National Ubrary Bibliothèque nationale 1+1 of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Direction des acquisitions et Bibliographie Services Branch des services bibliographiques 395 Welhnglon SIrCCI 395, rue Wcllinglon Ottawa, QnlaflO OllOW3 (Ontario) K1AON4 K1AON4 NOTICE AVIS The quality of this microform is La qualité de cette microforme heavily dependent upon the dépend grandement de la qualité quality of the original thesis de la thèse soumise au submitted for microfilming. microfilmage. Nous avons tout Evr~ry effort has been made to fait pour assurer une qualité ensure the highest quality of supérieure de reproduction. reproduction possible. If pages are missing, contact the S'il manque des pages, veuillez university which granted the communiquer avec l'université degree. qui a conféré le grade. Some pages may have indistinct La qualité d'impression de print especially if the original certaines pages peut laisser à pages were typed with a poor désirer, surtout si les pages typewriter ribbon or if the originales ont été university sent us an inferior dactylographiées à l'aide d'un photocopy. ruban usé ou si l'université nous a fait parvenir une photocopie de qualité inférieure. Reproduction in full or in part of La reproduction, même partielle, this microform is governed by de cette microforme est soumise the Canadian Copyright Act, à la Loi canadienne sur le droit R.S.C. 1970, c. C-30, and d'auteur, SRC 1970, c. C-30, et subsequent amendments. ses amendements subséquents. Canada • THE UNDERGROUND PRESS OF THE SIXTIES By Maxine Ruvinsky Comparative Literature Program McGiII University, April,1995 A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. (c) Maxine Ruvinsky 1995. • National Library Bibliothèque nationale 1+1 of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Direction des acquisitions et Bibliographie Selvices Branch des services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Streel 395. rue Welhngton Ottawa. Ontario Ottawa (Ontario) K1AQN4 K1AQN4 The author has granted an L'auteur a accordé une licence irrevocable non·exclusive licence irrévocable et non exclusive allowing the National Library of permettant à la Bibliothèque Canada to reproduce, loan, nationale du Canada de distribute or sell copies of reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou hisjher thesis by any means and vendre des copies de sa thèse in any form or format, making de quelque manière et sous this thesis available to interested quelque forme que ce soit pour persons. mettre des exemplaires de cette thèse à la disposition des personnes intéressées. The author retains ownership of L'auteur conserve la propriété du the copyright in hisjher thesis. droit d'auteur qui protège sa Neither the thesis nor substantial thèse. Ni la thèse ni des extraits extracts from it may be printed or substantiels de celle·ci ne otherwise reproduced without doivent être imprimés ou hisjher permission. autrement reproduits sans son autorisation. ISBN 0-612-0B153-2 Canada • ABSTRACI This thesis describes the underground press of the sixties in the United States, from the beginning of the movement in mid-decade to its apparent demise in the early seventies. 1 use articles from the underground papers to iIIustrate the nature of the underground press and apply literary and socio-cultural theories and thinking to the phenomenon in order to chart and analyze its rapid development and speedy disappearance early in the seventies. 1focus on the joumalistic idealism represented by the papers. By joumalistic idealism, 1mean the belief that society could be improved if its iIIs were expo~ed by journalism conducted in the public interest - the founding faith of the daily press in America. In this sense the underground papers recalled the earlier ideals of <l free press in a democratic society. 1conclude that the joumalistic idealism of the sixties was contained and perverted, but not destroyed. The deeper questions posed here, however, conœm the nature of hegemony and of social movements for change and their particular problems with respect to the status quo and its official authorities. The theoretical justification for treating newswriting (generally) as a form of Iiterature (rather than a form of "communications"), is to reveal some of the codes it relies upon to convey meaning (rather than simply information). • • RÉSUMÉ Cette thèse décrit la presse clandestine aux États-Unis dès le commencement du mouvement des journaux secrets dans les années 60's jusqu'à sa mort apparente vers le début de la décennie suivante. J'utilise des articles des journaux clandestins aussi bien que des idées et de:; théories littéraires et socio-culturelles pour illustrer l'essence du mouvement et la façon dont il se reflète dans la langue et la littérature des journaux, afin de comprendre son développement rapide et sa disparition évidente au début des années 70's. Je me concentre sur l'idéalisme qui démontre ces journaux clandestins. Par ce terme "l'idéalisme journalistique" je veux dire la conviction que la société serait améliorée si ses malheurs étaient dévoilés et démasqués par un journalisme qui fait preuve de civisme - une conviction qui représente la pierre angulaire de la presse quotidienne en Amérique du Nord. Dans ce sens-là, les journaux clandestins ont réanimé les idéaux précédents d'une presse libre dans une société démocratique. Je conclus que l'idéalisme journalistique de la presse clandestine des années 60's a été maîtrisé, contenu et travesti, mais non détruit. Néanmoins, parmi les questions que pose cette thèse, les plus profondes sont celles de nature hégémonique et celles des mouvements populaires pour la justice sociale ­ plus particulièrement, celles des problèmes qu'ont vécu les journaux concernant le statu quo et ses autorités officielles. La ralionale théorique pour traiter l'écriture journalistique d'un genre littéraire (plutôt qu'une sorte de moyen de communication) c'est justement d'en faire ressortir certains des codes dont dépend l'écriture journalistique pour communiquer la signification (et non pas seulement les informations) d'un texte. • • TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 REVIEW OF THE L1TERATURE 13 THEORY AND METHOD 28 SECTION A 1. THE RISE 41 2. THE CONTEXT 53 3. THE CAUSES 64 4. THE VIETNAM WAR 76 5. DISCOURSE OF THE FIFTIES 83 6. THE DISMAL OVERGROUND PRESS 98 7. THE GENERATIONAL LANGUAGE GAP 107 SECTION B 8. NATURE OF THE UNDERGROUND PRESS 128 9. POLITICS VERSUS CULTURE 159 10. THE NEW JOURNALISM 196 SECTION C 11. THE FALL 217 12. WHO KILLED THE UNDERGROUND PRESS? 229 SECTION D 13. THE LEGACY 254 14. IMPACT ON THE ESTABLISHMENT PRESS 261 15. LEGACY OF THE ESTABLISHMENT PRESS 276 16. WHITHER OBJECTIVITY? 295 17. NOTES ON NOSTALGIA 318 CONCLUSIONS 336 • BIBLIOGRAPHY • 1 INTRODUCTION The rise of an underground press was only one expression of the youth culture that burgeoned in the sixties, following the baby boom of the post-war period. The youth culture, and its underground papers, were a worldwide phenomenon, even though only four countries experienced prolonged baby booms after the Second World War (the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand).' This work will deal almost exclusively with underground papers in the United States, where in fact the vast majority were situated. There are, however, scattered references to Canadian underground papers (of which there WElre about a dozen), which 1treat broadly as part of the American phenomenon. The patterns that emerged in this study of the American underground press are evident as weil in the Canadian papers, albeit on a much smaller scale. As weil, underground articles in both countries were routinely reprinted regardless of country of origin, largely through Iwo American underground wire services, the Underground Press Syndicate and Liberation News Service. It was the American papers, in any case, which set the larger political agenda for their northern counterparts, around the major social-justice issues of the day, including the Vietnam war and the civil rights movement. At the peak of the phenomenon in 1969, there were over 500 underground papers (over 400 of them in the United States) with at least 4.5 million readers worldwide.2 The so-called "first-wave" papers, following the lead of the already established Village Voice and Liberation, emerged in 1964 and 1965 and included: the (Los Angeles) Free Press, the (Berkeley) Barb, the (New York) East Village Other, the (Detroit) Fifth • Estate, and the (East Lansing) Paper. Soon to follow were, among many • 2 others, the (San Francisco) Oracle, the (Chicago) Seed, the (Austin) Rag, the (New York) Rat, the (San Quentin) Outlaw, the (Washington) Quicksilver Times, the (Houston) Space Ci~, the (Cambridge) Old Mole, the (Jackson) Kudzu, the (Denver) El Gallo, the (Madison) Kaleidoscope, the (San Jose) Red Eye, and the (Boston) Avatar. The underground press was also related to older muckraking magazines Iike Ramparts, which Iike the Voice provided a model for the earliest underground upstarts and their investigative efforts. Communications vehicles related to the underground press but not strictly synonymous with it included video services such as Newsreel, G.!. papers Iike the Bond, and issue- or group-specific papers Iike the Black Panther, the Gay Activist, Win (published in New York by the War Resisters' League), and Peace Newsletter. There were also hundreds of dissenting papers in high schools alone.3 The underground papers experienced rapid growth, both in terms of the pace at which new papers sprouted and in terms of circulation growth. The East Village Other for example saw its circulation grow from 5,000 to 65,000 in four years; by contrast, it took the established Village Voice 14 years to achieve comparable circulation growth.4 The underground papers became the voice of the youth movement, providing a communications Iink between geographically diverse communities. They reflected the values of the counterculture and the New Left in their insistence on the need to radically reform American society.