Path Press Archives

Organizational History

Path Press, one of the first black-owned publishing companies in the United States, was founded in Chicago in 1969 and remained in operation from 1969 to 1972 and then again from 1982 to 2001. In fact, the press had been in the works since as early as 1961, when Bennett J. Johnson (now the vice president of Third World Press) and Herman C. Gilbert (the late author of The Negotiations )—along with novelist Frank London Brown and journalist and later congressman Gus Savage—first began discussing the venture. A business prospectus was written as early as 1962, and the press was incorporated as early as 1963. However, several factors kept the press from getting off the ground: first, Frank London Brown died of leukemia in 1962; second, the remaining participants could not raise the capital that the press would require.

It was only in 1969, armed with an investment of $10,000, that Gilbert and Johnson were able to launch the press with two publications—the late Frank London Brown’s second and final novel, and Herman C. Gilbert’s first. The posthumous publication of Brown’s The Myth Maker on December 7, 1969, was marked by a public tribute held at the Parkway Ballroom in Bronzeville, where guests included such prominent members of the black community as Pulitzer Prize nominee John Oliver Killens and future mayor of Chicago Harold Washington. Jointly sponsored by Path Press and the Frank London Brown Historical Association, the tribute received substantial attention from Chicago’s black press. Nonetheless, despite the moderate success of Gilbert’s The Uncertain Sound , published later that month, the press folded in 1972 having published no further titles.

Ten years later, Johnson and Gilbert re-launched the press with Gilbert’s second novel, The Negotiations (1983). Unlike The Uncertain Sound , The Negotiations was a huge critical and commercial success for the press, selling 11,000 copies and helping them finance several further publications. In 1987 alone, they published five books, including American Diary , the autobiography of former Chicago Defender editor Enoch P. Waters and Mary Wilson’s To Benji, With Love . Written after the tragic death of a rising young basketball star, To Benji was another big release for the press; featuring a forward by Chicago’s Mayor Harold Washington, the book sold 4,000 copies in hardback and 9,000 in paperback.

Fueled by these successes, Path Press published several more books that year, including a collection of poems [ Up North Big City Street, 1987] by Herman Gilbert’s brother, Zack Gilbert, already a well-established poet; a novel by David Covin [ Brown Sky , 1987]; and a children’s book by Darlene Matthews Smith [ What Happens When Children Write , 1987]. Although Johnson and Gilbert had several other books in the works at this point, including Al Boswell’s Every Day in African-American History and Margaret Burroughs’s Best of the Best Poetry Anthology , they all fell through for one reason or another, and the press published nothing more until William Goodlett’s Congo Crew appeared in 1990, and Claudette Pinckney-Harris’s Monroe Pinckney, My Father was published in 1995. Business continued to slow after Gilbert’s death in 1997, and when Johnson officially closed the press in 2001 to join Haki Madhubuti at Third World Press, Path had published only 10 books over a period of 24 years.

However, by the 1990s, the press had begun to concentrate most of its efforts on other aspects of the black media. Armed with a screen treatment of The Negotiations , Johnson and Gilbert attempted several times to bring the book to the screen, first by founding a black film production company of their own, and later by selling the screen rights to Greenlight Films. While this plan never came to full fruition, plans to make black publications more widely available were more successful. By the mid-1980s Path Press had developed Pathways, which sought to bring black publishers into the mainstream by uniting their publications under the banner of a single annual catalog and book fair presence. Teaming up with the Chicago Public Library, Pathways also held annual black book bazaars in conjunction with African American History Month at the Woodson Regional Library. By 1988, Johnson and Gilbert had also launched the African-American Book Distributors, Inc., which served a similar purpose well into the mid-1990s. Thus, while Path Press may have put aside its own editorial interests in its latter years, it played a central role in making such interests not only possible but sustainable for other African American publishers.

Although Johnson and Gilbert founded and ran Path Press almost entirely on their own, several others played a notable part in its development—from Frank London Brown and Gus Savage, who helped originate the idea early on; to civil rights activist Brenetta Howell Barrett, who handled publicity during the press’ first years of operation; to poet Joe C. Brown, who did a little press work after Barrett left; and to poet Zack Gilbert, who offered his editing, illustration and layout services throughout the press’ run. Ultimately, despite its brief list of published titles, the press remains central to the early history of black publishing and entrepreneurship in Chicago.

Bibliography:

• Anderson, Monroe. “Dream Lives Despite Hard Times.” Chicago Tribune 10 Oct. 1984, LF6.
• “Black Business of the Day.” Chicago Daily Defender (Daily Edition) 2 Dec. 1969, 4.
• “Book Publishing Firm Wants to Hasten ‘Black Renaissance.’” Chicago Daily Defender (Daily Edition) 2 Dec 1969. 4.
• “Frank London Brown Tribute is Slated Here.” Chicago Daily Defender (Big Weekend Edition) 1 Nov. 1969. 4.
• “Herman Cromwell Gilbert, 1923-1997.” Contemporary Authors Online , Gale, 2006. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center . Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC
• “Johnson, Bennett J.” Who’s Who Among African-Americans , 19th ed. Ed. Kristen B. Mallegg. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2006.
• Joyce, Donald Franklin. “Path Press, Inc.” Black Book Publishers in the United States: A Historical Dictionary of the Presses, 1817-1990 . New York: Greenwood Press, 1991.
• Puente, Teresa. “Herman Gilbert, Writer, Political Aide.” Chicago Tribune 9 Mar. 1997, 6.

Scope and Content Note

When the Path Press Archives were first donated, they consisted of 41 archival boxes. These were followed by an accession of six archival boxes and 14 photographs, which were transferred to the collection from Bennett Johnson’s private papers. In turn, roughly two archival boxes from the original accession were identified as belonging to Johnson’s private papers and have been removed. In 2007, Bennett Johnson donated additional manuscripts, correspondence and photographs relating primarily to unpublished authors. These materials doubled the original size of the collection, but fit neatly into the original arrangement. They now occupy the bulk of Series 3 and part of Series 10.

In its current state, the collection consists of five major parts:

1. administrative materials, detailing the legal, financial and organizational activities of the press;
2. manuscripts, correspondence and other materials relating to authors whose work was published by the press;
3. manuscripts and correspondence relating to authors whose work was not published by the press;
4. documents relating to the general business activities of the press, including production, publicity, sales, distribution and events;
5. photographs, the most interesting of which document events held or attended by the press’ founders, Herman C. Gilbert and Bennett J. Johnson.

Other materials of note include extensive correspondence and materials relating to Herman C. Gilbert’s The Negotiations ; multiple manuscript versions of Mary Wilson’s bestselling To Benji, With Love ; and fragments of an early manuscript of Enoch Waters’ American Diary . In addition to a great deal of correspondence with these and other authors published by the press, the collection includes correspondence with Margaret Burroughs, Alice Browning and John Oliver Killens. It also includes the press’ MBE certification applications for several years, multiple business prospectuses, several cases of litigation and Better Business Bureau complaints filed against the press, a full record of the press’ attempts to produce black films, and detailed records from their years in black book distribution. The majority of these materials date from between 1982 and 1992, although there are also a number of documents from 1962 to 1972, and a few that date as late as 1998.

These materials have been rearranged into the following 10 series: Administrative, Published Authors, Unpublished Authors, Film Projects, Production, Publicity, Events, Sales and Distribution, Subject Research Files and Serials and Photographs and Memorabilia. Although we have respected the original order where one was clear and consistent, many of these series have been reorganized in the interest of researchers according to alphabetical or chronological arrangements, as indicated below. A small number of envelopes, documents and duplicate materials have been discarded.

Series 1: Administrative, 1962 – 1997

This series is of particular interest insofar as it offers insight into the legal, financial and managerial activities of the press, including its certification as a minority business and its relationship with its advisory board, its employees and the organizations with which it became involved. General correspondence has been filed chronologically, with the exception of individuals such as Margaret Burroughs and Roberta Ramzy (a member of the Path Advisory board and a frequent correspondent), both of whom have been given their own folder and have been filed alphabetically. Within the following arrangement, all legal and financial records have been filed chronologically, while employee records, resumes and organizations appear in alphabetical order:

• Business prospectuses and proposals
• Stock share certificates
• Articles of Inc. applications
• Business license applications
• MBE certification
• General correspondence
• Path Press Advisory Board materials
• Employee records
• Misc. resumes
• Legal documents
• Financial documents
• Organizations (with which Path Press was involved)

Series 2: Published Authors, 1969 – 1995

This series constitutes a little less than a quarter of the collection as a whole, and includes all materials relating to authors whose work was published by the press. While the collection does contain some material relating to the press’ early years, there are no manuscripts of The Myth Maker (1969) or the Uncertain Sound (1969). Instead, the bulk of the collection’s manuscript holdings are from 1982 to 1990, the primary and most productive years of the press’ operation. The collection includes manuscripts and/or galleys of all of the books published in this period with the exception of What Happens When Children Write (1987), of which there is only a fragment.

Most significant among these holdings is the sizable collection of manuscripts and materials relating to Herman Gilbert’s The Negotiations (1983), which enjoyed massive critical and popular acclaim and helped finance the rest of the press’ operations for several years. In addition to manuscript and galley versions of the book, the collection contains several folders of correspondence, some of Gilbert’s composition, lecture and interview notes, and a detailed record of his promotional appearances. In addition, the folder of individual sales and distribution agreements contained in this series, as well as the many book parties Path Press held for the book chronicled in Series 7, help demonstrate the creative ways that Path Press made use of the local community to market Gilbert’s book. This series also contains brief notes for an unpublished memoir by Gilbert, titled This Needs Saying after the column that he wrote for Chicago’s Westside Booster from 1959-60. There is also a full manuscript of Lenwood Robinson’s screen adaptation of The Negotiations , written in 1983.

Also of interest are the many manuscript versions of Mary Wilson’s To Benji, With Love (1987), which beautifully document her writing process and Path’s editorial suggestions; the book was also the subject of some interesting litigation between Wilson and Path Press. Enoch Waters’ American Diary (1987) was also a significant publication for the press; unfortunately, while it is known that Waters’ original manuscript was much longer than the published version, only a fragment of his original manuscript remains in this collection. Finally, in addition to several manuscript versions of David Covin’s novel, Brown Sky (1988), there are also multiple drafts of an unpublished novel by Covin, entitled Wimbey’s Corner (undated).

In reorganizing the collection, we have chosen to file all sales and distribution materials in a series separate from the published manuscripts. Production materials of real interest (including liner notes, page layouts, etc.) we have kept with the books, whereas more general correspondence with production houses has been filed separately. Likewise, correspondence and publicity pertaining to a single book has been filed with that book, whereas more general correspondence and publicity (i.e. regarding the press itself) has been filed separately. The remaining materials have been filed according to the following arrangement:

• Alphabetical by author
  • Alphabetical by title (published)
    • Correspondence
    • Contracts
    • Production
    • Publicity
    • Litigation (if any)
    • Manuscripts
    • Galleys
  • Alphabetical by title (unpublished)

Series 3: Unpublished Authors, 1969 – 1995

This material, constituting one half of the collection as a whole, is also arranged alphabetically by author. Here, one folder is devoted to each potential author for whom the collection possesses a manuscript, a manuscript fragment and/or any significant correspondence. We have also provided individual folders for each author whose work was seriously considered by the press for publication, such as Al Boswell, John Oliver Killens and Ellis Cose. All of the remaining submission and rejection letters have been filed in miscellaneous folders by the first letter of the author’s name. In addition to the folders of James Garside and Albert Sewell—both of whom submitted complaints to the Better Business Bureau (claiming that Path Press was negligent in its duties regarding reading and returning unsolicited manuscripts)—the following folders contain items of particular interest:

• Browning, Alice: Herman C. Gilbert first contacted Alice Browning (publisher of the World War II-era magazine Negro Story ) about publishing her own work in 1970. While they never succeeded in publishing anything together, they did maintain a long correspondence. During this time, Browning made many suggestions for original and reprinted publications; they also discussed the International Black Writers Conference, of which she was founder and director and they were regular participants. By coincidence, Gilbert’s first poem appeared in Negro Story in April/May 1946.
• Boswell, Al: Every Day in African-American History came very close to being published by the press (and is even erroneously listed by OCLC as having been published by the press). In fact, however, Boswell died in a tragic car accident just before the book was to be released, and the book was canceled at the last minute. The collection contains two manuscripts and one galley version of the book.
• Brutus, Dennis: A South African poet and activist, Brutus spent 18 months on Robben Island as a political prisoner before fleeing South Africa for the United States and taking a professorship at Northwestern University. “Rains of Hate,” which was submitted to Path Press as part of a manuscript seriously considered for publication, was later published as “For a Dead African” in A Simple Lust (London: Heinemann, 1973). The version of the poem featured here is, with the exception of two line breaks, identical to the published version.
• Clay, Nathaniel: News editor for the Chicago Metro News and former columnist and editor for the Chicago Daily Defender , Nathaniel Clay was contracted by Path Press to write a biography Harold Washington entitled Washington of Chicago . The first six chapters of the manuscript are here, but the book was never completed.
• Cose, Ellis N.: Cose is a longstanding columnist and correspondent for the Chicago Sun-Times , a contributing editor to Newsweek and New York Daily News and the bestselling author of A Nation of Strangers (1992), Color-Blind (1997), The Rage of a Privileged Class (1994), The Envy of the World (2002) and Bone to Pick (2004). Path Press had gone so far as to draw up contracts for Cose’s Essence of Blue before the book fell through in 1970. Had it been published, it would have been Cose’s very first book. The book remains unpublished, however, and the manuscript is contained here in full.
• Fair, Ronald: A lesser-known writer of the Black Arts Movement, Fair published several novels, including Many Thousand Gone (1965); Hog Butcher (1966), which was made into a film starring Laurence Fishburne; World of Nothing (1970) and We Can’t Breathe (1972). He has also published two books of poetry, including Excerpts (1975), published by Heritage Press. Fair began work on The Migrants in 1975, after winning a Guggenheim fellowship, but the novel was rejected by several publishers, including Path Press, and remains unpublished today. The collection contains this manuscript in full.
• Killens, John Oliver: Killens is the acclaimed author of several novels, including Youngblood (1954), And Then We Heard the Thunder (1962), Sippi (1967) and One Good Bull is Half the Herd (1971)—two of which earned Pulitzer Prize nominations. Killens was close to Bennett Johnson and Herman Gilbert; he spoke at their Frank London Brown tribute upon the publication of Myth Maker and corresponded with them about various aspects of their business (including international sales and their proposed MLK anthology). In 1982-83, Path was keen to publish Killens’ latest novel, The Great Black Russian , but the arrangement fell through due to disagreements over the contract. The book was eventually published in 1989 by Wayne State University instead. Correspondence only.
• Himaya, Tafadhali H.: The collection contains a huge number of pre-publication orders and a near complete manuscript of this polemical book on American race relations that Path Press ultimately never published.
• Powell, Adam Clayton: Elected New York’s first black congressman in 1944, Powell penned and published The Marching Blacks: An Interpretive History of the Rise of the Black Common Man with Dial Press in 1945. Path Press enquired about reprinting the book in 1969, but Dial Press retained the rights and reprinted the book after Powell’s death in 1973.
• Smith, Ald. Edward H.: A Chicago alderman since 1983, Ed H. Smith has recently published two novels, Love the Town Couldn’t Stop (1996) and Almost Too Late (2002). Path Press considered but turned down an earlier manuscript, It Ain’t Mr. Charley’s in 1991-92; the collection holds this manuscript in full.
• Best of the Best poetry anthology: Margaret Burroughs, founder of the DuSable Museum of African American Art in Chicago, was an early supporter of Path Press (see General Correspondence: Burroughs in Series 1) and was commissioned to edit an anthology of black poetry for the press in 1982. Although she gathered a great deal of material over several years (all of which is retained here), she never completed the manuscript and the project was abandoned. These folders include general correspondence, a complete mailing list of possible contributors, and submissions and related correspondence filed by contributor. The collection contains numerous unpublished poems by little-known poets, but most of the poems submitted by well-known poets have been published elsewhere. However, Amiri Baraka, Nikki Giovanni, Useni Eugene Perkins, Sterling Plumpp, Dudley Randall, Eugene Redmond and Elma Stuckey all submitted explanations of varying lengths for how and why they chose their “best” poems. Stuckey also submitted three unpublished poems, entitled “Universal,” “These Old Feet” and “Humanity.” Frank Marshall Davis’ file also contains a personal letter from him to his old friend Margaret Burroughs.
• MLK, Jr.—An Assessment: Marking the first anniversary of Dr. King’s assassination, Gilbert and Johnson planned to release an anthology of essays by King’s contemporaries that they hoped would be the first book to assess the man’s life and work. Among those they invited to contribute to the volume were Dr. John Hope Franklin, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Dr. Charles V. Hamilton, Harold Washington, Floyd McKissick, Charles Hayes, Sterling Stuckey and Diane Nash. Although they received a positive response from many of the people they contacted to write articles, the book was never published and no manuscript remains.

Series 4: Film Projects, 1983 – 1993

These files chronicle Path Press’ increasing efforts to enter into the business of black film production. After an initial period of investigation, Johnson and Gilbert entered into negotiations with a company called Greenlight Films for the film rights to The Negotiations . Although the project was eventually abandoned, this series contains extensive correspondence, contracts and other material, including a brief screen treatment of The Negotiations . A complete screenplay of The Negotiations by Lenwood Robinson can be found in Box 13.

Series 5: Production, 1962 – 1996

While the bulk of this material was originally mixed together in no particular order, several folders were grouped by production house, and we have chosen to follow this arrangement throughout. Correspondence and invoices are thus arranged alphabetically by name of the production business and chronologically within. Any material relating to one specific book has been removed and re-filed with that book in the manuscript series. See Cueno Press and Fairfield Graphics for details regarding litigation filed against Path Press.

Series 6: Publicity, 1969 – 1993

As with production materials, all publicity materials relating to a particular book have been removed and filed with that book. In the cases where a particular review referred to two or more books, we have made multiple copies and filed a copy of the review with each book. The remaining publicity materials are more general, referring to Path Press itself rather than particular titles. These materials, though originally largely mixed together, have been divided into the following subsections and arranged chronologically within each subsection:

• General press releases
• Correspondence with TV advertisers
• Correspondence with book listing agencies and advertisers
• Correspondence with black studies directors
• Correspondence with book award organizations
• Correspondence with book reviewers
• Clippings regarding Path Press
• Directories
• Mailing lists (of various kinds)

Series 7: Events, 1970 – 1998

The original arrangement of these files was clear and relatively consistent, and has been for the most part retained. Ranging from publicity and sales events for particular books, to trade and writers conferences in which Path participated, to black book fairs that Path organized, these files reflect Path’s changing engagement with the world of black publishing. They have been arranged in the following roughly chronological subsections, which are then arranged chronologically within each subsection:

• Book parties
• Conferences
• Book expos at the Chicago Public Library

Series 8: Sales and Distribution, 1969 – 1997

Arranged as a single series, because so many of these materials ultimately concern both sales and distribution, the first half of this series is nevertheless oriented primarily toward sales while the latter half is oriented primarily toward distribution. For the sales portion of the series, we have retained Path Press’ original arrangement in full, to better reflect its own business practice:

• Individual book and catalog orders (arranged chronologically)
• Sales arranged by individual account (arranged alphabetically)
• Paid/unpaid sales arranged by individual accounts (arranged alphabetically)
• Accounts receivable (arranged alphabetically)
• Monthly sales (arranged chronologically)

The distribution portion of the series ranges from the distribution of Path Press books to Path’s distribution of other individual titles to its distribution of books released by other black publishers. Pathways and AABDI are distribution companies that Path spearheaded and devoted increasing attention to after it had for the most part stopped publishing books of its own. As with the production files, we decided to arrange the following materials by distributor, because some (though not all) were already so arranged:

• Translation and international sales (arranged chronologically)
• Individual distributors (arranged alphabetically)
• Clients: individual authors followed by publishers that Path distributed (arranged alphabetically)
• Pathways material (arranged chronologically)
• AABDI material (arranged chronologically)

See Chicago Review Press/IPG for details regarding litigation filed against Path Press.

Series 9: Subject Research Files and Serials, 1968 – 1993

The subject research files in this collection are small and relatively random. Of most interest are the files on African American film, black studies programs and literary issues, all of which constitute areas of business that the press directly pursued. These files have been arranged alphabetically by topic. The serials, several of which contain some reference to the press, have been arranged alphabetically by title.

Series 10: Photographs and Memorabilia, 1969 – 1987

This series contains 150 photographs, many of which were taken of the press’ founders at various conferences and events. There are also a number of photographs featuring Harold Washington, John Oliver Killens, Gus Savage, Margaret Burroughs, Zack Gilbert and Haki Madhubuti, among others. In relation to the press’ publications, there are many nearly identical publicity photographs of William Goodlett ( Congo Crew ), a full set of the photographs that were published in Mary Wilson’s To Benji, With Love , and portraits of many of the contributors to Best of the Best , including Margaret Danner, Frank Marshall Davis and Dudley Randall. The series also includes a UNIA Marcus M. Garvey Centennial Committee button; its provenance is unknown.

Addendum

A box of 11 additional photographs from the Path Press Archives was received in 2012. They have been added to the end of this collection, after Memorabilia. Researchers should see Box 90, Photographs 152-162.

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