Origin Press

Origin Press was an American poetry magazine founded by Cid Corman in 1951. The magazine provided an early platform for the work of ground-breaking poets and was devoted, primarily, to one writer in each issue. Origin Press shifted locations with the editor’s own moves, beginning in Ashland, Massachusetts, moving to Kyoto, Japan, back to Boston, and returning to Japan again as Corman resettled. As a result, the first series was published in Dorchster, Mass. (20 issues, Spring 1951-Winter 1957), the second and third in Kyoto, Japan (14 issues, April 1961- July 1964 and 20 issues from April 1966-1971), the fourth in Boston (20 issues, Oct. 1977- July 1982), and the fifth in Orono, Maine (4 issues, Fall 1983-Fall 1984).

Origin Press published Louis Zukofsky’s key work, A 1-12 (1959), his novel, It Was (1961), William Bronk’s first book, Light and Dark (1956), and Gary Snyder’s Riprap (1959). The Press also published translations of classic Japanese poetry, including Matsuo Basho’s Cool Melon (1959) and Shimpei Kusano’s Selected Frogs (1963) as well as some of Corman’s own work such as Sun Rock Man (1963).

In 1975, Corman published an anthology of Origin publications, The Gist of Origin, 1951-1971: An Anthology, printed by Grossman publishers. Today, the Origin archive is housed at Fales Library at New York University.