Journal Issue
The January 1922 issue of The Lyric West brings its writers together without asking them to sound alike. It contains 31 named pieces or sections, beginning with Snow Nocturne by Harold Vinal, Early Loves by Harold Vinal, and Interludes by Ruth Clay Price. 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.
Modernism enters this number through Streetscape by Roubaix de l’Abrie Richey. The poem compresses perception into short, image-bearing lines around “The scarlet rear lamps”; pause and white space become part of the measure, bringing the modern city into the magazine’s field of subjects. Georgia Rowles’s Pictures on My Japanese Fan answers it from another angle: it compresses perception into short, image-bearing lines around “Lo, fragrant plum trees”; pause and white space become part of the measure. The presence of a named form such as Sonnet makes the contrast especially legible: innovation occurs beside inherited measure, not after its disappearance. The issue catches Los Angeles poetry culture in transition: polished song remains public currency, but modernist compression and contemporary speech have begun to alter what a lyric can hold.
The contents page also works like a small map. Early entries establish the issue’s first set of voices; around the middle, The Home Nest by Jasper Barnett Cowdin changes the view; the closing stretch reaches The Alien by Neeta Marquis. 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 Harold Vinal, Ruth Clay Price, Grace Atherton Dennen, Sarah Hammond Kelly, Babette Deutsch, Edna Worthley Underwood, Virgil Geddes, and Roubaix de l’Abrie Richey, 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, Little magazines, and Love—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 Nocturne by Harold Vinal, turn next to The Home Nest by Jasper Barnett Cowdin, and finish with The Alien by Neeta Marquis. The clean reading edition is designed for that kind of movement. Original scan: 36 PDF pages. Reader’s edition: 48 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
- Harold Vinal — Poet
- Ruth Clay Price — Poet
- Grace Atherton Dennen — Poet
- Sarah Hammond Kelly — Poet
- Babette Deutsch — Poet
- Edna Worthley Underwood — Poet
- Virgil Geddes — Poet
- Roubaix de l’Abrie Richey — Poet
- Miriam Allen de Ford — Poet
- Virginia McCormick — Poet
- Oliver Jenkins — Poet
- Belle Cooper — Poet
- Jasper Barnett Cowdin — Poet
- Herta Uerkvitz — Poet
- Clare Shipman — Poet
- Doris Packard — Poet
- Antoinette De Coursey Patterson — Poet
- Georgia Rowles — Poet
- John R. McCarthy — Poet
- Glenn Ward Dresbach — Poet
- Weare Holbrook — Poet
- Constance Lindsay Skinner — Poet
- Neeta Marquis — Poet
Publication details
Full contents
- Snow Nocturne — Harold Vinal [Poem, p. 5]
- Early Loves — Harold Vinal [Poem, p. 6]
- Interludes — Ruth Clay Price [Poem, p. 6]
- The Frost — Grace Atherton Dennen [Poem, p. 7]
- Fog — Sarah Hammond Kelly [Poem, p. 9]
- “Now Speak of Love No More” — Babette Deutsch [Poem, p. 10]
- Dances of the Flame — Edna Worthley Underwood [Poem, p. 11]
- Winds — Virgil Geddes [Poem, p. 14]
- Streetscape — Roubaix de l’Abrie Richey [Poem, p. 15]
- Santa Cruz — Miriam Allen de Ford [Poem, p. 15]
- Mountains — Virginia McCormick [Poem, p. 16]
- Thought — Virginia McCormick [Poem, p. 16]
- Home-Coming — Oliver Jenkins [Poem, p. 17]
- Awakening — Oliver Jenkins [Poem, p. 17]
- Sonnet — Belle Cooper [Poem, p. 18]
- The Home Nest — Jasper Barnett Cowdin [Poem, p. 18]
- Mud — Herta Uerkvitz [Poem, p. 19]
- Moon Madness — Herta Uerkvitz [Poem, p. 19]
- Orange Pekoe — Clare Shipman [Poem, p. 20]
- Recompense — Clare Shipman [Poem, p. 20]
- Thievery — Doris Packard [Poem, p. 21]
- The Magician — Antoinette De Coursey Patterson [Poem, p. 22]
- Challenged — Antoinette De Coursey Patterson [Poem, p. 22]
- Judgments of History — Antoinette De Coursey Patterson [Poem, p. 22]
- Pictures on My Japanese Fan — Georgia Rowles [Poem, p. 23]
- Rue Anemone — John R. McCarthy [Poem, p. 24]
- Priests — John R. McCarthy [Poem, p. 25]
- The Road — Glenn Ward Dresbach [Poem, p. 25]
- Pacis Amor Deus — Weare Holbrook [Poem, p. 26]
- Song of David Before Saul — Constance Lindsay Skinner [Poem, p. 29]
- The Alien — Neeta Marquis [Poem, p. 29]
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. 9, January 1922. Text/Tech Journals, reader’s edition.