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
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 ...
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
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 ...
) ''Ten Years to Doomsday'' (
Pyramid Publications, 1964)
*''
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 ...
'' (
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
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 ...
Further reading
*"Chester Anderson," ''Contemporary Authors Online,'' Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale. Online. GaleNet. Accessed 12-12-2006.
*''
The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'' (SFE) is an English language reference work on science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and f ...
'', page 29.
* Anderson, Chester.
Foreword", ''The Butterfly Kid'' (Pyramid Books, 1967) Stolen Apples - Arts Blog. 08-28-2009. Accessed 06-17-2010.
* Braunstein, Peter & Doyle, Michael William.
28. Chester Anderson", ''Imagine nation: the American counterculture of the 1960s and '70s'' Routledge. 2001. Page 98. Accessed 06-17-2010.
*
Dryer, Thorne.
Les marchands" ''Anarchisme et non-violence, n°11/12 (janvier/février 1968)''. La Presse Anarchiste. 10-30-2007. Accessed 06-17-2010.
*
Williams, Paul.
Introduction: the making of Fox & Hare" Excerpts. Accessed 06-17-2010.
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