Chester Anderson
Encyclopedia
Chester Valentine John Anderson (August 11, 1932 - April 11, 1991) was a novelist, poet, and editor in the underground press
. Raised in Florida
, he attended the University of Miami
from 1952 to 1956 before becoming a beatnik coffee house poet in 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
. In that area he was a friend of Paul Williams
and edited Crawdaddy!
for a few issues in 1968-1969.
He also wrote science fiction
, due in part to the influence of Michael Kurland
. Anderson's The Butterfly Kid
is the first part of what is called the Greenwich Village Trilogy, with Kurland writing the second book (The Unicorn Girl
) and the third volume (The Probability Pad) written by T.A. Waters
. The novel was nominated for the 1968 Hugo Award for Best Novel
. It, and his few other genre works are associated with New Wave (science fiction)
.
He was also a gifted musician, played two part inventions with two recorders simultaneously, played duets with Laurence M. Janifer at the Cafe Rienzi. He subsequently moved to San Francisco during the Summer of Love
and with Claude Hayward was one of the founders of the Communications Company, the "publishing arm" of the anarchist guerrilla street theater group The Diggers
, having bought a mimeograph with his second royalty check from Butterfly Kid. Through the ComCo he circulated a number of his own bitter broadside polemics in the Haight, including "Uncle Tim's Children," with its infamous, often quoted line "Rape is as common as bullshit on Haight Street." Joan Didion
described the role Chester Anderson and the ComCo played in Haight-Ashbury in her 1968 book Slouching Towards Bethlehem
.
After his stint with Crawadaddy! he 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, and published two works, both of them thinly-disguised memoirs (one under the pseudonym John Valentine) with Paul Williams's Entwhistle Books. Prior to his death in 1991 he lived for a number of years in Mendocino, California
, where he collaborated with local artist Charles Marchant Stevenson
on his book Fox and Hare: The Story of a Friday Evening. A number of science fiction and publishing personalities including Norman Spinrad
and Lou Stathis
posed on location for the illustrations in this book, which attempted to recreate a particular evening in Greenwich Village in the 1960s.
Underground press
The underground press were the independently published and distributed underground papers associated with the counterculture of the late 1960s and early 1970s in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and other western nations....
. Raised in Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, he attended the University of Miami
University of Miami
The University of Miami is a private, non-sectarian university founded in 1925 with its main campus in Coral Gables, Florida, a medical campus in Miami city proper at Civic Center, and an oceanographic research facility on Virginia Key., the university currently enrolls 15,629 students in 12...
from 1952 to 1956 before becoming a beatnik coffee house poet in Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
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
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
. In that area he was a friend of Paul Williams
Paul Williams (Crawdaddy! creator)
Paul Williams is an American music journalist and writer. Williams created the first national US magazine of rock music criticism :Crawdaddy! in January 1966 on the campus of Swarthmore College with the help of some of his fellow science fiction fans...
and edited Crawdaddy!
Crawdaddy!
Crawdaddy! was the first U.S. magazine of rock and roll music criticism. Created in 1966 by college student Paul Williams in response to the increasing sophistication and cultural influence of popular music, Crawdaddy! was self-described as "the first magazine to take rock and roll...
for a few issues in 1968-1969.
He also wrote science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
, due in part to the influence of Michael Kurland
Michael Kurland
Michael Joseph Kurland is an American author, best known for his works of science fiction and detective fiction....
. Anderson's The Butterfly Kid
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 writing the second book and the third volume written by T.A...
is the first part of what is called the Greenwich Village Trilogy, with Kurland writing the second book (The Unicorn Girl
The Unicorn Girl
The Unicorn Girl is a science fiction novel by Michael Kurland originally released in 1969.-Plot introduction:The novel is the second part of the Greenwich Village Trilogy, with Chester Anderson writing the first book and the third volume written by T.A...
) and the third volume (The Probability Pad) written by T.A. Waters
T.A. Waters
Thomas Alan Waters was an American magician, writer about magic, and science fiction author.-History:...
. The novel was nominated for the 1968 Hugo Award for Best Novel
Hugo Award for Best Novel
The Hugo Awards are given every year by the World Science Fiction Society for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was once officially...
. It, and his few other genre works are associated with New Wave (science fiction)
New Wave (science fiction)
New Wave is a term applied to science fiction produced in the 1960s and 1970s and characterized by a high degree of experimentation, both in form and in content, a "literary" or artistic sensibility, and a focus on "soft" as opposed to hard science. The term "New Wave" is borrowed from the French...
.
He was also a gifted musician, played two part inventions with two recorders simultaneously, played duets with Laurence M. Janifer at the Cafe Rienzi. He subsequently moved to San Francisco during the Summer of Love
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 converged on the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco, creating a cultural and political rebellion...
and with Claude Hayward was one of the founders of the Communications Company, the "publishing arm" of the anarchist guerrilla street theater group The Diggers
Diggers (theater)
The Diggers were a radical community-action group of activists and Improv actors operating from 1966–68, based in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco. Their politics were such that they have sometimes been categorized as "left-wing." More accurately, they were "community anarchists"...
, having bought a mimeograph with his second royalty check from Butterfly Kid. Through the ComCo he circulated a number of his own bitter broadside polemics in the Haight, including "Uncle Tim's Children," with its infamous, often quoted line "Rape is as common as bullshit on Haight Street." Joan Didion
Joan Didion
Joan Didion is an American author best known for her novels and her literary journalism. Her novels and essays explore the disintegration of American morals and cultural chaos, where the overriding theme is individual and social fragmentation...
described the role Chester Anderson and the ComCo played in Haight-Ashbury in her 1968 book Slouching Towards Bethlehem
Slouching Towards Bethlehem
Slouching Towards Bethlehem is a 1968 collection of essays by Joan Didion and mainly describes her experiences in California during the 1960s. It takes its title from the poem "The Second Coming," by W. B. Yeats...
.
After his stint with Crawadaddy! he was connected for a brief period with the underground newspaper Tuesday's Child
Tuesday's Child (newspaper)
Tuesday's Child was a brief-lived counterculture underground newspaper published in Los Angeles, California starting Nov. 11, 1969. Self-described on its masthead as "An ecumenical, educational newspaper for the Los Angeles occult & underground," it was founded by Los Angeles Free Press reporter...
and with Peace Press, a small Movement print shop in Los Angeles, and published two works, both of them thinly-disguised memoirs (one under the pseudonym John Valentine) with Paul Williams's Entwhistle Books. Prior to his death in 1991 he lived for a number of years in Mendocino, California
Mendocino, California
Mendocino is a census-designated place in Mendocino County, California, United States. Mendocino is located south of Fort Bragg, at an elevation of 154 feet...
, where he collaborated with local artist Charles Marchant Stevenson
Charles Marchant Stevenson
Charles Marchant Stevenson was an American artist, born to Mildred and in Washington, D.C.-Early years:Stevenson spent his early years at his...
on his book Fox and Hare: The Story of a Friday Evening. A number of science fiction and publishing personalities including Norman Spinrad
Norman Spinrad
Norman Richard Spinrad is an American science fiction author.Born in New York City, Spinrad is a graduate of the Bronx High School of Science. In 1957 he entered City College of New York and graduated in 1961 with a Bachelor of Science degree as a pre-law major. In 1966 he moved to San Francisco,...
and Lou Stathis
Lou Stathis
Lou Stathis was an American author, critic and editor, mainly in the areas of fantasy and science fiction. During the last three years of his life he was an editor for DC Comics' Vertigo line, including Preacher, Doom Patrol, Industrial Gothic, The System and Dhampire.Stathis was a columnist and...
posed on location for the illustrations in this book, which attempted to recreate a particular evening in Greenwich Village in the 1960s.
Further reading
- "Chester Anderson," Contemporary Authors Online, Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale. Online. GaleNet. Accessed 12-12-2006.
- The Encyclopedia of Science FictionThe Encyclopedia of Science FictionThe Encyclopedia of Science Fiction is an English language reference work on science fiction.- Publication history :The first edition, edited by Peter Nicholls with John Clute and Brian Stableford appeared in 1979, published by Granada. It was retitled The Science Fiction Encyclopedia in the US...
, page 29. - Anderson, Chester. "Forward", The Butterfly Kid (Pyramid Books, 1967). Stolen Apples - Arts Blog. 08-28-2009. 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, PaulPaul Williams (Crawdaddy! creator)Paul Williams is an American music journalist and writer. Williams created the first national US magazine of rock music criticism :Crawdaddy! in January 1966 on the campus of Swarthmore College with the help of some of his fellow science fiction fans...
. "Introduction: the making of Fox & Hare". Excerpts. Accessed 06-17-2010. - Braunstein, Peter & Doyle, Michael William. "http://books.google.com/books?id=R178zShWUtIC&pg=PA95&lpg=PA95&dq=Chester+Anderson+underground+press&source=bl&ots=WDLqsH4mDy&sig=AyS3NBFZTsvby_wp8EvspV_ghOc&hl=en&ei=QfIaTO-2FJTgnAe1_pS1Cw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CBoQ6AEwAjgK#v=onepage&q=Chester%20Anderson%20underground%20press&f=false28. Chester Anderson", Imagine nation: the American counterculture of the 1960s and '70s]. Routledge. 2001. Page 98. Accessed 06-17-2010.