lyric West, 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 literary culture, American poetry, and Little magazines—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 She Dreams of Autumn by Edward H. Pfeiffer, turn next to Loneliness by W. H. Lench, and finish with Gathering Figs by Virginia Burton Bradley. The clean reading edition is designed for that kind of movement. Original scan: 36 PDF pages. Reader’s edition: 49 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.
Contributors
- Edward H. Pfeiffer — Poet
- John R. McCarthy — Poet
- Gertrude Crank — Poet
- Beulah May — Poet
- Rosamond Eddy — Poet
- Jessie Rittenhouse — Poet
- Louise Stedman Bostick — Poet
- Dorothea Myrto Childs — Poet
- Mary Graham Lund — Poet
- Glenn Ward Dresbach — Poet
- Pauline Barrington — Poet
- Eleanor Hammond — Poet
- W. H. Lench — Poet
- Power Dalton — Poet
- Mary Brent Whiteside — Poet
- William Foster Elliot — Poet
- Winifred M. Heath — Poet
- David Grokowsky — Poet
- Edna Goit Brintnall — Poet
- Lillian White Spencer — Poet
- Anna Roxzilla Crever — Poet
- Charles Wharton Stork — Poet
- Virginia Burton Bradley — Poet
Publication details
Full contents
- She Dreams of Autumn — Edward H. Pfeiffer [Poem, p. 1]
- The Gift of Beauty — John R. McCarthy [Poem, p. 3]
- Greasewood — Gertrude Crank [Poem, p. 3]
- Music — Beulah May [Poem, p. 4]
- Snatches of Song — Rosamond Eddy [Poem, p. 4]
- The Lifted Cup — Jessie Rittenhouse [Poem, p. 6]
- Song of a Mountain Flower — Louise Stedman Bostick [Poem, p. 7]
- Deferred — Dorothea Myrto Childs [Poem, p. 7]
- The Northwestern Wheat Field — Mary Graham Lund [Poem, p. 8]
- Mountain Water Song — Glenn Ward Dresbach [Poem, p. 10]
- Los Angeles — Pauline Barrington [Poem, p. 10]
- Sky Scape — Eleanor Hammond [Poem, p. 13]
- The Visitor — Louise Stedman Bostick [Poem, p. 13]
- Purity — W. H. Lench [Poem, p. 14]
- Gladness — W. H. Lench [Poem, p. 14]
- Loneliness — W. H. Lench [Poem, p. 14]
- Twilight — Power Dalton [Poem, p. 15]
- My Thoughts — Power Dalton [Poem, p. 15]
- Leaves — Mary Brent Whiteside [Poem, p. 16]
- Ars Immortalis — William Foster Elliot [Poem, p. 16]
- Life — Winifred M. Heath [Poem, p. 18]
- Emptiness — David Grokowsky [Poem, p. 18]
- Phantoms — Eleanor Hammond [Poem, p. 19]
- Chinatown — Edna Goit Brintnall [Poem, p. 19]
- The Old Pueblo — Lillian White Spencer [Poem, p. 20]
- Consolation — Mary Brent Whiteside [Poem, p. 20]
- Mount Hamilton — Anna Roxzilla Crever [Poem, p. 21]
- Truancy — Charles Wharton Stork [Poem, p. 21]
- Half-Light Happiness — Charles Wharton Stork [Poem, p. 22]
- To Heifetz — Charles Wharton Stork [Poem, p. 24]
- Gathering Figs — Virginia Burton Bradley [Poem, p. 24]
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.
*The Lyric West*, vol. 1, no. 7, November 1921. Text/Tech Journals, reader’s edition.