Biography

The Toothpaste Press originated in Iowa City, Iowa, in the 1970s, an outgrowth of Allan Kornblum's literary magazine, Toothpaste. Moving to West Branch, Iowa, it was a fine letterpress publisher of literary books. In 1984, the operation was again moved, this time to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where it was renamed Coffee House Press. Allan Kornblum was born in New York. He dropped out of New York University, but participated in workshops at St. Mark's Poetry Project. There he became aware of Iowa City. Moving there in 1970, he enrolled in Harry Duncan's typography class. Within two years, he had bought himself a used letterpress and started his own business. By 1984, Kornblum and his wife, Cinda, had published seventy books and pamphlets and more than one hundred sixty broadsides at the Toothpaste Press.

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