The Lyric, Volume 35, Number 4, Fall 1955

The Lyric is the oldest extant literary magazine in North America devoted to formal poetry. The journal was established by Norfolk-based poet John R. Moreland in 1921, and was published by the Norfolk Poets' Club until 1928. By 1949 it had moved to New York City, and was being published by the Lyric Foundation, an organization founded by the magazine's third editor, Virginia Kent Cummins. After Cummins' death editorship passed to Ruby Altizer Roberts, poet laureate of Virginia.

This copy of The Lyric, Volume 35, Number 4, Fall 1955, Ruby Altizer Roberts, Editor, was part of the quarterly issue published in Christiansburg, Virginia and printed by The Stone Printing and Mfg. Co., Roanoke, VA. The booklet, which measures approximately 5.5 inches wide by 8.25 inches tall, contains 28 pages of text, numbered from 81 to 108, staple-bound in stiff paper covers. The front cover shows, in addition to the Title information, the names of the 40 poets whose poems appear in this booklet. The back cover has a list of the Lyric's Advisory Boards members names. The pages of the booklet are in fine condition; the cover has a former owner's name printed on the top of the front cover and a small stain at the lower edge of the rear cover. The overall condition of the booklet is near fine.

All of the poems appearing in the booklet were voluntarily contributed by their authors for the purpose of getting exposure and reactions and, perhaps, winning one of the monetary prizes presented quarterly and annually for the "best" of the contributions.

The illustrations accompanying this description show the front cover, a 2-page spread of the Title page and inside front cover, a 2-page spread showing the Announcement of Collegiate Contest Winners and one poem, and two 2-page spreads of contributed poems.

Ruby Altizer Roberts (April 22, 1907 – May 24, 2004) was a writer and the first female Poet Laureate of Virginia. Early in her career Roberts published two collections of poetry, Forever Is Too Long (1946) and Command the Stars (1948). Her poems also appeared in magazines and in newspapers such as The New York Times and The Washington Post. In 1952 she became editor of traditional poetry journal The Lyric, a position she held for the next 25 years. Roberts received a number of awards and honours in connection with her writing. In 1950 she was named the Poet Laureate of Virginia; she was the first woman to win the award. In 1961 she was conferred an honorary humanities doctorate by the College of William & Mary in Virginia. She became the only poet to hold the title "poet laureate emeritus of Virginia," which she was awarded by the General Assembly of Virginia in 1992. [Wikipedia]