Loompanics

{{Infobox company

| name = Loompanics Enterprises, Inc.
(d.b.a Loompanics Unlimited)

| logo = File:Loompanics Logo.png

| type = Private

| industry = Publishing, Catalog book sales

| foundation = 1975

| defunct = {{End date|2006|05|08}}

| hq_location = Port Townsend, Washington

| products = Books

| revenue =

| key_people = Michael Hoy, President, Book editor
Lou Rollins, Proof reader
Gia Cosindas, Publicist

| num_employees =

| net_income =

| operating_income =

}}

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.{{cite news |first=Robin |last=Clarke |url=http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1993-08-27-9308270118-story.html |title=Anarchy Reigns at Loompanics |work=Chicago Times |date=27 August 1993 |access-date=26 March 2021}}{{cite news |first=Sonni |last=Efron |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-01-05-fi-2525-story.html |title=Manuals Fit for Mayhem--by Mail |work=Los Angeles Times |date=5 January 1992 |access-date=26 March 2021}}{{cite news |author=Associated Press |url=https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=19910908&slug=1304340 |title=Publisher Profits From Horrifying And Bizarre |work=The Seattle Times |date=8 September 1991 |access-date=26 March 2021}} Many of their titles describe some kind of illicit or extralegal actions, such as Counterfeit I.D. Made Easy{{cite book |last1=Luger |first1=Jack |title=Counterfeit I.D. Made Easy |date=1990 |publisher=Loompanics Unlimited |isbn=0915179903 |pages=137}} 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).{{cite news |last=Brand |first=Stewart |title=Do your own muckraking |work=Albuquerque Journal |date=24 September 1985 |page=51}}{{cite web |last=Frauenfelder |first=Mark |url=http://www.streettech.com/bcp/BCPgraf/StreetTech/loompanics.htm |title=Loompanics |website=Street Tech: Gareth Branwyn & Peter Sugarman's Tech Review Site |access-date=26 March 2021}}

Company history

Loompanics was in business for nearly 30 years. Its publisher and editor was Michael "Mike" Hoy{{cite magazine |last=Badenhausen |first=Kurt |date=8 February 1999 |url=https://www.forbes.com/global/1999/0208/0203028a.html |title=Crime 101 |magazine=Forbes |access-date=26 March 2021 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20001216104800/https://www.forbes.com/global/1999/0208/0203028a.html |archive-date=16 December 2000}} who started Loompanics Unlimited in East Lansing, Michigan, in 1975.{{Cite magazine |url=https://www.wired.com/1997/08/covert-catalog/ |title=Covert Catalog |date=August 1997 |first=Simson |last=Garfinkel |magazine=Wired |volume=5 |issue=8 |access-date=2016-03-17}} In 1982 he moved the business to Port Townsend, Washington, where his friend and fellow publisher R. W. Bradford had earlier relocated.{{cite news |first=Kasia |last=Pierzga |title=Alternative publisher calls it quits |work=Port Townsend Leader |date=25 January 2006}}

In January 2006, Loompanics announced that it was going out of business,{{cite web |last=Riismandel |first=Paul |date=January 24, 2006 |url=https://mediageek.net/2006/01/one-the-uss-greatest-publishers-going-out-of-business/ |title=One the US's Greatest Publishers Going Out of Business |website=mediageek.net |publisher=Author |access-date=26 March 2012}} 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.[http://www.paladin-press.com/faqs Paladin Press FAQ]

Market position

File:LoompanicsHQ.jpg, Washington]]

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{{cite magazine |url=http://www.loompanics.com/Articles/whycorporations.html |title=Why corporations are not people, and the unsavory consequences of pretending that they are: A challenge to 'libertarians' |first=Mike |last=Hoy |date=Spring 2005 |magazine=Loompanics Supplement |location=Port Townsend, WA |publisher=Loompanics Unlimited |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070626045114/http://www.loompanics.com/Articles/whycorporations.html |archive-date=2007-06-26}} 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, corporations have more rights than individuals. He also criticized libertarians for brainwashing themselves, stating:

{{blockquote |text="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.{{cite magazine |first=Scott |last=Kauzlarich |date=May 10, 2005 |url=http://rationalargumentator.com/issue35/loompanics.html |title=A libertarian response to Loompanics Unlimited |magazine=The Rational Argumentator: A Journal for Western Man |volume=35 |access-date=26 March 2021}}

Loompanics' FAQ stated that the company's name is a play on words inspired by Hoy's fondness for National Lampoon.{{cite web |date=2016-02-02 |url=https://makinguse.artmuseum.pl/en/loompanics-unlimited/ |title=Loompanics Unlimited |website=Making Use: Life in Postartistic Times |publisher=Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw |access-date=26 March 2021}} [https://makinguse.artmuseum.pl/en/o-wystawie/ Credits]

Advertising rejections

File:Our men want books.jpg

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.{{r|Cosindas 2005}} 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.'"{{cite magazine |url=http://www.loompanics.com/Articles/CovertCensorship.html |title=Covert Censorship on the Web |first=Gia |last=Cosindas |date=Spring 2005 |magazine=Loompanics Supplement |location=Port Townsend, WA |publisher=Loompanics Unlimited |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070423085518/http://www.loompanics.com/Articles/CovertCensorship.html |archive-date=2007-04-23}}

Legacy and aftermath

On May 8, 2006, Loompanics stopped accepting retail orders.{{cite web |last=Wolfe |first=Claire |date=18 January 2006 |title=Thinking about Loompanics going out of business |website=ClaireWolfe.com |publisher=Author |url=http://clairewolfe.com/wolfesblog/00001917.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060204085322/http://clairewolfe.com/wolfesblog/00001917.html |archive-date=4 February 2006}} 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,{{cite web |url=https://www.lastearthdistro.net/products/category/188/~/~/Loompanicsbr |title=Loompanics |website=lastearthdistro.net |access-date=26 March 2021 |url-status=dead |archive-date=1 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201001235254/https://www.lastearthdistro.net/products/category/188/~/~/Loompanicsbr }} Last Word Books & Press,{{cite web |url=https://www.lastwordbooks.org/quicksearch/all/loompanics |title=Loompanics |website=lastwordbooks.org |access-date=26 March 2021 }}{{dead link|date=September 2023}} 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.{{cite web |author=Loompanics Staff |title=Loompanics Unlimited is closed |publisher=Loompanics Unlimited |url=http://www.loompanics.com/34.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061021044506/http://www.loompanics.com/34.html |archive-date=2006-10-21}}

Publications

[https://archive.org/download/LoompanicsGoldenRecords/Golden_Records.pdf Loompanics' Golden Records: Articles & Features from the Best Book Catalog in the World!] (1993).
Republished by Microcosm Publishing.
[https://archive.org/download/Loompanics_Catalog_2003/Loompanics-Catalog-2003.pdf Loompanics Unlimited Catalog] (2003).

References

External links

[https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/8244.Loompanics_Unlimited An incomplete list of books published by Loompanics Unlimited] at Goodreads
[http://stauntonmedialab.com/video-profiles-h/147-michael-hoy AuthorViews video interview with founder Michael Hoy] at Staunton Media Lab

Category:Publishing companies established in 1975

Category:Defunct book publishing companies of the United States

Category:Defunct companies based in Washington (state)

Category:Companies disestablished in 2006

Category:Companies based in Port Townsend, Washington