Journal Issue
Open this Spring 1953 issue of Variegation and the contents begin making their own introductions. It contains 15 named pieces or sections, beginning with Vapor by Orian DePledge, Passing of Youth by Cecil Kyle, and The Silent by San Novit. 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.
Ada Davies’s 3-poem run, from Years after Thirty to Through the Windshield, 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, Vapor and The Nascent Deluge 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, Cocktail Party by Mabel MacDonald Carver changes the view; the closing stretch reaches Contributors. 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, Cecil Kyle, San Novit, Ada Davies, Joseph Joel Keith, Mabel MacDonald Carver, Amy Groesbeck, and Lucille Evans, along with 4 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, and Modernist poetry—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 Vapor by Orian DePledge, turn next to Cocktail Party by Mabel MacDonald Carver, and finish with Contributors. The clean reading edition is designed for that kind of movement. Original scan: 24 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
- Cecil Kyle — Poet
- San Novit — Poet
- Ada Davies — Poet
- Joseph Joel Keith — Poet
- Mabel MacDonald Carver — Poet
- Amy Groesbeck — Poet
- Lucille Evans — Poet
- Frances Minturn Howard — Poet
- Rosa Zagnoni Marinoni — Poet
- Hanson Kellogg — Poet
- Grover Jacoby — Poet
Publication details
Full contents
- Vapor — Orian DePledge [Poem, p. 23]
- Passing of Youth — Cecil Kyle [Poem, p. 24]
- The Silent — San Novit [Poem, p. 25]
- Years after Thirty — Ada Davies [Poem, p. 26]
- Lifting Like Mist — Ada Davies [Poem, p. 27]
- Through the Windshield — Ada Davies [Poem, p. 28]
- Vigorous Reach — Joseph Joel Keith [Poem, p. 29]
- Cocktail Party — Mabel MacDonald Carver [Poem, p. 30]
- Ten Fathoms Deep — Amy Groesbeck [Poem, p. 31]
- Stained Glass Dominion — Lucille Evans [Poem, p. 32]
- Doorstep Flower — Frances Minturn Howard [Poem, p. 33]
- World — Rosa Zagnoni Marinoni [Poem, p. 34]
- The Discovery of Time — Hanson Kellogg [Poem, p. 35]
- The Nascent Deluge — Grover Jacoby [Poem, p. 36]
- Contributors [Contributor notes, p. 37]
Rights and citation
Copyright 1953
Copyright Status Unresolved
The issue bears a 1953 copyright notice; rights in individual contributions and the compilation have not been fully resolved.
*Variegation*, vol. VIII, no. 30, Spring 1953. Text/Tech Journals, reader’s edition.