Menu
RealityStudio
  • Bibliographic Bunker
  • Texts
  • Bibliography
  • Interviews
  • Biography
  • Criticism
  • Scholarship
RealityStudio

Mimeo Revolution Archives

Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker

Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting

During the polar vortex, a pipe froze in a room full of books at my house. Such a chilling prospect gets your mental motor running to thoughts of summer and looking for adventure and whatever comes your way. When bibliomaniacs run wild, they do not riot in the streets or storm the beaches; they get lost in the stacks. So supposing you are a literary obsessive and you have some spare time this summer, forget about channeling your inner Hemingway and running with the bulls in Pamplona or having a drink at Les Deux Magots in Paris. Instead, flip through a copy of Dan Saxon’s Poems from Les Deux Megots at SUNY Buffalo or celebrate the life and legacy of Amiri Baraka in exotic Bloomington, Indiana by digging into the Floating Bear archive at the Lilly. Looking for culture? Skip the Tate, the Pompidou or MOMA and head over to Columbia University and experience the wonders of the Kulchur Foundation / Kulchur Press archives.

The Bibliographic Bunker is excited to provide a literary Baedeker for a dream summer vacation: a list of URLs to library archives relating to the publications of the Mimeo Revolution. Who wants to go to a museum and stand in front of a boring painting or sculpture (so Modern, yet so passé) when you can enter into an archive (the collected past as future)? Collecting, installing, storing and sorting are taking over the museum and gallery anyway. They are striving to be archives. Why not experience an archive firsthand?

As I mentioned in a recent post, the library is fun. Some may say it is a mausoleum for print but I say it is an amusement park. Get lost in the funhouse. In terms of the Mimeo Revolution, the time is ripe for some serious play. Yet unlike contemporary art movements which made archiving and self-documentation part of their practice, I suspect the Mimeo Revolution archives will prove in many cases to be ephemeral and almost non-existent. Many publishers and participants of the Mimeo Revolution cared little for documenting their activities. Despite a strong and financially important tie to private and institutional collectors, they were largely of the moment, merging everyday life with literature, and operating outside the established publishing system, unlike many of the allegedly alternative spaces documented in Gwen Allen’s book on artist’s magazines. Are magazines related to Conceptual art and Minimalism, such as Avalanche, really outside established markets and institutions? Open for debate to be sure. Given the Mimeo Revolution’s relative insouciance towards self-preservation, a researcher will be shifting through fragments and ruins, so the idea of constructing a complete, fully documented history of the Mimeo Revolution is even more of a quixotic quest than usually expected. But the time has come to see what remains have been buried in the archive, since the time for further preservation may have passed archivists by.  

In the face of a fragmented and haphazard archive (or one that is merely exceptionally so, since such is the nature of all archives), the resulting history of the Mimeo Revolution may prove to be a speculative or creative one. This is the job, not of academics trained in traditional scholarly practices, but of contemporary poets and artists working with databases, storage devices, and installations. The proper venue for such work would not be an academic journal, but a DIY publication, an alternative art space, or an electronic device. I like that. Personally, I find it exciting to interact with and become a part of the Mimeo Revolution on an everyday basis. To live within a library or archive. Others choose to vacation there. If you happen to be such a traveler and you get a chance, consider some of these Mimeo Revolution getaways. And please send RealityStudio photos and postcards from your journey.

Little Magazine and Small Press Collections

  • San Francisco Public Library
  • SUNY Buffalo
  • University of Arizona
  • UCLA
  • UCLA (Jake Zeitlin)
  • University of Chicago
  • University College London
  • University of Wisconsin-Madison

0 to 9

  • NYU

Bernadette Mayer

  • UC San Diego

Adventures in Poetry

Larry Fagin

  • University of Connecticut
  • Yale University

Alcheringa

  • SUNY Buffalo

Jerome Rothenberg

  • UC San Diego

Alternative Press

  • University of Michigan
  • School of Art Institute of Chicago

Ambit

  • Penn State

Angel Hair

  • NYU

Anne Waldman

  • University of Michigan

Lewis Warsh

  • University of Delaware

The Ant’s Forefoot

  • University of Pittsburgh

Arif Press

  • University of California Berkeley

Artists’ Workshop

John Sinclair

  • University of Michigan

Asylum’s Press

Charles Bernstein

  • UC San Diego

Athanor

  • SUNY Buffalo

Auerhahn Press

  • University of California Berkeley

Big Sky

Bill Berkson

  • University of Connecticut

Big Table

  • Cornell University

Chicago Review

  • University of Chicago

Paul Carroll

  • University of Chicago

Irving Rosenthal

  • Stanford University

Black Mountain Review

  • North Carolina Archives

Robert Creeley

  • Stanford University
  • Washington University

Black Sparrow Press

  • Emory
  • Penn State
  • University of New Mexico
  • University of California, Berkeley

Charles Bukowski

  • UC Santa Barbara

Seamus Cooney

  • Western Michigan University

John Martin

  • UC Santa Barbara

Boke Press

Joe Brainard

  • UC San Diego

Broadside Press

  • Emory
  • University of Michigan

Richard Long

  • Atlanta University Center

Burning Deck

  • Brown University

C Press / C Magazine

  • NYU

Ted Berrigan

  • Syracuse University

Camels Coming

  • NYU

Capra Press

  • UC Santa Barbara

Cassiopeia / Ephermis

  • University of California, Berkeley

David Schaff

  • University of California, Berkeley

Caterpillar

  • NYU

Clayton Eshleman

  • UC San Diego

Center

Carol Berge

  • Bowling Green University

Cherry Valley Editions

Charles Plymell

  • Wichita State

City Lights

  • University of California Berkeley 1
  • University of California Berkeley 2

Lawrence Ferlinghetti

  • University of California Berkeley

Contact Press

  • University of Toronto

Corinth Press

Elias Wilentz

  • SUNY Buffalo

Coyote Journal

James Koller

  • UCONN

da levy

  • Kent State 1
  • Kent State 2
  • Kent State 3

The Difficulties

  • Yale University

Doones Press

  • Emory

El Corno Emplumado

  • NYU

Evergreen Review / Grove Press

  • Syracuse University 1
  • Syracuse University 2

Barney Rosset

  • Columbia University

Donald Allen

  • UC San Diego

Floating Bear

  • University of Indiana

Diane di Prima

  • University of Connecticut
  • Syracuse University (Includes original manuscripts submitted to Floating Bear)
  • University of North Carolina
  • University of Louisville

Amiri Baraka

  • University of Virginia
  • Syracuse University

Folder

Daisy Aldan

  • University of Texas

Four Seasons Foundation

Donald Allen

  • UC San Diego

Free Lance Press

Russell Atkins

  • Atlanta University Center

Frontier Press

  • SUNY Buffalo

Fuck You Press

  • Cornell University

Ed Sanders

  • Cornell University
  • UCONN

Gay Sunshine Press

  • University of California

Goliard Press

  • Columbia University

Grey Fox Press

Donald Allen

  • UC San Diego

Hawk’s Well Press

Jerome Rothenberg

  • UC San Diego

How(ever)

Kathleen Fraser

  • UC San Diego

Insect Trust Gazette

  • Temple University

Intrepid

  • SUNY Buffalo

J

Jack Spicer

  • University of California

Jargon Society

  • SUNY Buffalo
  • Yale University

Jonathan Williams

  • University of Virginia

Joglars

  • UCLA

Clark Coolidge

  • UCLA

Kauri

Will Inman

  • Duke University

Kayak

  • SUNY Buffalo

Klactoveedsedsteen

  • University of Texas

Kulchur

Kulchur Foundation

  • Columbia University

Kulchur Press

  • Columbia University

Amiri Baraka

  • UCLA

L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E

Charles Bernstein

  • UC San Diego

Lines

Aram Saroyan

  • UCLA

Little Caesar

Dennis Cooper

  • NYU

Mag City

  • New York Public Library

Maps

John Taggert

  • UC San Diego

Measure

  • Ohio State University

My Own Mag

  • NYU

Jeff Nuttall

  • Emory

Naked Ear/Suck Egg Mule/Taos

Judson Crews

  • University of Texas

New Directions

  • Harvard University

James Laughlin

  • Harvard University

New Wilderness

Jerome Rothenberg

  • UC San Diego

Niagara Frontier Review

  • UCONN

O Books

Lesilie Scalapino

  • UC San Diego

Once – A One-Shot Magazine

  • NYU

Origin

  • Kent State 1
  • Kent State 2
  • NYU

Cid Corman

  • Kent State
  • UCONN
  • University of Indiana

Corman/Olson

  • UCONN

Outburst

  • NYU

Oyez Press

  • University of Connecticut

Poems from the Floating World

Jerome Rothenberg

  • UC San Diego

Poor. Old. Tired. Horse.

Ian Hamilton Finlay

  • Indiana University

Bern Porter

  • Bowdoin
  • Getty Research Institute
  • UCLA

Rocky Ledge

Anne Waldman

  • University of Michigan

San Francisco Earthquake/Nova Broadcast

Jan Herman

  • Northwestern

Sand Dollar

  • SUNY Buffalo

Semina

Wallace Berman

  • Smithsonian

Shameless Hussy Press

  • UC Santa Cruz

Some/Thing

Jerome Rothenberg

  • UC San Diego

Something Else Press

  • Sage Colleges

Dick Higgins

  • Getty Research Institute
  • Northwestern
  • UMBC
  • University of Iowa

Sulfur

Clayton Eshleman

  • Yale University

Sun Moon Press

  • UC San Diego

Telegraph Books

  • University of Texas

Telephone

  • UCONN

Maureen Owen

  • UC San Diego

TISH

  • University of Victoria, BC

Tibor di Nagy

  • Archives of American Art

Toothpaste Press/Coffee House Press

  • Library of Congress
  • University of Iowa

Totem Press

Hettie Cohen

  • Columbia

Trigram Press

  • Washington University

Truck Press

  • SUNY Buffalo

Turtle Island Press

  • UC Santa Cruz

Tuumba Press

Lyn Hejinian

  • UC San Diego

United Artists

  • UC San Diego

Bernadette Mayer

  • UC San Diego

Lewis Warsh

  • University of Delaware

Untide Press

  • University of California, Berkeley

White Dove Review

Ron Padgett

  • Yale University

Wild Dog

  • Sam Houston State University

Yugen

Hettie Cohen

  • Columbia University

Amiri Baraka

  • University of Indiana
  • University of Virginia
  • Syracuse University
  • UCLA

Z Press

Kenward Elmslie

  • UC San Diego
Written by Jed Birmingham and published by RealityStudio on 19 Jan 2014.

1 thought on “Mimeo Revolution Archives”

  1. Rosemarie Dombrowski says:
    December 6, 2020 at 6:16 pm

    Dear god, who are you, Reality Studio? I’m prepping a college course on the history of zines, and my research on the mimeo movement has been going nowhere for years — I found it impossible to find full texts of anything online, and I’ve rarely had the time to delve into library archives or university papers. This compendium is unparalleled, but I’m sure you’re aware of that. I’m enthralled, addicted, paralyzed by the Floating Bears, the Fuck Yous, the Black Mountains, and the Js. I’ve downloaded more pdfs this weekend than I have in my entire teaching career. I may never leave the hallowed halls of your website.

    I’m a fourth wave radical, a DIY zine-queen, an unconventional scholar of all things poetic and published on paper. My future students and I thank you for your mind-blowing curatorial work.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Random Page

  • This Beautiful Corrosion — William S. Burroughs at the ZKM

Recent Comments

  • MR ROY PENNINGTON on Interview with George Mattingly
  • Schizosomething on Interview with Chris Stein on William S. Burroughs
  • RealityStudio on William S. Burroughs, Jacques Stern, and The Fluke
  • Daurade on William S. Burroughs, Jacques Stern, and The Fluke
  • Daurade on Jacques Stern

Links

  • About RealityStudio
  • Contact RealityStudio
  • Mimeo Mimeo
  • Supervert
RealityStudio is a Supervert production □ © Copyright 2022 □ About □ Contact