Journal Issue
The August 1926 issue of The Lyric West brings its writers together without asking them to sound alike. It contains 25 named pieces or sections, beginning with Message by Margaret Widdemer, Four and a Picnic by Portia Martin, and Unto the Hills by Doris Clute. 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.
Translations of Original Japanese Tanka by Yorozu Tsurumi marks the issue’s most conspicuous opening toward modernist practice. The poem compresses perception into short, image-bearing lines around “The hills dressed in autumn fire”; pause and white space become part of the measure, bringing East Asian forms and translated perspectives into the magazine’s field of subjects. Elsewhere, Message and Four and a Picnic keep the experimental turn in contact with the issue’s broader lyric range. 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, Cinquain by Ruth Clay Price changes the view; the closing stretch reaches Youth by Grace E. Reeves. 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 Margaret Widdemer, Portia Martin, Doris Clute, Beulah May, Robert Haven Schauffler, Louis Ginsberg, Noel Stearn, and Winifred Gray Stewart, along with 17 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 Sea and coast—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 Message by Margaret Widdemer, turn next to Cinquain by Ruth Clay Price, and finish with Youth by Grace E. Reeves. The clean reading edition is designed for that kind of movement. Original scan: 36 PDF pages. Reader’s edition: 51 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
- Margaret Widdemer — Poet
- Portia Martin — Poet
- Doris Clute — Poet
- Beulah May — Poet
- Robert Haven Schauffler — Poet
- Louis Ginsberg — Poet
- Noel Stearn — Poet
- Winifred Gray Stewart — Poet
- Chard Powers Smith — Poet
- Clinton Scollard — Poet
- Anna Catherine Markham — Poet
- Joan D. Prosper — Poet
- Ruth Clay Price — Poet
- Ariel Royal — Poet
- Hugh W. Ramsaur — Poet
- Mildred Fowler Field — Poet
- Katharine D. Kendig — Poet
- Alberta Bancroft — Poet
- Jacques Le Clercq — Poet
- Neeta Marquis — Poet
- Yorozu Tsurumi — Poet
- Raymond Kresensky — Poet
- Ethel Brodt Wilson — Poet
- Julia Clara Birk — Poet
- Grace E. Reeves — Poet
Publication details
Full contents
- Message — Margaret Widdemer [Poem, p. 245]
- Four and a Picnic — Portia Martin [Poem, p. 246]
- Unto the Hills — Doris Clute [Poem, p. 249]
- The Workman — Beulah May [Poem, p. 251]
- The Poet — Robert Haven Schauffler [Poem, p. 252]
- My Songs — Louis Ginsberg [Poem, p. 252]
- Query — Noel Stearn [Poem, p. 253]
- Weaving — Winifred Gray Stewart [Poem, p. 253]
- Dramatic Poet — Chard Powers Smith [Poem, p. 254]
- At Emerald Bay — Clinton Scollard [Poem, p. 255]
- At Figueroa — Anna Catherine Markham [Poem, p. 255]
- Scherzo — Joan D. Prosper [Poem, p. 256]
- Cinquain — Ruth Clay Price [Poem, p. 256]
- When — Ariel Royal [Poem, p. 257]
- The Ghost — Hugh W. Ramsaur [Poem, p. 257]
- A Woman on the Shore — Mildred Fowler Field [Poem, p. 258]
- Burnt Offering — Katharine D. Kendig [Poem, p. 259]
- The Army of Occupation — Alberta Bancroft [Poem, p. 260]
- Thirteenth Labor — Jacques Le Clercq [Poem, p. 261]
- Out of the West — Neeta Marquis [Poem, p. 262]
- Translations of Original Japanese Tanka — Yorozu Tsurumi [Poem, p. 263]
- Alabaster — Raymond Kresensky [Poem, p. 264]
- Silences — Ethel Brodt Wilson [Poem, p. 264]
- Sea Song — Julia Clara Birk [Poem, p. 265]
- Youth — Grace E. Reeves [Poem, p. 265]
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. 5, no. 9, August 1926. Text/Tech Journals, reader’s edition.