This just in: Len Fulton, the force behind Dustbooks and Small Press Review and a key player in the small-press world since the Sixties, died of lung cancer. Len was 77.
He published the first directory of little mags and small presses.
It was something like a Google for the 60’s-90’s — the pre-Internet era.
That is, you could find media sources for most any topic and, of course, the contact info for those sources.
People today COMPLETELY underestimate the importance of such a concept. In a regular bookstore or even in a library you could look up or find info on any MAINSTREAM topic and you could find any kind of MAINSTREAM media. Even the indie media before the Internet had to be big players before they could be included in stores, libraries or relevant databases.
Len covered everything else. –Which, in my view, was most of reality.
I made lots of neat contacts on OYB-ish topics thanks to Len’s directory and magazine. Len also published my letters to the editor and ran reviews of my OYB zine and alternative books, such as those I published for the ULA (Underground Literary Alliance).
Len did this for THOUSANDS of people and presses around the world for decades.
His “Small Press Review” was a web-press tabloid-ish rag that was published FOREVER. It was very simply produced and very affordable to advertise in.
Len also jumped into the zine scene boom of the 90’s, seamlessly including it into his work.
To me, the zine scene was the exact predecessor of the Web.
In 2009 like many little mags, SPR went to an all-web format.
I would think that Dustbooks and SPR is still alive in some sense. Perhaps family is now going to be involved.
Thanks, Len! …For your work and for being there all those years.
