Undercurrents, ‘The magazine of radical science and alternative technology’, started in 1972 and ran until 1984, when it was merged into Resurgence, which has survived and thrived to this day. This archive republishes it on the web, using Issuu as a platform.
I’m Chris Squire: I was one of the editors of Undercurrents from 1974. Contact me via undercurrents@cjsquire.plus.com or 020-8891 0989.
Primus inter pares of the UC Syndicate which became the UC Collective: Godfrey Boyle – Emeritus Professor of Renewable Energy in the Open University’s Faculty of Mathematics, Computing and Technology.
• Health & Safety Warning: The practical, technical and scientific information herein [though believed to be accurate at the time of publication] may now be out of date. CAVEAT LECTOR!
The many stories that Undercurrents told will interest students of a period that is both too distant and too recent to be adequately documented on the Web. The moral, philosophical, social, economic and political opinions herein remain, in my opinion, pertinent to the much more severe problems we now face.
There no restrictions on the use of this material but please credit individual authors where credit is due: they are mostly still with us.
undercurrents1972.wordpress.com 
Hi: Is there any way to find a poem that might have been published by this magazine back c1969? I found a typed poem in a book by Edward Kissam which has a note stating that it was sent to Undercurrents… the poem is entitled Ancient History and would either be by Edward Kissam or someone named John who knew Edward Kissam — The first several lines of the poem are: Is it not possession which possesses them? that they moved east again to feast on Asia where all was born. Did they own heras she allowed them to use her?”
I’d appreciate any information you can offer on who the author might be – and if it was indeed published by the magazine.
Thanks so much in advance!
Stephanie Howlett-West
There is no copyright in the name ‘Undercurrents’: many publications have used it and several do so now. Our UC, started in 1972, published very little verse and certainly not your poem. Finding out about defunct publications is difficult, often impossible, but in the UK every periodical could apply for an ISSN, a unique serial number: the only condition was that we had to send the 3 copyright libraries a copy of each issue. So it’s possible the your UC did the same.
I see from the web that Kissam is alive and living in Sonoma County, California – why don’t you ask him directly? http://www.anvilpresspoetry.com/authors.asp?id=40
He published The Sham Flyers in 1969: http://www.openbdb.com/e/0900977094.html
Dear Chris, I’m clearing out my loft and have most issues, plus Eddiees Nov 73. It seems you have all the material online, but would any one like the paper version still? Happy to present them to whoever, or recycle as pulp.
thanks
Matthew
Matthew, I am 2 years late in replying but if you have early issues I’d love them for research purposes. Kind regards, Zac
Dear Matthew,
I would be very interested in seeing the original copies if you still have them.
Certainly don’t pulp them.
Thanks
Ian
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Used to have a subscription. Looked for UC a goodly while back on web and this wasn’t here. Now I’ve found it. That and my copy of “Radical Technology” and I’m cooking with gas here in Michigan USA.
I have a small collection of Undercurrents from Numbers 32 to 49 (34, 38, 39, 46, 48 missing), which I would be happy to pass on to a good home if you or anyone else is interested. I’ve now retired and am having a mega clear out of my loft!
Peter
Thanks for the offer but no use to me. Only #s 1-4 – the debagged issues – are sought after. The ones printed on cheap newsprint are crumbling as you may have noticed; how fast depends how much sun and heat they’ve had over 40 years.
I hope this WordPress site and the Issue site behind it https://issuu.com/undercurrents1972 will last a long time at no cost to anyone but who can tell?
Thanks for replying so quickly. I’ll wait a while to see if anybody else would like to have them, but I’m afraid that eventually they’ll just go for recycling (At least we have that option now – perhaps we did achieve something in the 1970’s!)
As stated in my comment above Peter, I’m always interested in seeing hard copies that I do not have here. If they are still available, please do let me know. Perhaps we could come to some arrangement re: costs of postage, rather than you pulping them. While these pages are a wonderful resource, I am still one of those who prefers reading the original paper copies.
Ian.
I once had every issue lovingly collected and for reference until I moved and lost all but the early/first issues in a bag. The mag in a bag was a brilliant idea although difficult to keep.
I shall add Undercurrents to my issuu account. Thanks for making this memorable and really useful mag available once more!
Hello, I’m researching the radical science movements and would be grateful for any hard copies of the early issues, I would be happy to pay for postage to a UK mainland address.
Many thanks, Zac Bharucha
Its September 2022 and I have just unboxed pristine copies of Undercurrents from issue 5 to 70+ with a few gaps. Its a shame to bin them. Reading them is interesting, still. However I would prefer them to go to a good home. Any takers? I thought that I had thrown these out and only kept the bagged issues….which I currently can’t locate ironically.