Here’s what I got published in Small Press Review about me and Factsheet Five as a guest editorial:
Into the BigTime
By Bob Grumman
Among those of us who compose our masterpieces of prose or verse deep in the hinterlands of the hinterlands, I doubt that there are many who have not dreamed, however pure of heart we are, that there will come a day when something will go wrong, and a beserk minute projection of the BigTime will shoot out in our direction and beyond, then halt, permanently–with us inside it. That the Bigtime will have accommodated us rather than the other way around, will, of course, allow us to accept the situation. Insane this dream, without question, but . . . well, I’m here to tell you, my friends, that it has happened to me!
Here’s what’s happened: Penguin Books has published a large-format paperback survey of “the independent magazine revolution” by Mike Gunderloy and Cari Goldberg Janice called The World of Zines and a poem of mine is quoted in full in it. What’s more, one page later I am cited as an important critic of the scene! Okay, maybe all that doesn’t quite put me up there with Norman (Mailer) and Danielle (Steele), but I’m certainly not far from them.
How did this happen is not (entirely) to brag about myself but to make a few observations on “success”–mainly for those in the small press world who might want to follow me. One is that, yes, who you know is probably what counts the most in the success game: Gunderloy is the former editor of Factsheet Five, and I was one of his columnists for five years. I never met him in person but we did exchange a fair number of friendly letters. Of course, it could be argued that Gunderloy’s knowing me was an advantage I had earned since I wouldn’t have been able to latch on as a columnist for Factsheet Five without some kind of writing talent.
Well, I started at Factsheet Five because I knew Miekal And, a crazy multi-media wizard who, with his wife Liz Was, ran a publishing operation called Xerox Sutra (which has since become Xexoxial Endarchy, to avoid trademark infringement). I knew And because I had bought $90 worth of books through the mail from his firm, and had written, and sent him, some criticism of it, some of it quite favorable to work he himself had done. At this time (1987) And was peppering Gunderloy with letters reproaching him for not paying enough attention to experimental art publications in his magazine, which was billed as a complete guide to the micro-press. Gunderloy agreed that he wasn’t and, feeling unqualified himself to treat such material, invited And to. That was my door in, for And had too many commitments elsewhere. He suggested I write Gunderloy, offering my services. I did so, then at his request sent him a few sample reviews–which he thought good enough to use.
This all makes me sound much more self-serving and systematic than I actually was. I originally bought the books from And because I was genuinely interested in what his press was doing, not to butter him up. The essay on those books that I subsequently wrote was more a means of investigation than an attempt to further (more exactly at that point, begin) my writing career–although it was partially, and consciously, the latter as well. The real upshot here is that I made my people-connections only after making my interest-connections. That is, I first got involved with experimental art because I was genuinely interested in it, and that involvement led to my involvements with And and Gunderloy.
So here’s my advice for making it into the BigTime: develop your interests.
Note: the above was written 15 or 20 years ago. My stint at Factsheet Five remains to this day the highest in the BigTime I ever got. As I keep saying, I can’t begin to understand it.
Tags: Bob Grumman, Factsheet Five