The Quill was one of the Village’s more successful little magazines. It debuted on June 30, 1917, owned and edited by Arthur Moss. Edwards was a regular contributor from the beginning; in 1921, he took it over, and ran it until 1926.
There are a number of issues of The Quill archived on the internet. The images above show some of Edwards’ typical contributions prior to his own editorship. The first (from the first issue) portrays him with his beloved cat, Dirty Joe — who, it should be explained, owed his name to a black smudge on his face, not to faulty hygiene. The second is a specimen of Edwards’ column. The third is one of the ads he ran for his various enterprises. The mention of “Movie Actor” is intriguing: several movies were filmed in the Village in the ‘teens and ‘twenties, and reportedly used local personalities for atmosphere. I suspect Edwards was one of them. Maybe footage of the picturesque troubadour will surface.
Edwards was, above all, enamored of the Village. His entertaining “Story of Greenwich Village” rambled through at least 20 issues of The Quill, starting in 1923. He promised that it was “compiled from most original sources and written comprehensible to both morons and other artistic folk.” It can be found here.
(Posted by Doug Skinner)
2 responses so far ↓
1 Mary Clark // Feb 26, 2012 at 12:41 am
I enjoyed reading all Bobby Edwards pieces. My friend, Richard Spiegel, has put issues of the Quill online, as you noted with your link on this page. Richard got them from Paul Johnston, known as PJ, another Bohemian artist, fine press printer and noted book designer. He and Bobby Edwards were great friends.
2 Doug // Feb 26, 2012 at 1:26 am
Ah, it’s good to hear you enjoyed them. I have a copy of the Edwards Song Book; do you know if any other songs were published, in the Quill or elsewhere? Or if any of his ukes survived?