Independent Publishing: Today and Yesterday

The independent press movement is flourishing in America. Most of these independent presses have organized into the Committee of Small Magazine Editors and Publishers (COSMEP). The large commerical publishers continue to refuse financial support to independent presses, although these same commercial publishers often reap financial dividends from the creativity and experimentation fostered by the small presses. Despite nonsupport from the commercial establishment, the independent movement in this country has always prospered. Authors in this tradition include Thomas Paine, Parson Weems, Washington Irving, John Bartlett, Walt Whitman, Mary Baker Eddy, General Henry Robert, Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), Stephen Crane, Edwin Arlington Robinson, Upton Sinclair, Carl Sandburg, Ezra Pound and Anais Nin. The small press movement continues today with several advantages not enjoyed in the past: associations like COSMEP, new distributors, open-minded review media and large bookstore chains that simplify distribution problems once thought to be insoluble for the independent publisher.