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Introduction
Opening Salvo Towards the end of each era there always seems to be a re-alignment from large monoliths to smaller faster beings - dinosaurs to mammals. If you can't adjust to change, you stand still and watch others go by. An example that I've liked since I first stumbled upon it in the late 1970s was that of the buggy whip manufacturers of the 1890s. In Columbus, Ohio in 1899 there were 87 buggy whip makers. By 1929 in the entire USA there was one. Evidently, buggy whip makers didn't or couldn't see the rise of the new industry, automakers. OK, what does the death of buggy whips
have to do with American poetry? If you stick with me, you'll
see what the recognition of change has to do with the rise and
fall of the small presses (a staple of American poetry publishing),
and the rise of our new media. And this new media is where Word
Catalyst fits. We live on the threshold. And as American writers,
we have a chance to effect the future. The foresight of the publisher
and editor of Word Catalyst to reach out and create something
that effects the way that we read and see art. Here we have a
stage to freely exchange ideas, poetry, art, short stories, and
commentary. And it's free to submit and free to access. The Reality of It All Let me list some examples of the way that poetry has adapted to changing media. I could start with cave drawings or clay tablets, work my way up to Guttenburgh and how his movable type press put all of the church copyist out of work. However, let me keep it to the American experience (this is a column about American poetry after all); and let me use just a few examples that key in on the 20th century. There was a reason why Philip Freneau, Walt Whitman, and Robert Frost were newspaper editors. Newspapers were not only the source for news of the day from the beginning of the American experiment until the 1050s, but also the owners of the equipment to print and disseminate the product. And, it wasn't just the big houses in New York, Chicago, or LA; it also included smaller venues like Greensboro, NC or Wilmington, DE. Let me bring into our discussion here the rise of the small magazine of the early 20th century. The following is sample of literary magazines from the 1920s. Poets that were connected with them are listed in bold. · The Double Dealer (1926). New
Orleans Poets were not only contributors but they were also the editors, as exemplified by Marianne Moore's tenure as editor of The Dial and William Carlos Williams tenure as editor of Contact. These magazines set the tone and style of literary publishing for the first half of the 20th century. These "small press" magazines often were the only places that poets and writers could see their work in print. As publishing houses grew they had no space or time for either small market audiences or writers who didn't have mass market appeal. Sound like something we all know something about? Some of these magazines were so successful that eventually outgrew their started purpose. Let's jump ahead to the late 1940s and early 1950s. Publishing (along with much else in American life) was becoming deeply entrenched with the idea of mass marketing and the push of mass appeal and public relations. And I'll return to Gary Snyder for a moment (remember him, I was going to write this column about his poetry - it'll be next month if you're interested). Mr. Snyder was part of the San Franciscan poetry scene in the mid- to late-1950s along with Mr. Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and a cast of others. They gave free readings and their work and life styles were picked up by not only the small presses but by the larger publishing houses. City Lights was the inspiration of Peter D. Martin, who relocated from New York to San Francisco in the 1940s to teach sociology. He first used City Lights-in homage to the Chaplin film-in 1952 as the title of a magazine, publishing early work by such key Bay Area writers as Philip Lamantia, Pauline Kael, Jack Spicer, Robert Duncan, and Mr. Ferlinghetti himself, as "Lawrence Ferling." A year later, Martin used the name to establish the first all-paperback bookstore in the U.S., at the time an audacious idea. Besides the major works by Allen Ginsberg and Mr. Ferlinghetti other works published by City Lights included: · True Minds by Marie Ponsot (1957) San Francisco was not the only place that gave rise to major small publications. It was happening in New York with the "Village Voice"; in Philadelphia with the "Free Press"; and in many small college towns with university presses. These venues were the repositories of the best writing that was available for people to read. Folks who had a contract with major publishing houses like Norman Mailer, among many others, wrote for the "Voice". This model remained unchanged until the rise of computers. With the advent of the internet and the world wide web we saw the publishing model again change. Control again went back into the hands of individuals who were able use this new medium. And now with the rise of blogs we can see instantaneous publication of poem open to the world as the writer thinks it. One can subscribe to ones favorite writer on a daily basis if one chooses. What does this all mean and where is this all heading? How does a daily writer earn a living off of his or her work? These aren't answers that I have. I don't know the business model for that. I do know the answer for the evolution of the small press magazine and you (if you've stuck with me this far) are seeing it. Word Catalyst doesn't charge a fee to read it and it doesn't, like so many sites and printed magazines, charge a fee to submit. And here's the difference that I want to shout about. Here is a place where you can read and see some of what is best out there in the world floating around. As I state over and again this is not an
academic paper. This is just my introduction to you. I hope that
I have opened a window and that you will look out and feel the
breeze of greatness. Thanks. For more from Harry visit his columns: January, December, November, October; and his poetry: January, December, November, and October. Or his online home. |
Cheshire Cat
Nothin' Better
Whilst
(I've always wanted to open a discussion using "whilst")
- rereading Gary Snyder for this month's column, I was reminded
of the importance of what used to be referred to as "small
press" publishers. Gary Snyder was the inspiration for Japhy
Ryder in Jack Kerouac's The Dharma Bums in the
same way Neal Cassady had inspired Dean Moriarty in On
the Road. Mr. Kerouac met Mr. Snyder when the two of
them were on Desolation Mountain as fire watchers in the mid-1950s.
Now where this is heading is, through free association, back
through Gary Snyder's association with the San Franciscan Poetry
Renaissance, and touching on the City Lights Book Store, the
small free press movement of the 1960s, 1920s, Guttenburgh, the
rise and fall of media monoliths, buggy whips, and stone tablets
- but there will be some order (trust me...).
