The first moveable type printing press was invented by “the father of printing,” Johannes Gutenberg. The press, which advanced the accessibility of information, quickly spread across Europe and around the world.
1815: The North American Review
This Boston-founded literary magazine is considered to be the oldest in the United States. The magazine’s goal was to elevate and facilitate discussions about American literature, and only published American authors.
1855: Leaves of Grass
Walt Whitman, a printer as well as a poet, self-published 795 copies of the first edition of “Leaves of Grass” in 1855, which included 12 poems. He designed the typography and funded the project himself. Throughout his life, Whitman continued to add to and edit each edition of the book. The ninth, and last, edition contains close to 400 poems and was published around his death in 1892.
1858: English Woman’s Journal
One of the earliest publications solely about women’s issues, particularly equity and women’s employment. The journal’s offices were in Langham Place in London, where early activists for women’s rights would often meet.
1870: The First LGBTQ+ Periodical
Karl Heinrich Ulrich, a German writer and lawyer, is considered to be one of the first people to publicly come out as gay. Ulrich published a series of pamphlets about sexuality between 1864 and 1879. In 1970, he published the first and only issue of “Uranus,” which is considered the first LGBTQ+- related periodical.
1891: Kelmscott Press
Inspired by 15th century bookmakers, William Morris and Emery Walker published 53 books in 66 volumes before 1898, and are hailed as the beginning of the contemporary fine press movement. Their original fonts, wood-carved illustrations and elaborate designs inspired others to emphasize craft and design in bookmaking.
1917: Hogarth Press
Nearly a decade before publishing some of her most famous works, Virginia Woolf began Hogarth Press with her husband, Leonard Woolf, in an effort to publish exceptional writing. The press published Woolf’s own writing, as well as writers like Katherine Mansfield and the first British edition of T.S. Eliot’s “The Wasteland.”
1923: Opportunity
Associated with the Harlem Renaissance, “Opportunity” platformed African American writers and connected them to broader opportunities for publication. Beginning in 1925, the magazine hosted three literary contests whose winners included writers like Langston Hughs, Zora Neale Hurston and Countee Collins.
1979: Arte Público Press
Designed to platform Latinx authors during the Latino Civil Rights movement, this press is the oldest publisher for writing by Latinx authors based in the U.S. and has published writers like Julia Alvarez, Sandra Cisneros and Luis Valdez.
Founded in 1967 under a different name, the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses provides resources, support and community to independent publishers around the world. This data shows the independent publishers in CLMP in 2023 (in the U.S. specifically) compared to each state's total population.
