Company type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Publishing, Catalog book sales |
Founded | 1975 |
Defunct | May 8, 2006 |
Headquarters | Port Townsend, Washington |
Key people | Michael Hoy, President, Book editor Lou Rollins, Proof reader Gia Cosindas, Publicist |
Products | Books |
Loompanics Unlimited was an American book seller and publisher specializing in nonfiction on generally unconventional or controversial topics. The topics in their title list included drugs, weapons, survivalism, anarchism, sex, conspiracy theories, and so on. [1] [2] [3] Many of their titles describe some kind of illicit or extralegal actions, such as Counterfeit I.D. Made Easy [4] and Opium for the Masses, while others are purely informative, such as Uninhabited Ocean Islands, How to Buy Land Cheap and The Muckraker's Manual (recommended by Stewart Brand). [5] [6]
Loompanics was in business for nearly 30 years. Its publisher and editor was Michael "Mike" Hoy [7] who started Loompanics Unlimited in East Lansing, Michigan, in 1975. [8] In 1982 he moved the business to Port Townsend, Washington, where his friend and fellow publisher R. W. Bradford had earlier relocated. [9]
In January 2006, Loompanics announced that it was going out of business, [10] and that it was selling off its inventory. In the spring of 2006, Paladin Press announced that it acquired the rights to 40 titles previously published or sold by Loompanics, including the works of Claire Wolfe, Eddie the Wire, and other popular Loompanics authors. [11]
In addition to Loompanics' large annual catalog of all its stock, Loompanics regularly mailed its customers a thinner quarterly supplement featuring a selection of books interspersed with articles about government propaganda and conspiracies, and/or underground resistance. The addressing side of the cover included a World War II American graphic of an eagle carrying a stack of volumes and the slogan, "Our men want books!"
Loompanics did not fall into the categories of mainstream liberal, conservative, or libertarian politics. While Michael Hoy expresses a preference for free markets, he also criticizes libertarians for championing multinational corporations, which he describes in a 2005 article [12] as being entirely different entities from individuals. Hoy characterizes them as governmental entities, since their limited liability is the result of government fiat, rather than contractual dealings among individuals. Thus, in some ways, Hoy argues, [12] corporations have more rights than individuals. He also criticized [12] libertarians for brainwashing themselves, stating:
"Libertarian" followers have been taught numerous thought-stopping techniques by "Libertarian" leaders, so that anyone who attempts to discuss the non-market reality of corporations is slapped with a negative label ("anti-corporate," "anti-trade," etc. — there are lots), and then any questions raised by that person are literally unthinkable to "Libertarians."
Hoy's articles, which systemically lambasted the policies of all major political groups, earned him the wrath of organizations across the political spectrum. [13]
Loompanics' FAQ stated that the company's name is a play on words inspired by Hoy's fondness for National Lampoon . [14]
According to Gia Cosindas, Amazon.com, eBay, and Google refused to allow Loompanics to advertise on their sites, since some of the books' content violates their editorial guidelines. [15] Specifically, Google wrote, "At this time, Google policy does not permit the advertisement of websites that contain 'the promotion of violence [and] drugs or drug paraphernalia.'" [15]
On May 8, 2006, Loompanics stopped accepting retail orders. [16] Their website encouraged potential customers to contact other publishers, who have had several Loompanics titles transferred to them, or became the new publishers of established Loompanics authors.
Last Earth Distro, [17] Last Word Books & Press, [18] AK Press, Earthlight Books, Eden Press, FS Books, Laissez Faire Books, Lehman's, New Falcon Publications, Privacy Alert Online, Ronin Press, Steve Arnold's Gun Room and Uncle Fester's Books acquired most of Loompanics' back stock. Some titles have been reprinted by Paladin Press and Delta Press. [19]
Erwin S. Strauss is an American author, science fiction fan, noted member of the MITSFS, and filk musician, born in Washington, D.C. He frequently is known by the nickname "Filthy Pierre". He was injured descending a stairway at SMOFcon 41in December 2023, and in January 2024 announced his retirement.
Cory Efram Doctorow is a Canadian-British blogger, journalist, and science fiction author who served as co-editor of the blog Boing Boing. He is an activist in favour of liberalising copyright laws and a proponent of the Creative Commons organization, using some of its licences for his books. Some common themes of his work include digital rights management, file sharing, and post-scarcity economics.
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"The Abolition of Work" is an essay written by Bob Black in 1985. It was part of Black's first book, an anthology of essays entitled The Abolition of Work and Other Essays published by Loompanics Unlimited. It is an exposition of Black's "type 3 anarchism" – a blend of post-Situationist theory and individualist anarchism – focusing on a critique of the work ethic.
Adam Parfrey was an American journalist, editor, and the publisher of Feral House books, whose work in all three capacities frequently centered on unusual, extreme, or "forbidden" topics. A 2010 Seattle Weekly profile stated that "what Parfrey does is publish books that explore the marginal aspects of culture. And in many cases—at least back when his interests were almost exclusively transgressive—he sheds light on subjects that society prefers to leave unexplored, carving a niche catering to those of us with an unseemly obsession with life's darkest, most depraved sides."
Paladin Press was a book publishing firm founded in 1970 by Peder Lund and Robert K. Brown. The company published non-fiction books and videos covering a wide range of specialty topics, including personal and financial freedom, survivalism and preparedness, firearms and shooting, various martial arts and self-defense, military and police tactics, investigation techniques, spying, lockpicking, sabotage, revenge, knives and knife fighting, explosives, and other "action topics". Sometimes described as the "most dangerous publisher in the world", it was sued over several murders connected to one of its books, and ceased operations in January 2018.
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Hit Man: A Technical Manual for Independent Contractors is a book written under the pseudonym Rex Feral and published by Paladin Press in 1983. Paladin Press owner Peder Lund claimed, in an interview with 60 Minutes, that the book started life as a detailed crime novel written by a Florida housewife, and that the format was later changed to appeal to Paladin's reader base accustomed to the publisher's non-fiction books on military, survivalist, weapons and similar topics. The book portrays itself as a how-to manual on starting a career as a hit man, fulfilling contracts. However, after a number of lawsuits claiming that the book was used as a handbook in several murders, the publication of the book was stopped. It marked "the first time in American publishing history that a publisher has been held liable for a crime committed by a reader."
Laissez Faire Books (LFB) was a libertarian bookseller and publisher founded in 1972 by John Muller and Sharon Presley, and originally based in New York City. From 1982 to 2007, Laissez Faire Books operated as a division of the non-profit corporations Center for Independent Thought and Center for Libertarian Thought, both led by Andrea Millen Rich. Classic and contemporary works of libertarianism were published under the imprint Fox & Wilkes Books.
Warner Chappell Music, Inc. is an American music publishing company and a subsidiary of the Warner Music Group. Warner Chappell Music's catalog consists of over 1.4 million compositions and 150,000 composers, with offices in over 40 countries.
Ragnar Benson is the pen name of a prolific survivalist author who specializes in preparedness topics, particularly survival retreats, hunting, trapping, austere medicine, false identification, explosives, firearms, and improvised weapons.
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Marie Cosindas was an American photographer. She was best known for her evocative still lifes and color portraits. Her use of color photography in her work distinguished her from other photographers in the 1960s and 1970s. Most of her photographs were portraits and pictures of objects like dolls, flowers, and masks.
Dennis P. Eichhorn was an American writer, best known for his adult-oriented autobiographical comic book series Real Stuff. His stories, often involving, sex, drugs, and alcohol, have been compared to those of Jack Kerouac, Ken Kesey, and Charles Bukowski.
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How to Start Your Own Country is an American non-fiction book written by Erwin S. Strauss about micronationalism, particularly its application to libertarianism and individualism. Strauss, who holds libertarian views, believes in the abolition of the power of the state. In How to Start Your Own Country, Strauss introduces five approaches that micronations may take in an attempt to achieve statehood, and documents various micronations and their mostly unsuccessful attempts at seceding. The first book published about micronations, How to Start Your Own Country was published in 1979, with subsequent editions in 1984 by Loompanics and in 1999 by Paladin Press. The book was well-received by critics.