Harry Joseph Smith (1936-2012) was a poet, editor, and founder of the American small press movement of the later twentieth century.

Biography

He was born on October 15, 1936. Educated at

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

(class of 1957) Smith first became known in the

small press A small press is a publisher with annual sales below a certain level or below a certain number of titles published. The terms "indie publisher" and "independent press" and others are sometimes used interchangeably. Independent press is general ...

world as the founder of ''The Smith'', a

literary magazine A literary magazine is a periodical devoted to literature in a broad sense. Literary magazines usually publish short stories, poetry, and essays, along with literary criticism, book reviews, biographical profiles of authors, interviews and letter ...

and journal of experimental writing that was in publication from 1964 to 1974.''Guide to the Harry Smith papers 1972-1982'', Brown University Library, 201

/ref> Later he established a second magazine, ''Pulpsmith'', and a small press, The Smith-Publishers. He is recognized as a mover and a shaker in the burgeoning small press scene of the 1960s and 1970s. Typical prose can be found in ''The Word and Beyond: Cosmologists of the Word'' with

Dick Higgins Dick Higgins (15 March 1938 – 25 October 1998) was an American artist, composer, art theorist, poet, publisher, printmaker, and a co-founder of the Fluxus international artistic movement (and community). Inspired by John Cage, Higgins was a ...

, Richard Morris, and Donald Phelps published in 1982 and ''The Sexy Sixties'' (2002), poetry in ''Trinity'' (1975), ''Sonnets to P.L.A.'' (1979), and ''Ballads for the Possessed'' (1987). His magazine, ''The Smith'' and press featured among others

James T. Farrell James Thomas Farrell (February 27, 1904 – August 22, 1979) was an American novelist, short-story writer and poet. He is most remembered for the ''Studs Lonigan'' trilogy, which was made into a film in 1960 and a television series in 1979. B ...

, H.L. Van Brunt,

Stanley Nelson Stanley Earl Nelson Jr. (born June 7, 1951) is an American documentary filmmaker and a MacArthur Fellow known as a director, writer and producer of documentaries examining African-American history and experiences. He is a recipient of the 2013 N ...

, Sidney Bernard, Seymour Krim,

Tuli Kupferberg Naphtali "Tuli" Kupferberg (September 28, 1923 – July 12, 2010) was an American counterculture poet, author, singer, cartoonist, publisher, and co-founder of the rock band The Fugs. Biography Naphtali Kupferberg was born into a Jewish, Yi ...

Stephen Dwoskin Stephen Dwoskin (15 January 1939 – 28 June 2012) was a major avant-garde filmmaker whose work was closely connected to the ' gaze theory' associated with Laura Mulvey; a significant disabled filmmaker – though he rejected being framed as suc ...

, Bill Rane,

Alicia Ostriker Alicia Suskin Ostriker (born November 11, 1937) is an American poet and scholar who writes Jewish feminist poetry.Powell C.S. (1994) ''Profile: Jeremiah and Alicia Ostriker – A Marriage of Science and Art'', Scientific American 271(3), 28-3 ...

, Jana Harris,

Karen Swenson Karen Swenson (born July 29, 1936 New York City) is an American poet and journalist. Life She grew up in Chappaqua, New York, and studied at Barnard College and New York University. Swenson has been Poet-in-Residence at Skidmore College, the Univ ...

, Terry Kennedy,

Les Whitten Les Whitten (February 21, 1928 – December 2, 2017) was an American investigative reporter at the ''Washington Merry-Go-Round'' under Jack Anderson (columnist), Jack Anderson, as well as translator of French poetry by Baudelaire and influentia ...

and Richard (Ward) Morris. From 1968 to 1980, Smith edited ''The Newsletter (On the State of the Culture),'' which reported on both mainstream and underground publishing scenes. As editor, he was quickly cited as An anthology of avant-garde poetry ''Inside the Outside'' features a selection of his poetry. Smith was a founding editor along with

Anaïs Nin Angela Anaïs Juana Antolina Rosa Edelmira Nin y Culmell (February 11, 1903 – January 14, 1977; , ) was a French-born American diarist, essayist, novelist, and writer of short stories and erotica. Born to Cuban parents in France, Nin was the d ...

Buckminster Fuller Richard Buckminster Fuller (; July 12, 1895 – July 1, 1983) was an American architect, systems theorist, writer, designer, inventor, philosopher, and futurist. He styled his name as R. Buckminster Fuller in his writings, publishing more t ...

Hugh Fox Hugh Bernard Fox Jr. (February 12, 1932 – September 4, 2011) was a writer, novelist, poet and anthropologist and one of the founders (with Ralph Ellison, Anaïs Nin, Paul Bowles, Joyce Carol Oates, Buckminster Fuller and others) of the Pu ...

Ishmael Reed Ishmael Scott Reed (born February 22, 1938) is an American poet, novelist, essayist, songwriter, composer, playwright, editor and publisher known for his satirical works challenging American political culture. Perhaps his best-known work is '' M ...

Joyce Carol Oates Joyce Carol Oates (born June 16, 1938) is an American writer. Oates published her first book in 1963, and has since published 58 novels, a number of plays and novellas, and many volumes of short stories, poetry, and non-fiction. Her novels '' Bla ...

, Len Fulton, et al. of the annual

Pushcart Prize The Pushcart Prize is an American literary prize published by Pushcart Press that honors the best "poetry, short fiction, essays or literary whatnot" published in the small presses over the previous year. Magazine and small book press editors are ...

for small press writing. Following the publication of his epic poem, ''Trinity'', he was awarded PEN's 1976 Medwick Award for 'his poetry, his commitment to human values, and his achievements as an editor.'" Smith and Marion Petschek Smith were married in 1959; they had three children. After Marion's death in 1995, he was married to Clare Melley Smith. Smith died on November 23, 2012.

Ralph Farris Ralph Farris (born Ralph Howard Farris, Jr., 1970) is an American violist, violinist, composer, arranger, producer and conductor, best known as a founding member and artistic director of the ensemble ETHEL. Farris is an electric string player wit ...

, of the string quartet

ETHEL Ethel (also '' æthel'') is an Old English word meaning "noble", today often used as a feminine given name. Etymology and historic usage The word means ''æthel'' "noble". It is frequently attested as the first element in Anglo-Saxon names, b ...

, originally set Smith's poem ''Solstice People'' to music and it was featured in the 2007 ''In the House of ETHEL: Solstice'' concert at the World Financial Center's

Winter Garden A winter garden is a kind of garden maintained in wintertime. History The origin of the winter garden dates back to the 17th to 19th centuries where European nobility would construct large conservatories that would house tropical and subtro ...

. Three of Smith's poems, including ''Solstice People'', have now been set by Mr. Farris for SATB choir and string quartet, and have been incorporated into ETHEL's ''Music of the Sun'' program with Native American flutist

Robert Mirabal Robert Mirabal (born October 6, 1966) is a Pueblo musician and Native American flute player and maker from Taos Pueblo, New Mexico. His flutes are world-renowned and have been displayed at the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of the American Ind ...

.Music to celebrate the sun at Dominican, ''Franklin Park Herald-Journal'', by Dorothy Andries, January 24, 2012 5:04PM

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Harry 1936 births American male poets 2012 deaths