Chicago Seed (newspaper)

{{Short description|American underground newspaper (1967–1974)}} {{For|the science culture magazine|Seed (magazine)}} {{italic title}} {{Infobox newspaper | name = Chicago Seed | image = Chicago Seed September 1967 front cover.png | image_size = | caption = Cover of the September 1967 issue | type = Underground newspaper | format = Biweekly tabloid | founded = {{Start date and age|1967|05| }} in Chicago | ceased_publication = {{end date and age|1974||}} | founders = Don Lewis and Earl Segal | publisher = | owner = Seed Publishing | chief_editor = | art_director = | staff_writers = Abe Peck, Eliot Wald | circulation = 30,000–40,000 | political_position = | headquarters = Old Town, Chicago, Illinois, U.S. | ISSN = | website = }} '''''The Chicago Seed''''' was an underground newspaper published biweekly in Chicago, Illinois, from May 1967<ref name="Crowley1995">{{cite book|author=Walt Crowley|title=Rites of Passage: A Memoir of the Sixties in Seattle|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bcy7WNw2psoC&pg=PA83|year=1995|publisher=University of Washington Press|isbn=978-0-295-97492-7|page=83}}</ref> to 1974; there were 121 issues published in all. It was notable for its colorful psychedelic graphics and its eclectic, non-doctrinaire radical politics. Important events covered by ''Seed'' writers and artists were the trial of the Chicago Eight, Woodstock, and the murder of Fred Hampton.<ref name=Reader /> At its peak, the ''Seed'' circulated between 30,000 and 40,000 copies, with national distribution.{{citation needed|date=December 2022}}

== Publication history == After attending the March 1967 Underground Press Syndicate (UPS) gathering held in Stinson Beach, California, artist Don Lewis and Earl Segal (a.k.a. the Mole,{{citation needed|date=December 2022}} owner of the Mole Hole, a local head shop)<ref name=Reader /> launched the ''Seed'' and joined UPS.<ref name=Peck>Peck, Abe. ''Uncovering the Sixties: The Life and Times of the Underground Press'' (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985).</ref> The paper also later became a subscriber to the Liberation News Service.

Lester Dore took over the art direction when Don Lewis moved to New York to work for ''Screw'' magazine.{{citation needed|date=December 2022}} Disagreements between Lewis and Segal led to the ''Seed''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s purchase by Harry Dewar, a graphic designer, and Colin Pearlson, a photographer,<ref name=Reader /> who thought it had commercial potential.{{citation needed|date=December 2022}}

The ''Seed'' was edited for several years by Abe Peck, who started as a staff writer in late 1967. He became editor soon afterward, and led the paper toward the Yippies (Youth International Party), a group that planned surrealistic-oriented events for the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Despite a split with Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin over tactics and transparency, Peck and other ''Seed'' staffers appeared in Lincoln Park throughout the August 1968 demonstrations.<ref name=Peck />

Skeets Millard, a young photographer and community organizer who was publishing the Chicago edition of ''Kaleidoscope'', joined the ''Seed'' staff in 1969, at a time when all of the original founders were gone and there was no one working on the paper who had been there more than 12 months; Mike Abrahamson was running the paper in Abe Peck's absence.<ref>Glessing, Robert J.''The Underground Press in America'' (Indiana Univ. Press, 1970), p. 27.</ref> Among the staff writers were Marshall Rosenthal and Eliot Wald.

While supporting various movements, the ''Seed'' remained independent of organizational affiliation. Although the paper was far left-leaning, it was known for its independence and impartiality on left-wing issues, not subscribing to a particular ideology, which was unusual for the time.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://blogs.brown.edu/hallhoag/2013/10/22/chicago-seed/|title=Chicago Seed {{!}} The Hall-Hoag Collection {{!}} Brown University|website=blogs.brown.edu|language=en-US|access-date=2017-09-04}}</ref> The ''Seed'' grew increasingly radical, however, and Peck left the paper in 1970.<ref name=Peck />

== Design aesthetic and production process == The paper was known for its colorful printing, artwork and comix, with Skip Williamson, Jay Lynch, Jim Roslof, Robert Crumb, Karl Heinz-Meschbach, Paul Zmiewski, Peter Solt, and other Sixties artists contributing to the publication's unique look: {{cquote|"Covers ... favored bold images that told a bigger story instead of everyday photos.... The inside could be just as striking, featuring poster-size pullouts with Day-Glo ink, gradient backgrounds, a wealth of major-label music ads, and intricate drawings".<ref name=Reader>{{Cite news|url=https://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2014/07/29/nymphs-pigs-and-mayor-daley-for-thanksgiving-the-radical-art-of-chicago-seed|title=Nymphs, pigs, and Mayor Daley for Thanksgiving: The radical art of Chicago Seed|last=Sisson|first=Patrick|work=Chicago Reader|date=July 29, 2014|access-date=2017-09-04|language=en}}</ref>}}

The ''Seed'', along with the ''San Francisco Oracle'', was one of the first tabloid newspapers to use Split-fount inking on a web press.<ref name=Reader /> It was a real do it yourself operation: copy was set on an IBM Selectric and pasted up, negatives were made and stripped up for plate-making, and inks were mixed to take to the printer.

After losing its original printer in 1968, the ''Seed'' was printed for a time on the presses of liberal Wisconsin newspaper publisher Bill Schanen, who provided printing services for a large number of Midwestern underground papers that could find no other printer.<ref name=Reader /><ref>Felien, Ed. "Let a hundred Flowers Blossom, Let a Hundred Schools of Thought Contend", in Wachsberger, Ken, ed. ''Voices from the Underground: Insider Histories of the Vietnam Era Underground Press'', (Tempe, AZ: Mica's Press, 1993), p. 305-312.</ref> However, the Seed continued to be printed in Chicago into the 70's by the same printer who was printing the Black Panther News and other local left leaning publications.

==References== === Notes === {{reflist}}

=== Sources === * [https://web.archive.org/web/20100718150256/http://www.areachicago.org/p/issues/6808/chicago-seed/ ''Chicago Seed''.] ''Area Chicago''. Retrieved June 4, 2010.

==External links== * [http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/6355.html ''Chicago Seed'' at Chicago History.org] * [http://libweb.uoregon.edu/govdocs/micro/uginv.htm Microfilm copies of the ''Chicago Seed'' at the University of Oregon] * [https://archive.org/details/Chicago_Seed_v03n08_1969-03_Darwination-DREGS ''Chicago Seed'' complete scan of vol.3, no. 8 (March 1969) issue] * {{Cite news|url=https://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2014/07/29/nymphs-pigs-and-mayor-daley-for-thanksgiving-the-radical-art-of-chicago-seed|title=Nymphs, pigs, and Mayor Daley for Thanksgiving: The radical art of Chicago Seed|last=Sisson|first=Patrick|work=Chicago Reader|date=July 29, 2014|language=en}} — includes a cover gallery * [https://web.archive.org/web/20071030015819/http://www.lib.uconn.edu/online/research/speclib/ASC/exhibits/voices/pages/Seedv5n8_jpg.htm ''Seed'' vol. 5, no. 8 (1970)", "Image Gallery: Voices from the Underground", University of Connecticut Libraries website. Archived at the Wayback Machine] *[https://www.jstor.org/site/reveal-digital/independent-voices/theseed-27953942/ 'The Seed' collection at JSTOR Independent Voices. Open Access]

Category:1967 establishments in Illinois Category:Defunct newspapers published in Chicago Category:Underground press