Paul Krassner, author, journalist, comedian, "prankster, a master of the put-on that thumbed its nose at what he saw as a stuffy and blundering political establishment," died July 21, the New York Times reported. He was 87. Krassner "epitomized a strain of anarchic 1960s activism" that became identified with the Yippies.... Along with Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin and a few others, Mr. Krassner helped found that group, and he also joined Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters on their LSD-fueled bus trip across America."
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Paul Krassner being interviewed in the men's room during the 1978 ABA convention. (photo: Andrew Porter) |
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As founder and editor of the underground humor magazine The Realist, he published contributors like Norman Mailer, Jules Feiffer, Terry Southern, Joseph Heller, Mort Sahl, Edward Sorel and Robert Grossman. "Yet so naturally irreverent was Mr. Krassner that when People magazine labeled him the 'father of the underground press,' he demanded a paternity test," the Times wrote.
As a keeper of the legacy of one of his mentors, Lenny Bruce, Krassner edited Bruce's autobiography, How to Talk Dirty and Influence People (1965), and was nominated for a Grammy Award for his 5,000-word liner notes to a collection of Bruce's nightclub routines, Let the Buyer Beware.
In 1994, he published a memoir, Confessions of a Raving Unconfined Nut: Misadventures in the Counter-Culture, which he later updated. His other books include Who's to Say What's Obscene?: Politics, Culture, and Comedy in America Today; The Winner of the Slow Bicycle Race; Sex, Drugs, and the Twinkie Murders; and One Hand Jerking: Reports from an Investigative Satirist. A new title, Zapped by the God of Absurdity: The Best of Paul Krassner, will be published later this year.
The Los Angeles Times noted that for his 1968 Life profile, Krassner offered a personal philosophy: "If I had one thing to tell everybody, it would be: Do it now. Take up music, read a book, proposition a girl--but do it now. We know we are all sentenced to death. People cannot become prisoners of guilts or fears. They should cling to each moment and take what enjoyment they can from it."