Journal Issue
Open this Winter 1949 issue of Variegation and the contents begin making their own introductions. It contains 14 named pieces or sections, beginning with Sidewalk Flower Vender by Gertrude May Lutz, The Flags are Out by John Atkins, and Policy by John Atkins. 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.
John Atkins’s 3-poem run, from The Flags are Out to The Dry Soul, gives this issue its clearest formal center. Most of the 14 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, Sidewalk Flower Vender and The Quiet Hour 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, Convolution by Gil Stanley changes the view; the closing stretch reaches The Quiet Hour by Eleeza Hadian. 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 Gertrude May Lutz, John Atkins, Margaret Crosland, Desmond Stewart, Joseph Joel Keith, Gil Stanley, Dale Hart, and Richard Wirtz Emerson, along with 1 additional contributor. 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 War and peace—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 Sidewalk Flower Vender by Gertrude May Lutz, turn next to Convolution by Gil Stanley, and finish with The Quiet Hour by Eleeza Hadian. The clean reading edition is designed for that kind of movement. Original scan: 28 PDF pages. Reader’s edition: 17 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
- Gertrude May Lutz — Poet
- John Atkins — Poet
- Margaret Crosland — Poet
- Desmond Stewart — Poet
- Joseph Joel Keith — Poet
- Gil Stanley — Poet
- Dale Hart — Poet
- Richard Wirtz Emerson — Poet
- Eleeza Hadian — Poet
Publication details
Full contents
- Sidewalk Flower Vender — Gertrude May Lutz [Poem, p. 5]
- The Flags are Out — John Atkins [Poem, p. 6]
- Policy — John Atkins [Poem, p. 7]
- The Dry Soul — John Atkins [Poem, p. 8]
- Broken City — Margaret Crosland [Poem, p. 9]
- To Morning — Desmond Stewart [Poem, p. 10]
- The Tidal Shout — Joseph Joel Keith [Poem, p. 12]
- Convolution — Gil Stanley [Poem, p. 13]
- A Volcano Looks at War — Dale Hart [Poem, p. 14]
- At the Traffic Signal — Dale Hart [Poem, p. 15]
- My Sacred Mountain — Richard Wirtz Emerson [Poem, p. 16]
- Dark Thunder — Richard Wirtz Emerson [Poem, p. 17]
- Hungry was the Darkness — Eleeza Hadian [Poem, p. 18]
- The Quiet Hour — Eleeza Hadian [Poem, p. 19]
Rights and citation
Copyright 1949 by Grover Jacoby
Copyright Status Unresolved
The issue bears a 1949 copyright notice; rights in individual contributions and the compilation have not been fully resolved.
*Variegation*, vol. IV, no. 1, Winter 1949. Text/Tech Journals, reader’s edition.