Adam Parfrey
Encyclopedia
Adam Parfrey is an American
journalist, editor, and the publisher of Feral House
books, whose work in all three capacities frequently centers on unusual, extreme, or "forbidden" areas of knowledge.
the son of actor Woodrow Parfrey
(his mother, Rosa Ellovich, was Jewish, his father was not). He moved to Los Angeles
, California
in 1962. Upon graduating from Santa Monica High School
, the young Parfrey enrolled at UCLA before transferring to UC, Santa Cruz where he studied theater and history without graduating. While at UCLA, he wrote for the student newspaper
, the Daily Bruin
, and later became co-editor.
He collaborated
on George Petros
' Exit magazine.
Following a stint at the tabloid newspaper Idea Magazine, Parfrey returned to New York
. In 1989 he started Feral House
with $5,000.
He now lives in Port Townsend, Washington
. Parfrey also publishes through Process Media
, an imprint he established in 2005.
Parfrey's penchant for upsetting people extends to prevarication in promoting Feral House books. He promoted the second edition of Dark Mission with the following sentence:
The chapter was not in fact in the book, and the false promo went uncorrected for 18 months.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
journalist, editor, and the publisher of Feral House
Feral House
Feral House is a book publisher owned and operated by Adam Parfrey. The publisher itself describes the books it sells as "pure information", and says the topics of the books are "forbidden"....
books, whose work in all three capacities frequently centers on unusual, extreme, or "forbidden" areas of knowledge.
Life
He was born in New YorkNew York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
the son of actor Woodrow Parfrey
Woodrow Parfrey
Woodrow Parfrey was an American film and television actor from the 1950s to the early 1980s. e appeared on Broadway in Advise and Consent .-Biography:...
(his mother, Rosa Ellovich, was Jewish, his father was not). He moved to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
in 1962. Upon graduating from Santa Monica High School
Santa Monica High School
Santa Monica High School, informally known as SAMOHI, is located in Santa Monica, California. Founded in 1884, it is one of the oldest high schools in the state....
, the young Parfrey enrolled at UCLA before transferring to UC, Santa Cruz where he studied theater and history without graduating. While at UCLA, he wrote for the student newspaper
Student newspaper
A student newspaper is a newspaper run by students of a university, high school, middle school, or other school. These papers traditionally cover local and, primarily, school or university news....
, the Daily Bruin
Daily Bruin
The Daily Bruin is the student newspaper at the University of California, Los Angeles.-Frequency and governance:When classes are in session, the Bruin is published Monday through Friday during the school year and once a week on Mondays in the summer quarter.It is overseen by the ASUCLA...
, and later became co-editor.
He collaborated
Collaboration
Collaboration is working together to achieve a goal. It is a recursive process where two or more people or organizations work together to realize shared goals, — for example, an intriguing endeavor that is creative in nature—by sharing...
on George Petros
George Petros
George Petros is an American art designer, author, illustrator and editor.In 1984, Petros created EXIT, a New York-based journal featuring contributions from Richard Kern, Nick Zedd, Lydia Lunch, Joe Coleman, J. G. Thirlwell , Genesis P-Orridge, H. R. Giger, Michael Andros, Boyd Rice, Robert R...
' Exit magazine.
Following a stint at the tabloid newspaper Idea Magazine, Parfrey returned to New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. In 1989 he started Feral House
Feral House
Feral House is a book publisher owned and operated by Adam Parfrey. The publisher itself describes the books it sells as "pure information", and says the topics of the books are "forbidden"....
with $5,000.
He now lives in Port Townsend, Washington
Port Townsend, Washington
Port Townsend is a city in Jefferson County, Washington, United States, approximately north-northwest of Seattle . The population was 9,113 at the 2010 census an increase of 9.3% over the 2000 census. It is the county seat and only incorporated city of Jefferson County...
. Parfrey also publishes through Process Media
Process Media
Process Media is an independent publishing house, the result of a collaboration between Adam Parfrey of Feral House and Jodi Wille of Dilettante Press.Process was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in Port Townsend.-Awards:...
, an imprint he established in 2005.
Controversy
Parfrey has been targeted on several occasions by fundamentalist Christian activists and by "concerned" individuals, who dislike the published material coming from Feral House. However, one of his goals is not merely to educate or entertain, but to unsettle and perhaps upset certain segments of the population. Parfrey has said that "upsetting people is a beautiful thing. Because it gets people to think beyond their last visit to 7-Eleven. There's a lot about this world to be upset about."Parfrey's penchant for upsetting people extends to prevarication in promoting Feral House books. He promoted the second edition of Dark Mission with the following sentence:
- Authors Richard C. Hoagland and Mike Bara include a new chapter about the discoveries made by ex-Nazi scientist and NASA stalwart Wernher von Braun regarding what he termed "alternate gravitational solutions," or the rewriting of Newtonian physics into hyperdimensional spheres.
The chapter was not in fact in the book, and the false promo went uncorrected for 18 months.
Works
- Apocalypse Culture edited by Adam Parfrey (Amok Press, 1988, ISBN 0-941693-02-3)
- Rants and Incendiary TractsRants and Incendiary TractsThe list follows Rants and Incendiary Tracts: Voices of Desperate Illumination 1558–Present, a book edited by Bob Black and Adam Parfrey. It is an anthology of 56 rants....
edited by Bob BlackBob BlackBob Black is an American anarchist. He is the author of The Abolition of Work and Other Essays, Beneath the Underground, Friendly Fire, Anarchy After Leftism, and numerous political essays.-Writing:Some of his work from the early 1980s includes...
and Adam Parfrey (Amok Press, 1988, ISBN 0-941693-03-1) - The Manson File compiled by Parfrey, credited to Nikolas Schreck (Amok Press, 1988, ISBN 0-941693-04-X)
- Apocalypse Culture: Revised and Expanded edited by Adam Parfrey (Amok Press, 1990, ISBN 0-922915-05-9)
- Nightmare of Ecstasy: The Life and Art of Edward D. Wood, Jr. by Rudolph GreyRudolph GreyRudolph Grey is a musician and writer.As an electric guitarist, Grey has recorded and performed under his own name, as well as leading various ad hoc ensembles called The Blue Humans. His music draws on no wave and free jazz....
, edited by Parfrey (Feral House, 1994, ISBN 0-922915-24-5) - Cult Rapture: Revelations of the Apocalyptic Mind by Adam Parfrey (Feral House, 1995, ISBN 0-922915-22-9)
- End Is Near!: Visions of Apocalypse, Millennium and Utopia by Stephen Jay GouldStephen Jay GouldStephen Jay Gould was an American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and historian of science. He was also one of the most influential and widely read writers of popular science of his generation....
, Roger Manley, Adam Parfrey, Dalai LamaDalai LamaThe Dalai Lama is a high lama in the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" branch of Tibetan Buddhism. The name is a combination of the Mongolian word далай meaning "Ocean" and the Tibetan word bla-ma meaning "teacher"...
, foreword by Rebecca Hoffberger (Dilettante Press, 1998, paperback ISBN 0-9664272-7-0, 1999, hardcover ISBN 0-9664272-6-2) - Muerte!: Death in Mexican Popular Culture by Harvey Stafford, edited by Adam Parfrey, illustrated by J. G. PosadaJosé Guadalupe PosadaJose Guadalupe Posada: was a Mexican cartoonist illustrator and artist whose work has influenced many Latin American artists and cartoonists because of its satirical acuteness and political engagement....
, photographs by the ¡Alarma! Staff (Feral House, 2000, ISBN 0-922915-59-8) - Apocalypse Culture II edited by Adam Parfrey (Feral House, 2000, ISBN 0-922915-57-1)
- Extreme Islam: Anti-American Propaganda of Muslim Fundamentalism edited by Adam Parfrey, introduction by Tamim Ansary (Feral House, 2002, ISBN 0-922915-78-4)
- Lexicon Devil: The Fast Times and Short Life of Darby Crash and the Germs by Brendan Mullen, Adam Parfrey, and Don Bolles (Feral House, 2002, ISBN 0-922915-70-9)
- It's a Man's World: Men's Adventure Magazines - the Postwar Pulps edited by Adam Parfrey, material by Josh Alan FriedmanJosh Alan FriedmanJosh Alan Friedman is an American musician, writer, editor and journalist. Widely known for his 1986 collection Tales of Times Square and his often-controversial comix collaborations with his brother, artist Drew Friedman, many of which are compiled in the books Any Similarity to Persons Living or...
, Mort KunstlerMort KünstlerMort Künstler is a historical artist in the United States of America whose work now focuses mainly on the American Civil War. Before he turned to the Civil War in the early 1980s, he had built a body of work that dealt with America's national story: from portraits of prehistoric American life to...
, David Saunders, Bill Devine (Feral House, 2003, ISBN 0-922915-81-4) - War Is a RacketWar is a RacketWar Is a Racket is the title of two works, a speech and a booklet, by retired U.S. Marine Major General Smedley D. Butler. In them, Butler frankly discusses from his experience as a career military officer how business interests commercially benefit from warfare.After he retired from the Marine...
: The Anti-War Classic by America's Most Decorated General by Smedley D. Butler, with introduction by Adam Parfrey (reprinted in 2003 by Feral House, ISBN 0-922915-86-5) - Two Thousand Formulas, Recipes, and Trade Secrets: The Classic Do-It-Yourself Book of Practical Everyday Chemistry by Harry Bennett, Adam Parfrey (Feral House, 2003, ISBN 0-922915-95-4)
- SIN-A-RAMA: Sleaze Sex Paperbacks of the Sixties by Britany A. Daley, Adam Parfrey and Lydia LunchLydia LunchLydia Lunch is an American singer, poet, writer, and actress whose career was spawned by the New York No Wave scene...
(Feral House, 2004, ISBN 1-932595-05-8) - Ritual America: Secret Brotherhoods and Their Influence on American Society, A Visual Guide by Adam Parfrey, Craig Heinbichner (Feral House, 2012)
- Secret Source by Maja D'Aoust, Adam Parfrey, Jodi Wille (Feral House, 2007, ISBN 978-1-934170-07-6)
- Propaganda and Holy Writ of the Process Church of the Final Judgement (Feral House, 2011)
Amok Press
Parfrey co-founded Amok Press with Kenneth Swezey in 1986 which released the cult classic "Apocalypse Culture".Process Media
- Adam Parfrey co-founded the independent publishing company Process MediaProcess MediaProcess Media is an independent publishing house, the result of a collaboration between Adam Parfrey of Feral House and Jodi Wille of Dilettante Press.Process was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in Port Townsend.-Awards:...
with Jodi WilleJodi WilleJodi Wille is a book editor, filmmaker, and cultural event producer known for collaborating with individuals who have amassed personal archives that document American subcultures...
of Dilettante PressDilettante PressDilettante Press is an independent book publisher, co-founded by Jodi Wille, Nick Rubenstein, and Steven Nalepa in 1995. Dilettante is a publishing house dedicated to “challeng[ing] traditional notions of art and culture,” focusing its efforts on featuring visionary, outsider, vernacular art in...
in 2005.
Apocalypse Culture
Apocalypse Culture is a collection of articles, interviews and documents that explore the various marginal aspects of culture edited by Adam Parfrey. It explores aesthetic nihilism, destructive cults, extreme violence, sexual deviancy, conspiracy theory, extreme forms of nationalism, etc. First published in 1987, reprinted twice (1990, 2001), and in 2000 the sequel Apocalypse Culture II was released. The book has been widely campaigned against and has been banned in many countries.Recordings
- S.W.A.T. - Deep Inside a Cop's Mind: The Soundtrack For The Next Police State (Audio CD, 1994, Label: Amphetamine Reptile RecordsAmphetamine Reptile RecordsAmphetamine Reptile Records is a nationally renowned record label which was founded in 1986 by then-US Marine Tom Hazelmyer in Washington State, US The label is best-known for its roster of noise rock artists, and its Dope, Guns 'n' Fucking In The Streets series of compilations.-History:Hazelmyer...
) - A Sordid Evening of Sonic Sorrows (Audio CD, 1997, Man's Ruin RecordsMan's Ruin RecordsMan's Ruin Records was an independent record label, owned and founded by Bay Area artist Frank Kozik. After the 1994 release of Man's Ruin's first record, entitled Experimental Audio Research : Delta 6, Kozik worked with artists who he wanted to release; he also designed all of the sleeve art for...
MR-066) - He has also collaborated with Boyd RiceBoyd RiceBoyd Blake Rice is an American experimental sound/noise musician using the name of NON since the mid-1970s, archivist, actor, photographer, author, member of the Partridge Family Temple religious group, co-founder of the UNPOP art movement and current staff writer for Modern Drunkard...
on his album Hatesville. - Plays the voice of Lord Jehova in the reading of "The Gods on War" with Genesis Breyer P-Orridge (The Lord Lucifer), Lydia Lunch (The Lord Satan) and Timothy Wyllie (Transcendence). (available for download at www.feralhouse.com)
Film
- Parfrey had a part in Crispin GloverCrispin GloverCrispin Hellion Glover is an American film actor, director and screenwriter, recording artist, publisher, and author. Glover is known for portraying eccentric people on screen such as George McFly in Back to the Future, Layne in River's Edge, unfriendly recluse Rubin Farr in Rubin and Ed, the...
's What Is It?What Is It?What Is It? is the name of a 2005 dramatic film written, starring, funded and directed by Crispin Hellion Glover. It is described by IMDb as "The adventures of a young man whose principal interests are snails, salt, a pipe, and how to get home...
. - He published and edited Nightmare of Ecstasy: The Life and Art of Edward D. Wood, Jr., which was the credited source for the Tim BurtonTim BurtonTimothy William "Tim" Burton is an American film director, film producer, writer and artist. He is famous for dark, quirky-themed movies such as Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Corpse Bride and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet...
film, Ed Wood. - He also published American HardcoreAmerican HardcoreAmerican Hardcore is the only L.A. Guns album to feature singer Chris Van Dahl and the first to feature bass guitarist Johnny Crypt. This album continues the increase in heaviness by the band started on their previous album Vicious Circle....
, the credited source for the feature length documentary of the same name. - He published Lords of Chaos, credited source for the narrative feature directed by Sion Sono. He also co-wrote the film's screenplay.
Writings
- Parfrey wrote cover stories and feature articles for the Village Voice, San Diego ReaderSan Diego ReaderThe San Diego Reader is the largest alternative press paper in the county of San Diego, distributed free in stands and private businesses throughout the county, funded by advertisements...
, PenthousePenthousePenthouse may refer to:*Penthouse apartment, a special apartment on the top floor of a building*Penthouse , a men's magazine*Penthouse , a 1933 film starring Warner Baxter and Myrna Loy...
and HustlerHustlerHustler is a monthly pornographic magazine aimed at men and published in the United States. It was first published in 1974 by Larry Flynt. It was a step forward from the Hustler Newsletter which was cheap advertising for his strip club businesses at the time. The magazine grew from a shaky start to...
magazines. - Between 1990 and 1994 Parfrey wrote the weekly column "HelL.A." for the San Diego Reader.
- He co-wrote The Secret Source (with Maja D'Aoust) in 2004.
- He also co-wrote Ritual America (with Craig Heimbicher) to be published in 2012.
External links
- adam parfrey at DisinformationDisinformationDisinformation is intentionally false or inaccurate information that is spread deliberately. For this reason, it is synonymous with and sometimes called black propaganda. It is an act of deception and false statements to convince someone of untruth...
, bio sketch with quite a few links. - Feral House's website
- Adam Parfrey bio
- Interview with Adam Parfrey at Plaza of the Mind
- "Is the Internet Good for Writers?"
- US publisher defends Brady book: BBC News
- http://www.markprindle.com/parfrey-i.htm