''The Digger Papers'' was a free collective publication of the

Diggers The Diggers were a group of religious and political dissidents in England, associated with a political ideology and programme resembling what would later be called agrarian socialism.; ; ; Gerrard Winstanley and William Everard (Digger), Will ...

, one of the 1960s

improvisational theatre Improvisational theatre, often called improvisation or improv or impro in British English, is the form of theatre, often comedy, in which most or all of what is performed is unplanned or unscripted, created spontaneously by the performers. In its ...

groups in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

Haight-Ashbury Haight-Ashbury () is a district of San Francisco, California, named for the intersection of Haight and Ashbury streets. It is also called the Haight and the Upper Haight. The neighborhood is known as one of the main centers of the countercultu ...

district. The magazine was first published in Fall 1965.

Peter Berg Peter Berg (born March 11, 1964) is an American director, producer, writer, and actor. His directorial film works include the black comedy '' Very Bad Things'' (1998), the action comedy '' The Rundown'' (2003), the sports drama '' Friday Night ...

was one of the regular contributors to the publication. One of the first Digger activities was the publishing of various broadsides, which were printed by sneaking into the local

Students for a Democratic Society Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was a national student activist organization in the United States during the 1960s and was one of the principal representations of the New Left. Disdaining permanent leaders, hierarchical relationships a ...

office and using their

Gestetner The Gestetner is a type of duplicating machine named after its inventor, David Gestetner (1854–1939). During the 20th century, the term ''Gestetner'' was used as a verb—as in ''Gestetnering''. The Gestetner company established its base in Lo ...

printer. The leaflets were eventually called ''The Digger Papers'', and soon morphed into small pamphlets with poetry,

psychedelic art Psychedelic art (also known as psychedelia) is art, graphics or visual displays related to or inspired by psychedelic experiences and hallucinations known to follow the ingestion of psychedelic drugs such as lysergic acid diethylamide, LSD, psil ...

, and essays. They often included statements that mocked the prevailing attitude of the

counterculture A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Ho ...

promoted by less radical figures like the Haight-Independent Proprietors (HIP),

Timothy Leary Timothy Francis Leary (October 22, 1920 – May 31, 1996) was an American psychologist and author known for his strong advocacy of psychedelic drugs. Evaluations of Leary are polarized, ranging from "bold oracle" to "publicity hound". Accordin ...

, and

Richard Alpert Ram Dass (born Richard Alpert; April 6, 1931 – December 22, 2019), also known as Baba Ram Dass, was an American spiritual teacher, guru of modern yoga, psychologist, and writer. His best-selling 1971 book '' Be Here Now'', which has been d ...

. The first paper mocked the

acid An acid is a molecule or ion capable of either donating a proton (i.e. Hydron, hydrogen cation, H+), known as a Brønsted–Lowry acid–base theory, Brønsted–Lowry acid, or forming a covalent bond with an electron pair, known as a Lewis ...

community, saying, "Time to forget because flowers are beautiful and the sun's not yellow, it's chicken!" ''The Digger Papers'' originated such phrases as "Do your own thing" and "Today is the first day of the rest of your life." Articles rarely included authors' names, though some had pseudonyms like "George Metevsky," a reference to the "Mad Bomber"

George Metesky George Peter Metesky (November 2, 1903 – May 23, 1994), better known as the Mad Bomber, was an American electrician and mechanic who terrorized New York City for 16 years in the 1940s and 1950s with explosives that he planted in theaters, ter ...

. In the early part of 1967, writers

Chester Anderson Chester Valentine John Anderson (August 11, 1932 – April 11, 1991) was an American novelist, poet, and editor in the underground press. Biography Raised in Florida, he attended the University of Miami from 1952 to 1956, before becoming a ...

and Claude & Helene Hayward helped form the Communications Company (ComCo), the publishing arm of the Diggers. Using two "

mimeograph A mimeograph machine (often abbreviated to mimeo, sometimes called a stencil duplicator or stencil machine) is a low-cost duplicating machine that works by forcing ink through a stencil onto paper. The process is called mimeography, and a co ...

machines that had been nefariously obtained through the offices of '' Ramparts'' magazine," ComCo took over publication of ''The Digger Papers''. The last issue of ''The Digger Papers'', published in August 1968, featured a reprint of

Richard Brautigan Richard Gary Brautigan (January 30, 1935) was an American novelist, poet, and short story writer. He wrote throughout his life and published ten novels, two collections of short stories, and four books of poetry. Brautigan's work has been publi ...

's poem, " All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace."

References

External links

''The Digger Papers'' archive
1965 establishments in California 1968 disestablishments in California Entertainment magazines published in the United States Free magazines Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco Magazines established in 1965 Magazines disestablished in 1968 Defunct magazines published in San Francisco Defunct theatre magazines Defunct visual arts magazines published in the United States Theatre magazines published in the United States {{entertainment-mag-stub