Smoke

Smoke first appeared in May 1931, edited and printed by Winfield T. Scott ’31 and R. Wade Vliet ’33, with Professor S. Foster Damon as advisory editor. In the first issue the purpose of the publication, printed in black type within a black rectangle, could be read with difficulty: “Smoke purposes to be primarily a monthly magazine devoted to the creative work of young people. The attempt shall be to remain unshackled by any credo except that of adherence to the highest possible artistic merit.” More easily visible on the page below the black rectangle was the statement, “We are bound by no credos: our nearest approach is the refusal of emotions to insult the intellect.” The editors also expressed their gratitude to John W. Haley ’19 for the use of the printing facilities of Haley and Sykes Company. Early issues were filled with poems by local writers S. Foster Damon, Winfield Scott, David DeJong, W. H. Gerry ’29, and R. Wade Vliet. After 1934 up to the last issue dated May-August 1937, early poems by such poets as Richard Blackmur, William Carlos Williams, Robert Hillyer, and Wallace Stevens appeared in Smoke.