Item #4778 The Los Angeles Free Press Collection. ed Art Kunkin.

The Los Angeles Free Press Collection

Los Angeles: Los Angeles Free Press, 1964-1975. Tabloid style newsprint. Offset. VG. Item #4778

Most in very good condition with yellowing commensurate with age.

Some issues have address labels adhered and a few tears. Founded in 1964 by Art Kunkin, the mission of The Los Angeles Free Press was shaped by his time as an editor for the Socialist Workers Party’s newspaper, The Militant. Reflecting these radical roots, the Press provided extensive coverage of the civil rights movement, women’s liberation, and the anti-war movement. On the cultural side, the Press published fiction by writers with well-established audiences, such as
Charles Bukowski and Harlan Ellison, while covering the local jazz and visual art scenes. Beginning as a one-off paper at a Renaissance Fair fundraising event for KPFK radio, Kunkin raised enough money to develop a weekly paper, produced by volunteers who sold early issues for twenty-five cents. The Los Angeles Free Press Collection displays the paper at its peak of political notoriety. Many articles contain on the scenes reporting from the civil rights movement, with coverage of teach-ins, protests, police brutality, and some of the most in-depth reporting on the Watts Riots. Other articles—such as an interview with Ralph Forbes, an American Nazi Party official—are indicative of the Press’s desire to push the envelope. This collection, while not complete, is a terrific overview of the paper in its heyday, containing 311 issues housed in 9 boxes. Known locally as “The Freep,” by the late 1970’s the paper changed hands to Marvin Miller, a noted pornographer who subsequently sold it to Larry Flynt. By then, the paper had already become almost entirely ad listings for the sex industry.

Various issues from Vols. 1-13. Complete inventory available on request.

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