Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Was there any exchange of influence between Rolling Stone and Whole
Earth? They seem to have been co-emerging, wonder if they were
co-evolving?
  

    

<https://www.mixcloud.com/thedeepdive/deep-dive-85-interview-with-peter-richard
son-about-the-early-years-of-rolling-stone/>
Radsio interfview with Peter.
  

    
> Ellen had declined to write for Rolling Stone in 1970, in part
because Jann hadn't hired any women. She also didn't like the way
the magazine referred to women as "chicks" and cited a famous piece
about groupies as another shortcoming. Her 1970 letter to Ralph is a
banger. But when Marianne came on, Willis agreed to write a piece
about rape. 

I was most impressed to read Ellen Willis, because I'd never read
articles about rock 'n' roll by a woman. I haven't gotten to her
letter to Ralph yet--hope I get to it soon. I don't exactly remember
her article on rape, but I bet it had an enormous influence on my
attitudes toward sexual assault, which were (to be kind) very
confused at the time. 
  

    
(Her essay in the booklet for the retrospective box set "Janis" is
great.)
  

    
Rolling Stone and Whole Earth: Yes, there was an interesting
connection. Thomas Albright, the art critic, reviewed the Whole
Earth Catalog for the magazine. That led to a correspondence between
Stewart Brand and Jann. The most notable thing that came out of that
connection was a December 1972 Rolling Stone article by Stewart. It
announced the imminent arrival of video games, personal computing,
the Internet, robotics, and AI. One of the most prophetic articles
Rolling Stone ever ran. And I would say the magazine's Bay Area
location was crucial there. 

My interest in Ellen Willis grew sharply as I did the research for
this book. Her letter to Ralph Gleason was remarkably clear-eyed and
forceful. I think she wrote 23 pieces over three years for RS, but
she also wrote for other outlets, including The New Yorker and The
Village Voice. She stopped writing about rock when she realized that
the social revolution it was supposed to usher in wasn't going to
happen. But her political stuff was also very strong. 
  

    
what magazines are you excited about today?  Are there signs of life
in physical magazines or are you resigned to the fact that the era
of the print magazine is over forever?
  

    
that's a great question!
  

    
I've subscribed, on and off and in one way or another, to a handful
of magazines over the years. The staples have been The New Yorker,
The Nation, The New Republic, and Harper's. For those interested in
Californiana, Will Hearst's Alta Journal is pretty cool. At various
times I've added and dropped The New York Review of Books and Mother
Jones. Decades ago, the MoJo publisher told me they would publish
the magazine as long as they could, but they regarded the website as
their primary outlet. 

As for Rolling Stone, I subscribed while researching this project. I
also had bound volumes from San Francisco State's library plus
access to an electronic database that has everything going back to
inception.  

I wish I were more excited about today's magazines and will happily
take suggestions. 

There was one magazine I really dug, now long gone, called Stop
Smiling: The Magazine for High-Minded Lowlifes. In 2005, I saw Issue
22 for sale at Tower Records (!) in Larkspur/Corte Madera. That
issue was about "The Downfall of American Publishing." It had
stories on or by Lewis Lapham, Barney Rosset, Philip Gourevitch
(from Paris Review), Saul Bellow, Simon & Schuster editor David
Rosenthal, H.W. Ross from The New Yorker, City Lights, etc. Curtis
White, who wrote The Middle Mind, also contributed; I later became
his editor and am still in touch. But the jewel in the crown was an
oral history of Hunter S. Thompson. Yes, I'm showing my age here,
but that issue was right up my alley. Two copies still live on my
bookshelf. 

Going forward? Lots of pessimism and uncertainty, especially for
magazines that require advertising. The ad-based model still works
for a few outlets that cater to well-off readers. Not just The New
Yorker, but also magazines focused on high-end tourist destinations.
I don't read them, but they look like they're doing well. Another
model is philanthropy, which gives us magazines like The Atlantic
and Harper's. 

I wonder what would happen if readers were prepared to pay full
price for something that looks cool and runs fabulous stuff. Or
perhaps we could look back to the nineteenth century, when
publishers pre-sold their books, then printed them when they had
enough interested readers. Like Kickstarter, I suppose. Couldn't do
news magazines like that, but maybe other kinds of publications
could make it work.  
  

    
The article Stewart wrote for Rolling Stone is available at the
Internet Archive:
<https://archive.org/details/19721207rollingstoneexcerptspacewararticlev02/mode
/2up>

I have my own very worn bound volume of the second fifteen issues of
Rolling Stone. Flipping through it is a form of time travel. 

I also found where you can buy a copy of issue 22 of "Stop Smiling":
<https://hatandbeard.com/products/stop-smiling-the-magazine-for-high-minded-low
lifes>