THE LAUGHING HORSE
THE LAUGHING HORSE
(Johnson, Walter Willard (Spud) – New Mexico) THE LAUGHING HORSE. THE LAUGHING HORSE was a small magazine edited by classmates Roy Edwin Chanslor, James T. Van Rensselaer, Jr., and Willard "Spud" Johnson at the University of California, Berkeley.
The collection being offered is thirteen issues of Laughing Horse (9-21), eight issues of the Horse Fly (Vol. 1, numbers 14-18, 20, 21 and 52), and two variations of the Laughing Horse Mail Order Catalog dated August 5th, 1935, including a rare order form for Spud Johnson's "Horizontal Yellow". The collection also includes the scarce Laughing Horse Supplementary Pamphlet No. 2 and the also scarce "Ballad of Santa Fee Sal".
How and where did Laughing Horse go? Its hay day was during an era when many established and soon-to-be writers, poets, artists made a home for themselves in Taos and Santa Fe. Intermittently published from 1922 to 1939, the last Laughing Horse was #21 in 1939, marking the passing of Spud’s mythical steed from the Sangre de Cristos.
Born in Illinois, "Spud" Johnson (1897-1968), spent most of his childhood in Greeley, Colorado where he excelled in journalism, including starting and editing a newspaper at Greeley High School. From their he entered Colorado State Teacher's College in 1916, where he continued his journalism. Feeling tethered by the "small-town" life in Boulder, Colorado, Johnson transferred to the University of California at Berkeley. It was at Berkeley he met his mentor poet Witter Bynne.
In 1922, Johnson and friends founded Laughing Horse. Intended as an alternative campus publication, the editors presented "...polemics, philippics, satire, burlesque and all-around destructive criticism...." Soon the Berkeley administration showed displeasure with Laughing Horse. In 1923, after the magazine was suppressed for printing a D.H. Lawrence review with what the University claimed was “obscene” language, Johnson took over sole editorship, moved it to Taos, and continued publishing for more than a decade.
When he acquired his own treadle-operated press in 1927, he printed Laughing Horse, as well as a series of pamphlets, and a small newspaper called The Horse Fly. A major literary force, Spud Johnson worked for The New Yorker, published a volume of his own poetry with the cooperative Writers’ Editions, wrote for the Santa Fe New Mexican, spearheaded local writing groups, edited the Taos Valley News and later contributed a Sunday column to that paper.
Johnson continued to contribute to Laughing Horse in Santa Fe, and later Taos, eventually taking it over and publishing it intermittently over the next thirty years. Johnson soon became associated with noted New Mexico literary figures D.H. and Frieda Lawrence, Mabel Dodge Luhan, Mary Austin and Dorothy Brett. He was active in various community affairs and causes mostly supporting himself with his writing and his printing press. One of his most durable activities was an editorial column which ran under the title "The Horse Fly" (eight issues of the ephemeral "Horse Fly" come with this set) and later as "The Gadfly."
The best-known issue of Laughing Horse was Issue No. 17, the Censorship issue which included pieces from Carl Sandburg, Maxwell Perkins, Sherwood Anderson, Witter Bynner, Margaret Larkin, Alfred A. Knopf, Upton Sinclair, Mary Austin, Lincoln Steffens and 21 additional contributors.
This set includes five ex-libris issues from the library of publisher James Strohn Copley, stored in his custom slipcases. Copley was the CEO of Copley Press and published the published the San Diego Union and the San Diego Evening Tribune.
A few of the issues are also ex-libris Norman Macleod. According to the Poetry Foundation: "An editor at various magazines and journals, including Pembroke Magazine, Macleod was instrumental in establishing the Poetry Center at the 92nd Street Y in New York City. He taught at numerous institutions, including San Francisco State College, the University of Baghdad in Iraq, and Pembroke State University. He had long friendships with poets such as William Carlos Williams and W.S. Graham, both of whom dedicated poems to him. In 1973, Macleod was awarded the Horace Gregory Award for his work as a poet, an editor, and a teacher. He died in Greenville, North Carolina, and the University of Delaware holds his papers."
While the first few Berkeley issues are virtually impossible to acquire, later issues are scarce and desirable. Single issues appear infrequently in the marketplace.
The issues ranges from fair to fine condition. Overall, Very Good Condition. A rare opportunity to acquire so many issues in one batch.
Sources: New Mexico Magazine; Lasting Impressions – The Private Presses of New Mexico.