Sam Amico

Samuel and Sims Amico founded Middle Earth Books in Philadelphia in 1969. Middle Earth, both a publisher and bookstore, hosted poetry readings, put out magazines such as Lip and Contact, and published work by writers such as Patti Smith and Tom Pickard. Describing its purpose, Sam Amico states: “In a blind act of love, hoping to reconcile private and public life, Middle Earth Books was born in a basement bookshop in 1969. Ideas surfaced, concepts equidistant from Tolkien and the Whole Earth Catalog. From an underground philosophical position, ‘guerrilla warfare’ could be waged on the dominant media culture. Somewhere behind the scenes was the motivation to bring visual and conceptual information together. Eclecticism/juxtaposition/’pataphysics.” Amico also published a book, Six Tales Being of The Book of Lies and Wisdom, under the pen name Sarant Pansamurs in 1982.