Chester Valentine John Anderson (August 11, 1932 – April 11, 1991) was an American novelist, poet, and editor in the

underground press The terms underground press or clandestine press refer to periodicals and publications that are produced without official approval, illegally or against the wishes of a dominant (governmental, religious, or institutional) group. In specific rec ...

Biography

Raised in

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

, he attended the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, incl ...

from 1952 to 1956, before becoming a

beatnik Beatniks were members of a social movement in the 1950s that subscribed to an anti-materialistic lifestyle. History In 1948, Jack Kerouac introduced the phrase "Beat Generation", generalizing from his social circle to characterize the undergr ...

coffee house poet in

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

and San Francisco's North Beach. As a poet, he wrote under the name C.V.J. Anderson and edited the little magazines ''Beatitude'' and ''Underhound''. In journalism, he specialized in

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from Africa ...

. In that area, he was a friend of Paul Williams and edited ''

Crawdaddy! ''Crawdaddy'' was an American rock music magazine launched in 1966. It was created by Paul Williams, a Swarthmore College student at the time, in response to the increasing sophistication and cultural influence of popular music. The magazine ...

'' for a few issues in 1968-1969. He also wrote

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

, because of

Michael Kurland Michael Joseph Kurland (born March 1, 1938) is an American author, best known for his works of science fiction and detective fiction. Kurland lives in San Luis Obispo, California. Writing career Kurland's early career was devoted to works of sc ...

(the two of them having collaborated on ''Ten Years to Doomsday'' in 1964). Anderson's ''

The Butterfly Kid ''The Butterfly Kid'' is a science fiction novel by Chester Anderson originally released in 1967. It was nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1968. The novel is the first part of the Greenwich Village Trilogy, with Michael Kurland wri ...

'', published in 1967, is the first part of what is called the Greenwich Village Trilogy, with Kurland writing the second book (''

The Unicorn Girl ''The Unicorn Girl'' is a science fiction novel by Michael Kurland, originally released in 1969, that follows the adventures of two men from San Francisco in the 60s after they meet a mysterious young woman looking for her missing unicorn. This n ...

'') and the third volume (''

The Probability Pad ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

'') written by

T.A. Waters Thomas Alan Waters (also known as T.A. Waters) (1938–1998) was an American magician, writer about magic, and science fiction author. History Born to Thurston Alan Waters and Pauline Ruth (Kunkle) Waters, T. A. Waters was a professional magic ...

. The novel was nominated for the 1968

Hugo Award for Best Novel The Hugo Award for Best Novel is one of the Hugo Awards given each year for science fiction or fantasy stories published in, or translated to, English during the previous calendar year. The novel award is available for works of fiction of 40,00 ...

. ''The Butterfly Kid'', and Anderson's few other genre works are associated with

New Wave science fiction The New Wave was a science fiction (SF) style of the 1960s and 1970s, characterized by a great degree of experimentation with the form and content of stories, greater imitation of the styles of trendy non-science fiction literature, and an emphasis ...

. He was also a gifted musician, playing two-part inventions with two recorders simultaneously, and playing duets with

Laurence M. Janifer Laurence M. Janifer (born Laurence M. Harris; March 17, 1933 – July 10, 2002) was an American science fiction author, with a career spanning over 50 years. Biography Janifer was born in Brooklyn, New York with the surname of ''Harris'', but ...

at the Cafe Rienzi. He subsequently moved to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

during the

Summer of Love The Summer of Love was a social phenomenon that occurred during the summer of 1967, when as many as 100,000 people, mostly young people sporting hippie fashions of dress and behavior, converged in San Francisco's neighborhood of Haight-Ashbury. ...

. Having bought a

mimeograph A mimeograph machine (often abbreviated to mimeo, sometimes called a stencil duplicator) is a low-cost duplicating machine that works by forcing ink through a stencil onto paper. The process is called mimeography, and a copy made by the pro ...

with his second royalty check from ''The Butterfly Kid'', Anderson and Claude Hayward were the founders of the Communications Company (ComCo), the publishing arm of the anarchist guerrilla street theater group The Diggers. Through ComCo, Anderson circulated a number of his own bitter broadside polemics in

Haight-Ashbury Haight-Ashbury () is a district of San Francisco, California, named for the intersection of Haight and Ashbury streets. It is also called The Haight and The Upper Haight. The neighborhood is known as one of the main centers of the counterculture ...

, including "Uncle Tim's Children," with its infamous, often-quoted line, "Rape is as common as bullshit on Haight Street."

Joan Didion Joan Didion (; December 5, 1934 – December 23, 2021) was an American writer. Along with Tom Wolfe, Hunter S. Thompson and Gay Talese, she is considered one of the pioneers of New Journalism. Didion's career began in the 1950s after she won an ...

described the role Chester Anderson and ComCo played in Haight-Ashbury in her 1967 essay, "

Slouching Towards Bethlehem ''Slouching Towards Bethlehem'' is a 1968 collection of essays by Joan Didion that mainly describes her experiences in California during the 1960s. It takes its title from the poem " The Second Coming" by W. B. Yeats. The contents of this ...

." In 1968, Anderson co-founded Entwhistle Books with Paul Williams,

David G. Hartwell David Geddes Hartwell (July 10, 1941 – January 20, 2016) was an American critic, publisher, and editor of thousands of science fiction and fantasy novels. He was best known for work with Signet, Pocket, and Tor Books publishers. He was also no ...

, and Joel Hack. After his stint with ''Crawadaddy!'' Anderson was connected for a brief period with the underground newspaper '' Tuesday's Child'' and with Peace Press, a small movement print shop in Los Angeles. He published two works, both of them thinly disguised memoirs (one, ''Puppies'', published under the name "John Valentine," about sexual excess in the 1960s) with Entwhistle Books. (Several scenes in ''Puppies'' were set in the offices of ''Tuesday's Child'', where Anderson slept in a back room while putting out the paper and cruising the nearby

Sunset Strip The Sunset Strip is the stretch of Sunset Boulevard that passes through the city of West Hollywood, California. It extends from West Hollywood's eastern border with the city of Los Angeles near Marmont Lane to its western border with Beverly H ...

.) He lived for a number of years in

Mendocino, California Mendocino (Spanish for "of Mendoza") is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Mendocino County, California, United States. Mendocino is located south of Fort Bragg at an elevation of . The population of the CDP was 932 ...

, where he collaborated with local artist

Charles Marchant Stevenson Charles Marchant Stevenson (August 29, 1927 – August 30, 2004) was an American artist. Biography Early life and education Stevenson was born to Mildred and Charles Marchant Stevenson II in Washington, D.C. He spent his early years at his fami ...

on their proto-

graphic novel A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...

''Fox & Hare: The Story of a Friday Evening'' (also published by Entwhistle Books). A number of science fiction and publishing personalities, including

Norman Spinrad Norman Richard Spinrad (born September 15, 1940) is an American science fiction author, essayist, and critic. His fiction has won the Prix Apollo and been nominated for numerous awards, including the Hugo Award and multiple Nebula Awards. Pe ...

and

Lou Stathis Louis J. Stathis (September 29, 1952 – May 4, 1997) was an American author, critic and editor, mainly in the areas of fantasy and science fiction. During the last four years of his life he was an editor for DC Comics' Vertigo line, working on ...

, posed on location for the illustrations in this book, which attempted to recreate a particular evening in

in the 1960s. Anderson died in 1991 in

Homer, Georgia Homer is a town in Banks County, Georgia, United States. The population was 1,141 at the 2010 census. The town is the county seat of Banks County. History The community was named after Homer Jackson, a pioneer citizen. Homer was founded in 1858 a ...

, where he was living with relatives, at age 58.

Bibliography

* (poems) ''Colloquy'' (San Francisco: Bolerium Books, 1960) — Handset and printed at The Bread & Wine Press by Harvey Wilder Bentley, San Francisco; self-published by the poet * (poems) ''A Liturgy for Dragons and 17 Other Poems: 1953-1961'' (New York: Chas. P. Young Company, 1961) *''The Pink Palace'' (Greenwich:

Fawcett Publications Fawcett Publications was an American publishing company founded in 1919 in Robbinsdale, Minnesota by Wilford Hamilton "Captain Billy" Fawcett (1885–1940). It kicked off with the publication of the bawdy humor magazine ''Captain Billy's Whiz B ...

, 1963) *(with

) ''Ten Years to Doomsday'' ( Pyramid Publications, 1964) *''

'' (

Pyramid Books Jove Books, formerly known as Pyramid Books, is an American paperback and eBook publishing imprint, founded as an independent paperback house in 1949 by Almat Magazine Publishers (Alfred R. Plaine and Matthew Huttner). The company was sold to ...

, 1967) * (editor) ''Growing Up in Minnesota: Ten Writers Remember Their Childhoods'' (

University of Minnesota Press The University of Minnesota Press is a university press that is part of the University of Minnesota. It had annual revenues of just over $8 million in fiscal year 2018. Founded in 1925, the University of Minnesota Press is best known for its book ...

, 1976) * (as John Valentine) ''Puppies'' ( Entwhistle Books, 1979) *''Fox & Hare: The Story of a Friday Evening'' (Entwhistle Books, 1980) — illustrated by

References

External links

*
Fantastic fiction
*
Interview with Paul Williams that mentions Anderson
{{DEFAULTSORT:Anderson, Chester 1932 births 1991 deaths 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American male writers American alternative journalists American magazine editors American male novelists American male non-fiction writers American music journalists American science fiction writers Novelists from Massachusetts People from Stoneham, Massachusetts People from Mendocino, California University of Miami alumni Writers from Massachusetts

Biography

Bibliography

Further reading

References

External links