I haven't blogged in many years. I kept an old blog somewhat anonymously, with a colleague, back when we were all nervous about printed books becoming obsolete. The blog ended up tracking, in real time, how that fear got tamed, as we realized that there is enough interest in books to sustain multiple formats, with some readers even moving between formats for the same text. In keeping that blog going for a couple of years, including for a year when I stepped out of publishing (because $$) and got a job that did not have enough work for me, to keep me busy, I became committed to keeping up with the industry. In addition to calming my nerves about the end of the printed book, it also strengthened my interest in and support for independent publishing.
I am using this term to mean presses that are not owned by corporate entities. Many of them are non-profit, though I do not believe that alone determines their eligibility for this category. Some are very tiny and may have short lifespans, while others are giants that compete quite directly with the so-called Big Five. I'm intrigued by the recent announcement of the Independent Publishing Caucus publishing its own weekly bestseller list. I also found in writing that previous blog that readers of independent presses often get to know the press, versus those who read more titles from various imprints within the Big Five, which often kind of run together. Of course, just like with book formats, most of us are not exclusively one or the other. If I hear of a book I want to read, I don't skip it if it's published by a corporate publisher. Having said that, part of why I love browsing at McNally Jackson is that they so casually highlight independent presses on their tables and in their recommendations, and they themselves run a fantastic press focusing on reprints.
This fall, after taking some days off to mourn the loss of my mother (and fear not, this blog will not be a grief journal - with all do respect to the many others experiencing grief these days), in a couple of days of unstructured time, I started looking into the South End Press, a Boston-area independent activist publisher started in the late 1970s in the Boston neighborhood called the South End, a neighborhood in which I have lived for many years. I knew it was a collective; even as late as the early 2000s, when I was in Boston and working in publishing, I would see their advertisements looking for a new employee, and it made the collective set-up clear. (At that point, they were based across the river in Cambridge.) The ads would warn potential applicants that they would be rotating positions, so they will have to plan to do every job at the press, from production to publicity, editorial and business. They put the salary outright, explaining that everyone was paid the same. Full transparency. I was amazed.
I knew they had a connection to the neighborhood, but they had left it years before I arrived in 2003. A few years after I saw their ad, they left Cambridge, and then soon thereafter, closed down. Those of us who watch the leftist publishing space were heartbroken, as they had published some huge names and fantastic, important books.
In my time as an acquisitions editor, I have published numerous books on publishing and on Boston history, so it's not surprising that my mind wandered over to the South End Press. I started doing some research on them, only to have spring up other independent presses from around the same time in the Boston area. In my head, I started thinking of these exciting efforts being pushed out or even killed off by gentrification, a major danger to activism and independence in Boston, Cambridge, and beyond.
So this blog begins in earnest, in hopes I'll make time for it, to publish information about Boston activist presses, from the 1970s and 1980s (though don't hold me to that timeline). It will certainly include as much as I can on the South End Press, which I feel I can more easily put into some historic context, but it will not be limited to this one press. And if I get folks reading, I'll hope to hear leads on other presses, or other sources, to keep this story going and start conversations.
Boston is seen as a place with a lot of history, but I don't want to add to any sense of nostalgia. A friend who is Black moved to Boston for a job, as an adult, with no connection to the city besides her offer letter. She asked why folks in the South End always have to say "historic Black church" every time, why can't it just be a Black church? And Boston takes such pride in its history of abolitionism during slavery, but, she'd point out, that was a looooong time ago now.
My point is just that I don't want to take part in the Boston-was-cool, now-Boston-sucks game. I don't believe it. I may not quite be a booster for the city in its 2026 form, but I'm not too down on it either. I would love if any discussion of these presses, formed during a politically contentious time locally and nationally, could work alongside conversations and efforts around jumpstarting publishing activity in Boston, which has dried up a bit in recent years with the loss of some corporate offices (is any editorial in the city for Houghton Mifflin at this point??) and some indie presses (David Godine identifies as Boston-based but only has addresses in Jaffrey, NH?). But see, I'm playing into the very declension narrative I hope to avoid! This is where I hope the blog, as a platform, can allow for real-time course correction, even within one post. (As a book editor, I'd circle such about-faces in a narrative.) I don't want to conjure the past as some way to set the future, nor do I want the past to seem so distant as to be some kind of final chapter. But we will see if some kind of strong thesis develops over the course of what I hope will be multiple entries a month.
Please follow along, and share, and comment, and subscribe, and contact me with leads, thoughts, ideas, or corrections.
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