In 1935, the USF campus literary journal was rebranded as the San Francisco Quarterly (SFQ), a publication dedicated exclusively to creative works. Throughout the mid-1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, SFQ maintained a pamphlet-sized format and aesthetic (which limited itself to an austere black-and-white or single-color cover), while offering a range of verse, fiction, and critical essays, including works authored by women for the first time.
In the 1930s, the leanings of this student publication grew increasingly interested in Anglo-Saxon ideologies, Eurocentrism, defenses of “American pioneers,” and capitalism. Other features of this era foregrounded the sacrifices made by the Jesuits over the centuries to establish such institutions as USF, the literary merits of authors such as the Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw, the histories of Western architecture, and the vast landscapes of the Western United States.
The 1949 issue of SFQ even brought into relief the rewards of becoming an English major. SFQ also featured original works of drama such as a creative retelling of USF’s history called Fields of Friendly Strife by James K. Donohue, a play that directly explores USF’s nickname as a “Street Car College.” After pausing production in 1944 and 1946, likely due to World War II, SFQ appeared in its quarterly fashion for ten additional years.
Ignatian Literary Magazine 