The Mimeo Revolution (or Mimeograph Revolution) of the 1960s and 1970s was an active period of small-scale, non-commercial, literary publishing facilitated by the accessibility of the

mimeograph A mimeograph machine (often abbreviated to mimeo, sometimes called a stencil duplicator) is a low-cost duplicating machine that works by forcing ink through a stencil onto paper. The process is called mimeography, and a copy made by the pro ...

. It is distinguished from the traditional

private press Private press publishing, with respect to books, is an endeavor performed by craft-based expert or aspiring artisans, either amateur or professional, who, among other things, print and build books, typically by hand, with emphasis on design, gra ...

by its emphasis on quick, cheap production. Presses associated with the Mimeo Revolution often published experimental and underground work, and were important venues for poets, writers and artists ignored by mainstream magazines. Their emphasis was often (but not always) on poetry, including work by the

Black Mountain poets The Black Mountain poets, sometimes called projectivist poets, were a group of mid-20th-century American ''avant-garde'' or postmodern poets centered on Black Mountain College in North Carolina. Background Although it lasted only twenty-three ...

, the poets of the

Beat Generation The Beat Generation was a literary subculture movement started by a group of authors whose work explored and influenced American culture and politics in the post-war era. The bulk of their work was published and popularized by Silent Generatio ...

, the New York School, and the

San Francisco Renaissance The term San Francisco Renaissance is used as a global designation for a range of poetic activity centered on San Francisco, which brought it to prominence as a hub of the American poetry avant-garde in the 1950s. However, others (e.g., Alan Watts ...

, as well as such experimental genres as

Concrete Poetry Concrete poetry is an arrangement of linguistic elements in which the typographical effect is more important in conveying meaning than verbal significance. It is sometimes referred to as visual poetry, a term that has now developed a distinct mea ...

. Unlike mainstream literary magazines, they were usually published by the poets and communities of poets whose work appeared in them. Significant Mimeo Revolution magazines and presses include 7 Flowers Press, Angel Hair, Beatitude, Big Table, “C” Press, Duende, Floating Bear, Fuck You, L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E, Little Caesar, Ole', Toothpaste, White Rabbit Press,

Wormwood Review The ''Wormwood Review'' was a literary magazine published from Fall 1959 to April 1999. Alan Kaufman (writer), Alan Kaufman considered the magazine to be "the greatest little magazine of all time." History and profile The ''Wormwood Review'' was f ...

and Yugen.

External links

A Little History of the Mimeograph Revolution
an excerpt from ''A Secret Location on the Lower East Side: Adventures in Writing, 1960-1980'', by Steven Clay and Rodney Phillips, New York Public Library/

Granary Books Granary Books is an independent small press and rare books and archives dealer based in New York City. Owned and directed by Steve Clay, Granary has published hundreds of books that "produce, promote, document, and theorize new works exploring th ...

, 1998
Granary Books site for ''A Secret Location on the Lower East Side: Adventures in Writing, 1960-1980''

How an Obsolete Copy Machine Started a Revolution
by Greta Weber, National Geographic, June 24, 2016 {{Authority control Publishing Revolutions by type

See also

External links