Journal Issue
Open this April 1927 issue of The Lyric West and the contents begin making their own introductions. It contains 25 named pieces or sections, beginning with Crucifixion by Peggy Reid, The Hands of Kilian the Harper by Alice Rogers Hager, and Rose Jar by Louise Crenshaw Ray. 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 Henri Faust’s Whistles. The poem organizes description through sentence-length lines around “There’s a nostalgic sound that whistles make”; emphasis shifts through image, enjambment, and changes in syntactic pace, bringing work and modern routine into the magazine’s field of subjects. Elsewhere, Crucifixion and The Hands of Kilian the Harper 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. 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, I Have Seen by Ethel Brodt Wilson changes the view; the closing stretch reaches Velvet by Katherine Wall. 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 Peggy Reid, Alice Rogers Hager, Louise Crenshaw Ray, Alberta Bancroft, Charles Ballard, Lucie Kellogg, John Richard Moreland, and Eileen Peck, 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 Desert—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 Crucifixion by Peggy Reid, turn next to I Have Seen by Ethel Brodt Wilson, and finish with Velvet by Katherine Wall. 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
- Peggy Reid — Poet
- Alice Rogers Hager — Poet
- Louise Crenshaw Ray — Poet
- Alberta Bancroft — Poet
- Charles Ballard — Poet
- Lucie Kellogg — Poet
- John Richard Moreland — Poet
- Eileen Peck — Poet
- Helen F. Smith — Poet
- Joan Dareth Prosper — Poet
- Anne M. Robinson — Poet
- William van Wyck — Poet
- Ethel Brodt Wilson — Poet
- Harold Wesley Melvin — Poet
- Kirby Etter — Poet
- Mary Carolyn Davies — Poet
- Henri Faust — Poet
- William H. Anderson — Poet
- Porter Myron Chaffee — Poet
- Goldsmith Kittle — Poet
- Sydney King Russell — Poet
- Seth Jehiel Felt — Poet
- Katherine Wall — Poet
Publication details
Full contents
- Crucifixion — Peggy Reid [Poem, p. 181]
- The Hands of Kilian the Harper — Alice Rogers Hager [Poem, p. 182]
- Rose Jar — Louise Crenshaw Ray [Poem, p. 185]
- Lines to a Statue — Alberta Bancroft [Poem, p. 186]
- The Frogs — Charles Ballard [Poem, p. 188]
- Purification — Lucie Kellogg [Poem, p. 189]
- The Unreturning — John Richard Moreland [Poem, p. 190]
- I Shall Come Home Again — Eileen Peck [Poem, p. 191]
- Rocket — Helen F. Smith [Poem, p. 191]
- Velvet Sleeves — Joan Dareth Prosper [Poem, p. 192]
- April and May — Anne M. Robinson [Poem, p. 193]
- Magdalene — William van Wyck [Poem, p. 194]
- I Have Seen — Ethel Brodt Wilson [Poem, p. 195]
- Plow Horses March into the Sunset — Harold Wesley Melvin [Poem, p. 196]
- Bronze Brook — Harold Wesley Melvin [Poem, p. 196]
- April at the Grand Canyon — Kirby Etter [Poem, p. 197]
- Prayer of a White Blackbird — Mary Carolyn Davies [Poem, p. 197]
- Whistles — Henri Faust [Poem, p. 198]
- The Lyric West — William H. Anderson [Poem, p. 198]
- Dialogue — Porter Myron Chaffee [Poem, p. 199]
- Portrait — Goldsmith Kittle [Poem, p. 199]
- Old King Jazz — Sydney King Russell [Poem, p. 200]
- Painted Desert — Goldsmith Kittle [Poem, p. 200]
- Spring in Spain — Seth Jehiel Felt [Poem, p. 201]
- Velvet — Katherine Wall [Poem, p. 201]
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. 6, no. 7, April 1927. Text/Tech Journals, reader’s edition.