Famous Long Ago: My Life and Hard Times with Liberation News Service

It's a shame that this book is out of print, because it tells the story of one man's adventures in a unique time and place in a way that is less successfully done in other such books. Mungo was there at the creation, and he (usually) doesn't gloss over the failings of the hippies' original vision. The book is witty and opinionated, well-written and amusing - and if you're interested in the 1960s you should seek out copies in your nearby library or other such repository. Mungo's life during those intense years covered in the book (which is circa 1965 through about 1971) traced nearly the entire stereotpical path of the 1960s hippie: from the Haight to political action in Washington and elsewhere (as a member of the Liberation News Service), to a comically unsuccessful stand as a back-to-the-lander communitarian, to a wandering journey to the 'sources of enlightenment' in Asia. The book shows just how it was possible to become entirely burnt out with innovation in just a six or seven year period, and illustrates well the trajectory of the 1960s, from ideal to disillusion to acceptance. And it's well-written.