Avatar (newspaper)

Avatar
Cover of the first issue of Avatar (1967)
Type Biweekly underground newspaper
Format newspaper
Publisher Trust Incorporated
Editor Brian Keating (issues 6 to 21)
Founded June 9, 1967
Language English
Ceased publication April 26, 1968
Headquarters Boston, Massachusetts

Avatar was an American underground newspaper published in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1967-1968. The newspaper's first issues were published from the headquarters of Broadside magazine in Cambridge.[1]

Publication history

Avatar was started by a varied group of people from different parts of the Boston countercultural scene, but quickly came to be dominated by the Fort Hill Community, led by Mel Lyman, a charismatic banjo and harmonica-playing folk musician who had, over some years in Boston and Cambridge, become the center of a group called the Lyman Family.[2]

Over time, disputes between the Fort Hill Community and other factions involved in putting out the paper led to an irreconcilable split, which ended that cycle of the paper.[3]

A total of 24 issues were printed bi-weekly from June 9, 1967, through April 26, 1968.[4] Toward the end of its run, six issues (nos. 18-23) were published in large-size broadsheet newspaper format, with a tabloid size magazine insert. A 25th issue, dated May 9, 1968, was assembled and printed by the non-Fort Hill faction, but all but 500 copies of the 35,000-copy press run were sequestered and disposed of by the Fort Hill faction.[3]

Spin-offs

There were three short-lived spinoffs of Avatar:

  • New York Avatar (7 issues, March 29 – August 1968) — edited by Brian Keating out of a SoHo loft and featuring contributions by Paul Williams and Peter Stafford of Crawdaddy magazine and underground cartoonist The Mad Peck. Print run of 7,500.
  • Boston Avatar a.k.a. Avatar Vol. II (6 issues, July – August 1968) — edited by Dave Wilson of Broadside magazine who had also edited editions 1 to 5 of Avatar
  • American Avatar (4 issues, October 1968 – Summer 1969) - published by the Fort Hill faction

References

  1. ↑ "Incident in Harvard Square". Boston Magazine. January 1968. Archived from the original on 2011-07-11. Retrieved 2009-07-25.
  2. ↑ Vrabel, Jim (2004). When in Boston. Bostonian Society. p. 415. Retrieved 2009-07-25.
  3. 1 2 David Felton, "The Lyman Family's Holy Siege of America". Originally appeared in Rolling Stone 98, Dec. 23, 1971, pp. 40-60, and Rolling Stone 99, Jan. 6, 1972, pp. 40-60. Reprinted in Mindfuckers: A Source Book on the Rise of Acid Fascism in America, David Felton, ed. (San Francisco: Straight Arrow, 1972) and reprinted in its entirety in Steve Trussel's Mel Lyman archive.
  4. ↑ McCleary, John Bassett. Hippie Dictionary. Ten Speed Press. p. 676. ISBN 978-1-58008-547-2. Retrieved 2009-07-25.
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