From around 1950, mimeograph machines — which reproduced text by forcing ink through a stencil onto paper — became widely available and inexpensive. Small-press poets, Beat writers, and political activists used them to produce chapbooks, zines, and pamphlets outside mainstream publishing. The mimeograph was the defining technology of the underground literary scene until photocopiers supplanted it in the 1970s.

The introduction of mimeograph machines in 1950 revolutionized underground publishing, empowering counterculture poets to self-publish rapidly, as seen in the works of Allen Ginsberg and other Beat poets. This democratization of poetry allowed for diverse voices to emerge, challenging mainstream literary conventions.