Journal Issue
The November 1923 issue of The Lyric West brings its writers together without asking them to sound alike. It contains 34 named pieces or sections, beginning with My Heart’s a Rift of Song by Aurania Rouveyroll, The Cypresses of Monterey by Clinton Scollard, and Adjustment by Laura Riding Gottschalk. 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 Adjustment by Laura Riding Gottschalk. The poem organizes description through sentence-length lines around “You thought our arms were too pertly”; emphasis shifts through image, enjambment, and changes in syntactic pace, bringing ordinary experience as formally unsettled lyric material into the magazine’s field of subjects. George Maxwell’s A Typewriter answers it from another angle: it organizes description through sentence-length lines; emphasis shifts through image, enjambment, and changes in syntactic pace. The presence of a named form such as Hokku 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, II. THe Foreign Mart Winpow by Joseph Franklin Poland changes the view; the closing stretch reaches Beatitude by Marie Emilie Gilchrist. 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 Aurania Rouveyroll, Clinton Scollard, Laura Riding Gottschalk, Glenn Ward Dresbach, Julia Boynton Green, Agnes K. Gibbs, Miriam Allen de Ford, and Caroline Ainslie, along with 24 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 My Heart’s a Rift of Song by Aurania Rouveyroll, turn next to II. THe Foreign Mart Winpow by Joseph Franklin Poland, and finish with Beatitude by Marie Emilie Gilchrist. The clean reading edition is designed for that kind of movement. Original scan: 36 PDF pages. Reader’s edition: 57 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
- Aurania Rouveyroll — Poet
- Clinton Scollard — Poet
- Laura Riding Gottschalk — Poet
- Glenn Ward Dresbach — Poet
- Julia Boynton Green — Poet
- Agnes K. Gibbs — Poet
- Miriam Allen de Ford — Poet
- Caroline Ainslie — Poet
- Beatrice West Borst — Poet
- George Maxwell — Poet
- Floyd Meredith — Poet
- Walter Evans Kidd — Poet
- Nellie Burget Miller — Poet
- Charlotte W. Thurston — Poet
- Charmion von Wiegand — Poet
- Joseph Franklin Poland — Poet
- Mary M. Meisinger — Poet
- Elizabeth K. McGowen — Poet
- Samuel M. Sargent, Jr — Poet
- Meredith Norton — Poet
- Harold W. Gammans — Poet
- Kalfus Kurtz Gusling — Poet
- Ruth Clay Price — Poet
- Claribel W. Avery — Poet
- Ames Peterson — Poet
- Neal Gallatin — Poet
- John R. McCarthy — Poet
- Anne Bremer — Poet
- Laura Bell Everett — Poet
- Flossie Faith Shead — Poet
- Portia Martin — Poet
- Marie Emilie Gilchrist — Poet
Publication details
Full contents
- My Heart’s a Rift of Song — Aurania Rouveyroll [Poem, p. 3]
- The Cypresses of Monterey — Clinton Scollard [Poem, p. 4]
- Adjustment — Laura Riding Gottschalk [Poem, p. 5]
- The Better Ship—Panama — Glenn Ward Dresbach [Poem, p. 6]
- Songcraft — Julia Boynton Green [Poem, p. 8]
- The Hawk — Agnes K. Gibbs [Poem, p. 8]
- A Peasant Girl — Miriam Allen de Ford [Poem, p. 9]
- In the Woods — Caroline Ainslie [Poem, p. 10]
- Shu-Shula — Caroline Ainslie [Poem, p. 10]
- My Neighbor’s Journey — Beatrice West Borst [Poem, p. 10]
- A Typewriter — George Maxwell [Poem, p. 11]
- Windows — Floyd Meredith [Poem, p. 11]
- White Beauty — Walter Evans Kidd [Poem, p. 12]
- Prophecy — Nellie Burget Miller [Poem, p. 12]
- The Vanished Presence — Charlotte W. Thurston [Poem, p. 13]
- Flights — Charmion von Wiegand [Poem, p. 13]
- Post Office Sketches — Joseph Franklin Poland [Poem, p. 14]
- II. THe Foreign Mart Winpow — Joseph Franklin Poland [Poem, p. 14]
- Impotence — Mary M. Meisinger [Poem, p. 15]
- Wood Fires — Elizabeth K. McGowen [Poem, p. 15]
- Intersection — Samuel M. Sargent, Jr [Poem, p. 16]
- The Little Things — Meredith Norton [Poem, p. 17]
- Cacti and Leaves — Harold W. Gammans [Poem, p. 18]
- You — Kalfus Kurtz Gusling [Poem, p. 18]
- Hokku — Ruth Clay Price [Poem, p. 19]
- Education — Claribel W. Avery [Poem, p. 19]
- Vancouver Barracks — Ames Peterson [Poem, p. 20]
- The North Sky — Neal Gallatin [Poem, p. 20]
- This Life the Last? — John R. McCarthy [Poem, p. 21]
- Still Life — Anne Bremer [Poem, p. 22]
- The Man of One Poem — Laura Bell Everett [Poem, p. 22]
- Sunset — Flossie Faith Shead [Poem, p. 23]
- Plover-Wing Sings in the Fog — Portia Martin [Poem, p. 23]
- Beatitude — Marie Emilie Gilchrist [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. 3, no. 7, November 1923. Text/Tech Journals, reader’s edition.