Paul Krassner Livres

Uncensored, uncontained, and thoroughly demented, the memoirs of Paul Krassner are back in an updated and expanded edition. Paul Krassner, “father of the underground press” (People magazine), founder of the Realist, political radical, Yippie, and award-winning stand-up satirist, shares his stark raving adventures with the likes of Lenny Bruce, Abbie Hoffman, Norman Mailer, Ken Kesey, Groucho Marx, and Squeaky Fromme, revealing the patriarch of counterculture’s ultimate, intimate, uproarious life on the fringes of society. Whether he’s writing about his friendship with controversial comic Lenny Bruce, introducing Groucho Marx to LSD, his investigation of Scientology, or John Kennedy’s cadaver, no subject is too sacred to be skewered by Krassner. And yet his stories are soulful and philosophical, always authentic to his iconoclastic brand of personal journalism. As Art Spiegelman said, “Krassner is one of the best minds of his generational to be destroyed by madness, starving, hysterical, naked—but mainly hysterical. His true wacky, wackily true autobiography is the definitive book on the sixties.”

Counterculture icon Paul Krassner reflects on pop culture, politics, and celebrity, offering insights into a chaotic world. With an introduction by Lewis Black and a foreword by Harry Shearer, this collection explores diverse topics, embodying Krassner's belief that "Irreverence is our only sacred cow."

To solicit these stories, Paul Krassner contacted 250 friends and acquaintances and announced the project in High Times and on the air. Including "The Bust at Ken Kesey's Place, " "How the Yippies Mailed 30,000 Joints to Perfect Strangers, " and "The Acid Trip of a Death Row Prisoner, " these true tales range from funny to bizarre to poignant.

This is a curated collection of Krassner's satirical writing and reporting that serves both as a look back on his career and as a memoir. One of his most infamous works, "The Parts That Were Left Out of the Kennedy Book," made outrageous claims that some people thought were true. He reports from a swingers' event and a conspiracy convention - and from the trial of Dan White for the murders of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk during which Krassner coined the term "the Twinkie defense." He also includes anecdotes about encountering celebrities such as Lenny Bruce, Johnnie Cochran, Ram Dass, Larry Flynt, Squeaky Fromme, Dick Gregory, Charles Manson, and Robin Williams - and that time he took an acid trip with Groucho Marx.