The literary magazine of the Staunton Military Academy, The Scimitar, provided an outlet for the cadets to publish poetry and prose that was not normally included into either the cadet newspaper or the yearbook. The Scimitar was founded in 1958 by Michael Goldwater (SMA’58) and Gary Schmidt (SMA’58) after they attended a Periodical Awards Program in late 1957 at Washington & Lee College. While there, they reviewed another prep school’s literary magazine and returned to SMA with a self-imposed mission of starting a similar magazine at the Academy. They decided that the name of the magazine should reflect the military nature of the cadets that contributed to it and Michael came up with the name “Scimitar” after a souvenir scimitar sword that his father, Barry Goldwater Sr. (SMA’28), had brought back from India after World War II.

The Scimitar was printed three times a year from the Spring of 1958 through the Spring of 1971.

Click on each cover below to view the whole magazine in a new tab.

(Note: you need Adobe Reader to view these files. To download a copy, Click Here.)