Journal Issue
This Autumn 1947 number of Variegation is best met through the writing itself. It contains 21 named pieces or sections, beginning with Time's Serf by Lucille Evans, For Certain Knowledge by Elinor Lennen, and Years by Virgie Bernhardt. 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.
E. MacDermott Johnston’s 4-poem run, from Anno Domini 1947 to Politician, gives this issue its clearest formal center. Most of the 21 poems are compact, but their free-verse lines vary the pace through clipped statements, longer syntactic runs, and small sequences that let one voice change pressure across several pages. What stands out is those changes of scale, as a single image is often answered by a more extended poem on the next leaf. Around that sequence, Time's Serf and Translation from Friedrich Holderlin widen the issue’s range without breaking its measured, poem-by-poem concentration.
The contents page also works like a small map. Early entries establish the issue’s first set of voices; around the middle, City Dawn by Dorothy Hobson changes the view; the closing stretch reaches Translation from Friedrich Holderlin. 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 Lucille Evans, Elinor Lennen, Virgie Bernhardt, E. MacDermott Johnston, Marcia Nichols Holden, Fanny Montague Hunt, Barbara Levin, and Dorothy Hobson, along with 8 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 Grover Jacoby, published by Variegation Publishing Company, 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 little magazines, American poetry, Free verse, Modernist poetry, and Urban life—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 Time's Serf by Lucille Evans, turn next to City Dawn by Dorothy Hobson, and finish with Translation from Friedrich Holderlin. The clean reading edition is designed for that kind of movement. Original scan: 24 PDF pages. Reader’s edition: 19 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
- Lucille Evans — Poet
- Elinor Lennen — Poet
- Virgie Bernhardt — Poet
- E. MacDermott Johnston — Poet
- Marcia Nichols Holden — Poet
- Fanny Montague Hunt — Poet
- Barbara Levin — Poet
- Dorothy Hobson — Poet
- Rosalie S. Jacoby — Poet
- Jane Morrison — Poet
- Richard Wirtz Emerson — Poet
- Irma Dovey — Poet
- Starr Jenkins — Poet
- Lillie Hall Antonakos — Poet
- John Moore — Poet
- Snow Longley Housh — Poet
Publication details
Full contents
- Time's Serf — Lucille Evans [Poem, p. 5]
- For Certain Knowledge — Elinor Lennen [Poem, p. 6]
- Years — Virgie Bernhardt [Poem, p. 7]
- Anno Domini 1947 — E. MacDermott Johnston [Poem, p. 8]
- Key-Child — E. MacDermott Johnston [Poem, p. 8]
- The Cruel Intention — E. MacDermott Johnston [Poem, p. 9]
- Politician — E. MacDermott Johnston [Poem, p. 9]
- Daisies — Marcia Nichols Holden [Poem, p. 10]
- Spring Tapestry — Fanny Montague Hunt [Poem, p. 10]
- Wise One — Barbara Levin [Poem, p. 11]
- City Dawn — Dorothy Hobson [Poem, p. 12]
- Climbing Radiance — Rosalie S. Jacoby [Poem, p. 13]
- Paradox — Jane Morrison [Poem, p. 13]
- Moonlight in the Villa — Richard Wirtz Emerson [Poem, p. 14]
- The Alley Cat and I — Irma Dovey [Poem, p. 15]
- Wind Words — Starr Jenkins [Poem, p. 16]
- Train Whistles — Lillie Hall Antonakos [Poem, p. 17]
- Sponsored Radio — John Moore [Poem, p. 17]
- Fruition — Snow Longley Housh [Poem, p. 18]
- Conjunction — Snow Longley Housh [Poem, p. 19]
- Translation from Friedrich Holderlin [Poem, p. 20]
Rights and citation
Copyright 1947 by Grover I. Jacoby, Jr.
Copyright Status Unresolved
The issue bears a 1947 copyright notice; rights in individual contributions and the compilation have not been fully resolved.
*Variegation*, vol. II, no. 4, Autumn 1947. Text/Tech Journals, reader’s edition.