Journal Issue
The Autumn 1948 issue of Variegation brings its writers together without asking them to sound alike. It contains 15 named pieces or sections, beginning with Leaves by Orian DePledge, In Search of Stars by Lionel Monteith, and Hampstead by Lionel Monteith. 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.
Hanson Kellogg’s 5-poem run, from Dedicatory Invocation for a Public Library to Valley Harbor, gives this issue its clearest formal center. Most of the 15 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, Leaves and Salient Ephemera 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, Perspective, Mechanical by Hanson Kellogg changes the view; the closing stretch reaches Salient Ephemera by Grover Jacoby. 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 Orian DePledge, Lionel Monteith, Dolores Cairns, Corrinne Benson, Hanson Kellogg, Neeta Marquis, Muriel Spark, and Grover Jacoby. 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 Leaves by Orian DePledge, turn next to Perspective, Mechanical by Hanson Kellogg, and finish with Salient Ephemera by Grover Jacoby. The clean reading edition is designed for that kind of movement. Original scan: 28 PDF pages. Reader’s edition: 18 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
- Orian DePledge — Poet
- Lionel Monteith — Poet
- Dolores Cairns — Poet
- Corrinne Benson — Poet
- Hanson Kellogg — Poet
- Neeta Marquis — Poet
- Muriel Spark — Poet
- Grover Jacoby — Poet
Publication details
Full contents
- Leaves — Orian DePledge [Poem, p. 5]
- In Search of Stars — Lionel Monteith [Poem, p. 6]
- Hampstead — Lionel Monteith [Poem, p. 8]
- From Shadowed Water — Dolores Cairns [Poem, p. 9]
- Rebirth — Corrinne Benson [Poem, p. 10]
- Dedicatory Invocation for a Public Library — Hanson Kellogg [Poem, p. 11]
- The Eroded Rock — Hanson Kellogg [Poem, p. 12]
- Perspective, Mechanical — Hanson Kellogg [Poem, p. 13]
- The Dispossessed — Hanson Kellogg [Poem, p. 14]
- Valley Harbor — Hanson Kellogg [Poem, p. 15]
- As the Dropping of Water — Neeta Marquis [Poem, p. 16]
- Anniversary — Muriel Spark [Poem, p. 17]
- The Intermittent Forests — Grover Jacoby [Poem, p. 18]
- The City’s Vibrations — Grover Jacoby [Poem, p. 18]
- Salient Ephemera — Grover Jacoby [Poem, p. 19]
Rights and citation
Copyright, 1948 by Grover Jacoby
Copyright Status Unresolved
The issue bears a 1948 copyright notice; rights in individual contributions and the compilation have not been fully resolved.
*Variegation*, vol. III, no. 4, Autumn 1948. Text/Tech Journals, reader’s edition.