BURGESS, Gelett [ed.]

The Lark Number 7 [November 1895]

San Francisco: William Doxey, 1895. First Edition. First printing. Octavo (19cm). Stampled pamphlet in tan bamboo paper wraps, printed in black; 16pp; publisher's ad to rear; 2 relief illustrations, plus illustrated cover. Sound, chipped at foredge: Very Good.

Single issue of perhaps the most whimsical and iconoclastic of the "little magazines" that appeared in the 1890s, with contributions from Ernest Peixotto, Edmond Charlroy, and Clinton Brooks Burgess. The Lark was dedicated to "sincerity, spontaneity, and gaiety," and featured nonsense verse and illustrations printed on thin (and frequently brittle) bamboo paper, with a deliberately informal aesthetic (Chielens, American Literary Magazines 208-9). With contributions from "fin-de-siecle San Francisco's most promising writers and artists," it helped to establish the city as "the literary center of the Pacific Coast" (209, 212). More commonly found in the bound two-volume issue.

Price: $75.00

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