**** "Aspect magazine (1969-1980) was the creation of Edward J. Hogan,
of Somerville, Massachusetts. Hogan was a history major at Northeastern
University in March of 1969 when he launched a magazine featuring social
and political commentary by a small group of university students. Hogan
subsequently expanded that magazine to include poetry, fiction, graphic
design, and literary news and reviews. Aspect published many writers, poets, and artists that represented the “Boston Scene” of the late 1960s and 1970s." ( Keene State College Archive)
Somerville is a city
of many dimensions. It is an eclectic urban soup of professionals,
newly arrived immigrants, artists, students, dreamers, drifters, all
living in close and hopefully comfortable proximity. What may not be
immediate apparent is that it is and has been a city of small presses
and little magazines. Offhand I could think of the Boston Literary
Review, Dark Horse, Small Moon, Yellow Moon Press, Davis 2 Porter,
Ibbetson Street, Abyss and a host of others. Of all these presses,
some would argue that ASPECT MAGAZINE and ZEPHYR PRESS founded by
Somerville's late Ed Hogan are the most notable.
June
Gross, who was Hogan's wife and former editor of Somerville's Dark
Horse Magazine told me over tea in her home outside of Union Square,
Somerville that there was not much of a literary "scene" in
Boston in the 70's, when Aspect was around. There was some activity
in Harvard Square, and a fair number of transient small magazines
that appeared and vanished into the ether. Reflecting on the
Cambridge and Somerville literary milieu, Gross recalled:"
People from Cambridge always said, ' Oh, I always get lost in
Somerville.' People from Cambridge never came to Somerville. It was a
blank space. Somerville was a blank space."
If what Gross said
was true then Hogan certainly filled the void with his prolific
output of magazines and books over the years. Hogan, who died at the
age of 47 in 1997 in a canoe accident, ran Aspect from 1969 to 1980,
and in this time published many writers who are well- known today.
Looking at a back issue from 1977 the roster of poets was quite
impressive. Respected bards such as: Robin Becker, Bill Costley, Anna
Warrock, Joyce Peseroff, Fred Marchant, all graced the pages of this
single issue.
Ed Hogan grew up in
Ball Square Somerville. He wrote in the ASPECT ANTHOLOGY ISSUE that
he saw his first "little
magazine" at age 12. Hogan was from a working class background
and had an average public school education. Later he entered the
History program at Northeastern University.While there he was
inspired by a Bible scholar to pursue writing. Soon after ASPECT was
founded in March of 1969. The early issues were simply typed and
mimeographed sheets with articles on everything from Edmund Burke to
Rock-n-Roll. Aspect was creature of its time , and the writers often
dealt with issue like Vietnam, Watergate and the Cold War.
In
1971 Aspect took a turn to the literary. Aspect's first directory
listing for writers was in Trace magazine. Later they were listed in
Len Fulton's Int. Directory of Small Presses. As a result Hogan was
flooded with poetry submissions. And true to Somerville's scrappy
outsider image, Aspect did not pander to the mandarins and the
academics. Hogan wrote: "We went about editing without undue
notice to academic standards or established reputations . Our
contributor's notes showed fewer writer's involved in writing
programs or English Department Careers. I like to think we were more
open than most to varied sensibilities. As we gained confidence and
sophistication we maintained a central concern for accessibility,
directness, lack of pretension, and a belief that these values are
not antipathetic to literary excellence."
Over
the years Aspect produced a Double Fiction Issue that was
supplemented by extensive reviews, and a bibliography of small press
published fiction. The Third Boston Poets issue included an interview
with Phil Zuckerman of Apple-Wood Books, one of Boston's most
successful literary small presses.
As
any small press publisher knows, it is necessary to have a cadre of
loyal, often volunteer staffers to put out a magazine. Aspect had it.
Whether on Robinson St., School St., or Ibbetson St, in Somerville, a
collective of artists, and writers put out this innovative magazine.
One of the staffers Susan Lloyd McGarry wrote: " .editing a
magazine collectively, as we do at Aspect, can be wearisome and
trying to the temper. But the magazine gains immeasurably from the
strength and energy of individuals who have an investment in all (of
its) facets.without the others, that pleasure would not exist."
Around
1980 due to the amount of work that it required to run a small
magazine and other personal problems, Hogan ended the enterprise. In
its place Hogan, along with Miriam Sagan, Ronna Johnson and Leora
Zeitlin, established a small press imprint
ZEPHYR PRESS. Zephyr published primarily poetry chaps, literary
fiction, and some non-fiction titles. Some of the releases were: AN
EXPLORER'S GUIDE TO RUSSIA, and FROM THREE WORLDS: NEW UKRAINIAN
WRITING. Hogan's crowning achievement was the COMPLETE POEMS OF ANNA
AKHMTAOVA, (a famous Russian poetess of the 20th century), as
translated by Judith Hemschmeyer. This collection was critically
acclaimed by the New York Times Book Review, as one of the best books
of 1990.
Len Fulton,
publisher of the International Dict. of Small Presses wrote: "
It is the Ed Hogans of the world that make it a better place, and
it's the Ed Hogans of the small presses who have kept the movement
honest and pointed in the right direction." And indeed Hogan was
a dedicated man. Hogan embodied the feisty spirit of Somerville. He
was an independent publisher from the wrong side of the tracks, who
weathered many a storm and made his press work. His stepdaughter
Viesia, recalled him hunched over a desk with an exacto knife for
days on end, making sure things were just perfect. I think that's the
way Hogan might have wanted to be remembered.
--Doug Holder *** This article was used in a course on the small press at Keene State College New Hampshire.
