The Baffler Joins the MIT Press

We have big news: This afternoon, we signed a five-year, fifteen-issue publishing contract with the MIT Press.

We’re very excited that a new Baffler is now guaranteed to come out three times a year for the foreseeable fututre. We know you are, too.

The next issue is due in March. It will feature new writing from Baffler editors Thomas Frank and Chris Lehmann, as well as essays from Barbara Ehrenreich, David Graeber, Aaron Swartz, and fiction from Russian writer Ludmilla Petrushevskaya.  The second and third issues, to be released in both print and digital editions, will appear in June and October.

There’s an article about the deal in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Read it here.

Read the MIT Press announcement here.
Subscribe to The Baffler here. (Current subscribers: Thanks for waiting. MIT Press will be in touch soon.)

The Baffler Returns

Dear Reader,

Welcome to the Internet home of The Baffler. Launching this temporary website marks one, admittedly small step toward our revival. What will you find here? Hors d’oeuvres, for the most part.

• A complete run of Baffler covers, from numbers one to 18
• Links to a few articles and squibs about the revival
• News of some events we are co-sponsoring in October
• Some frequently asked questions
• And a newsletter sign-up button (you’ll find it at the top of the right sidebar).

Stay focused now! Soon, the sidewalks will be blanketed with mimeographed facsimiles of new Baffler reportage and criticism. Until then, all we have is this temporary site. In the next few months we’ll add:

• A gauzy letter of introduction from new editor John Summers
• Self-regarding biographies of the new editorial staff
• A potted history of The Baffler, complete with rare images from the archives
• News of Baffler founder Thomas Frank’s forthcoming book
• ... and so much more, including some content!

We’re sorry we went away. But we’ll try not to hurt you again.

October Events for Masscult and Midcult: Essays Against the American Grain by Dwight Macdonald

Please join us for the following events celebrating the publication of Masscult and Midcult: Essays Against the American Grain by Dwight Macdonald. Edited by John Summers.

These events are co-sponsored by The Baffler and New York Review Books.

• • •

October 12, 2011, 7PM
McNally Jackson Books
52 Prince Street
NYC
With James Wolcott and John Summers.
For more information, call (212) 274-1160
Or visit mcnallyjackson.com

• • •

October 14, 2011, 7PM
The STOP SMILING Storefront
1371 N. Milwaukee Avenue
Chicago, IL
With J.C. Gabel and John Summers.
For more information, call (773) 342-1124
Or visit stopsmilingonline.com

• • •

October 20, 2011, 7PM
Harvard Book Store
1256 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
With Louis Menand and John Summers.
For more information, call (617) 661-1515
Or visit harvard.com

• • •

October 22, 2011, 6PM
Politics and Prose Bookstore
5015 Connecticut Avenue
Washington, DC 20008
With Andrew Ferguson, Franklin Foer, and John Summers.
For more information, call (202) 364-1919
Or visit politics-prose.com

All 18 Baffler Covers

Number 1: The first Baffler, produced in Charlottesville, Virginia during the summer of 1998. A line from Arthur Rimbaud’s Illuminations serves as the epigraph: “Ce poison va rester dans toutes nos veines même quant, la fanfare tournant, nous serons rendu à l’ancienne inharmonie.” At 48 pages, it sold for $2.

• • •

Number 2 (Suburbia): Produced at the University of Chicago, the editorial statement for number 2 tilted against slick postmodern advertisements. “In 1990 ‘avant-garde’ means something closer to being the first on the block to wear a Batman T-shirt than it does to inventing a truly meaningful, penetrating representational (or abstract) technique.” Published two years after number one, in the summer of 1990, it totaled 48 pages and sold for $3.

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