BURGESS, Gelett [ed.]

The Lark Number XII [April 1896]

San Francisco: William Doxey, 1896. First Edition. First printing. Octavo (20cm). Stapled pamphlet in tan cover wraps, printed in black on one side of the sheet; 16pp; publisher's ad to rear; 2 plates plus cover illustration. Partially unopened. Sound, with light edgewear and a few chips: 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, Morgan Shepard, K. Porter Garnett, and Reginald Rix. 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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