Art Kunkin
Encyclopedia
Art Kunkin is an American journalist
, political organizer, machinist
and New Age
esotericist
best known as the founding publisher and editor of the Los Angeles Free Press
. Born Arthur Glick Kunkin in New York City
in 1928, he attended the prestigious Bronx High School of Science
and the New School for Social Research, eventually becoming a tool and die maker
and joining the Trotskyite
movement as an organizer for the Socialist Workers Party
, where he was business manager of the SWP paper, The Militant
.
Beginning in the late 1940s Kunkin was associated with C.L.R. James and the radical Marxist Johnson-Forest Tendency
, and their journals Correspondence
and News & Letters
.
In the early 1960s he had his first experience with a local newspaper on the staff of a Mexican-American paper in Los Angeles called the East L.A. Almanac. "For the first time in my life I was writing about garbage collection and all kinds of community problems," he later recalled. Meanwhile he was also doing political radio commentaries for KPFK
Pacifica Radio.
In May 1964 he produced the first trial issue of the LA Free Press as a one-shot distributed at the Renaissance Pleasure Faire and May Market, a fund-raising event for KPFK. The response was favorable enough for Kunkin to start publishing the Freep (as it came to be called) on a regular basis starting in July. The core group of volunteers and supporters who got involved in the paper included people from KPFK, the bohemian crowd that hung out at the Papa Bach bookstore, and The Fifth Estate, a Sunset Strip
coffee house which provided office space for the Freep in its basement. The paper soon became a nerve center of the burgeoning hippie scene. The atmosphere at the Freep was described by a reporter for Esquire
: "Kids, dogs, cats, barefoot waifs, teeny-boppers in see-through blouses, assorted losers, strangers, Indian chiefs wander in and out, while somewhere a radio plays endless rock music and people are loudly paged over an intercom system. It's all very friendly and rather charming and ferociously informal."
Launched on a shoestring budget, the Free Press struggled for years. By 1969 circulation had exploded to 100,000 copies, but legal problems stemming from publication of a list of names of undercover drug agents put the Freep in a precarious financial position just as it was expanding its operations to include a printing plant, a typesetting firm and a small chain of bookstores. Underpaid staff members left in two waves of defections to form the competing newspapers Tuesday's Child
and The Staff. By 1972 Kunkin and the paper were deep in debt to the very pornographers whose advertising had been the source of the paper's profits, and Kunkin lost control of the paper and was fired, rehired, and fired again, as the paper spiraled slowly into oblivion, paralleling the nationwide decline of the underground press
.
Kunkin's post-Free Press career began with a stint as a professor of journalism at California State University, Northridge
, followed by several years as president of the Philosophical Research Society
in Los Angeles, an esoteric mystical group founded by Manly Palmer Hall
. This was followed by an apprenticeship in alchemy
at the Paracelsus Research Society
in Salt Lake City, where he edited their journal Essentia. He later became a lecturer in alchemy and other New Age topics at the Institute for Mentalphysics
retreat center near Joshua Tree
, and a columnist for the Desert Valley Star.
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, political organizer, machinist
Machinist
A machinist is a person who uses machine tools to make or modify parts, primarily metal parts, a process known as machining. This is accomplished by using machine tools to cut away excess material much as a woodcarver cuts away excess wood to produce his work. In addition to metal, the parts may...
and New Age
New Age
The New Age movement is a Western spiritual movement that developed in the second half of the 20th century. Its central precepts have been described as "drawing on both Eastern and Western spiritual and metaphysical traditions and then infusing them with influences from self-help and motivational...
esotericist
Esotericism
Esotericism or Esoterism signifies the holding of esoteric opinions or beliefs, that is, ideas preserved or understood by a small group or those specially initiated, or of rare or unusual interest. The term derives from the Greek , a compound of : "within", thus "pertaining to the more inward",...
best known as the founding publisher and editor of the Los Angeles Free Press
Los Angeles Free Press
The Los Angeles Free Press , also called “the Freep”, was among the most widely distributed underground newspapers of the 1960s. It is often cited as the first such newspaper...
. Born Arthur Glick Kunkin in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in 1928, he attended the prestigious Bronx High School of Science
Bronx High School of Science
The Bronx High School of Science is a specialized New York City public high school often considered the premier science magnet school in the United States. Founded in 1938, it is now located in the Bedford Park section of the Bronx...
and the New School for Social Research, eventually becoming a tool and die maker
Tool and die maker
Tool and die makers are workers in the manufacturing industry who make jigs, fixtures, dies, molds, machine tools, cutting tools , gauges, and other tools used in manufacturing processes...
and joining the Trotskyite
Trotskyism
Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. Trotsky considered himself an orthodox Marxist and Bolshevik-Leninist, arguing for the establishment of a vanguard party of the working-class...
movement as an organizer for the Socialist Workers Party
Socialist Workers Party (United States)
The Socialist Workers Party is a far-left political organization in the United States. The group places a priority on "solidarity work" to aid strikes and is strongly supportive of Cuba...
, where he was business manager of the SWP paper, The Militant
The Militant
The Militant is an international Socialist newsweekly connected to the Socialist Workers Party and the Pathfinder Tendency. It is published in the United States and distributed in other countries such as Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, France, Sweden, Iceland, and New...
.
Beginning in the late 1940s Kunkin was associated with C.L.R. James and the radical Marxist Johnson-Forest Tendency
Johnson-Forest Tendency
The Johnson–Forest tendency, sometimes called the Johnsonites, refers to a radical left tendency in the United States associated with Marxist theorists C.L.R. James and Raya Dunayevskaya, who used the pseudonyms J.R. Johnson and Freddie Forest respectively...
, and their journals Correspondence
Correspondence Publishing Committee
Correspondence Publishing Committee was a radical left organization led by C.L.R. James and Martin Glaberman that existed in the United States from approximately 1951 until it split in 1962.-History:...
and News & Letters
News and Letters Committees
News and Letters Committees is a small, revolutionary-socialist organization in the United States. It is the world's most prominent Marxist-Humanist organization....
.
In the early 1960s he had his first experience with a local newspaper on the staff of a Mexican-American paper in Los Angeles called the East L.A. Almanac. "For the first time in my life I was writing about garbage collection and all kinds of community problems," he later recalled. Meanwhile he was also doing political radio commentaries for KPFK
KPFK
KPFK is a listener-sponsored radio station based in North Hollywood, California, United States, which serves the Greater Los Angeles Area, and also streams 24 hours a day via the Internet...
Pacifica Radio.
In May 1964 he produced the first trial issue of the LA Free Press as a one-shot distributed at the Renaissance Pleasure Faire and May Market, a fund-raising event for KPFK. The response was favorable enough for Kunkin to start publishing the Freep (as it came to be called) on a regular basis starting in July. The core group of volunteers and supporters who got involved in the paper included people from KPFK, the bohemian crowd that hung out at the Papa Bach bookstore, and The Fifth Estate, a Sunset Strip
Sunset Strip
The Sunset Strip is the name given to the mile-and-a-half stretch of Sunset Boulevard that passes through West Hollywood, California. It extends from West Hollywood's eastern border with Hollywood at Harper Avenue, to its western border with Beverly Hills at Sierra Drive...
coffee house which provided office space for the Freep in its basement. The paper soon became a nerve center of the burgeoning hippie scene. The atmosphere at the Freep was described by a reporter for Esquire
Esquire (magazine)
Esquire is a men's magazine, published in the U.S. by the Hearst Corporation. Founded in 1932, it flourished during the Great Depression under the guidance of founder and editor Arnold Gingrich.-History:...
: "Kids, dogs, cats, barefoot waifs, teeny-boppers in see-through blouses, assorted losers, strangers, Indian chiefs wander in and out, while somewhere a radio plays endless rock music and people are loudly paged over an intercom system. It's all very friendly and rather charming and ferociously informal."
Launched on a shoestring budget, the Free Press struggled for years. By 1969 circulation had exploded to 100,000 copies, but legal problems stemming from publication of a list of names of undercover drug agents put the Freep in a precarious financial position just as it was expanding its operations to include a printing plant, a typesetting firm and a small chain of bookstores. Underpaid staff members left in two waves of defections to form the competing newspapers Tuesday's Child
Tuesday's Child (newspaper)
Tuesday's Child was a brief-lived counterculture underground newspaper published in Los Angeles, California starting Nov. 11, 1969. Self-described on its masthead as "An ecumenical, educational newspaper for the Los Angeles occult & underground," it was founded by Los Angeles Free Press reporter...
and The Staff. By 1972 Kunkin and the paper were deep in debt to the very pornographers whose advertising had been the source of the paper's profits, and Kunkin lost control of the paper and was fired, rehired, and fired again, as the paper spiraled slowly into oblivion, paralleling the nationwide decline of the underground press
Underground press
The underground press were the independently published and distributed underground papers associated with the counterculture of the late 1960s and early 1970s in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and other western nations....
.
Kunkin's post-Free Press career began with a stint as a professor of journalism at California State University, Northridge
California State University, Northridge
California State University, Northridge is a public university in Northridge, a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles, California, United States....
, followed by several years as president of the Philosophical Research Society
Philosophical Research Society
The Philosophical Research Society is an American nonprofit organization founded in 1934, by the prolific author and scholar Manly Palmer Hall, which provides learning and development of a philosophy of life which embraces conciliation of religion and science and higher understandings of life...
in Los Angeles, an esoteric mystical group founded by Manly Palmer Hall
Manly Palmer Hall
Manly Palmer Hall was a Canadian-born author and mystic. He is perhaps most famous for his 1928 work The Secret Teachings of All Ages.-Early years:...
. This was followed by an apprenticeship in alchemy
Alchemy
Alchemy is an influential philosophical tradition whose early practitioners’ claims to profound powers were known from antiquity. The defining objectives of alchemy are varied; these include the creation of the fabled philosopher's stone possessing powers including the capability of turning base...
at the Paracelsus Research Society
Frater Albertus
Frater Albertus Spagyricus ; founder of the Paracelsus Research Society in Salt Lake City, which later evolved into the Paracelsus College. Based on the Paracelsian concept of three essentials, Body, Soul and Spirit, Frater Albertus developed a system of teaching alchemical concepts using the...
in Salt Lake City, where he edited their journal Essentia. He later became a lecturer in alchemy and other New Age topics at the Institute for Mentalphysics
Edwin Dingle
Edwin John Dingle was an English journalist, author and founder of the Institute of Mentalphysics in California, US...
retreat center near Joshua Tree
Joshua tree
Yucca brevifolia is a plant species belonging to the genus Yucca. It is tree-like in habit, which is reflected in its common names: Joshua tree, Yucca palm, Tree yucca, and Palm tree yucca....
, and a columnist for the Desert Valley Star.