The Last Great Dream

From the New York Times bestselling author of A Long Strange Trip and the publicist of the Grateful Dead, a riveting social history of the many elements that led up to the 1960s counterculture movement

ADVANCE PRAISE

“Dennis McNally doesn’t just chronicle a fabled parade of Beat poets, folkies, student activists, classical minimalists, jazz musicians, poster artists, the underground press, Swinging Londoners, and so much more. He connects all the dots in what amounts to a panoramic portrait of an alternative arts universe where freedom of expression always rang.”―DAVID BROWNE, author of Talkin' Greenwich Village: The Heady Rise and Slow Fall of America's Bohemian Music Capita"

“Erudite yet engaging, Dennis McNally’s marvelous ability to transform reams of info on the history of bohemia into elegant prose astounds me. This deep dive into the beats and the counterculture is an illuminating page-turner.”―HOLLY GEORGE-WARREN, author of Janis: Her Life and Music

“You hold in your hands a great mandala—a roadmap to a literary, artistic, and spiritual tradition that began with the intimate expressions of a few brave outsiders, until it reached a mass flowering that touched millions. Graham Nash sang, 'You who are on the road, must have a code that you can live by.' This is that code, told by one who has studied it, and lived it.”―RAYMOND FOYE, curator, archivist, co-editor of Collected Poems of Bob Kaufman

ABOUT THE BOOK

Few cities represent the countercultural movement of the 1960s more than San Francisco. By that decade, the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood was home to several hundred colorful refugees from the conventional. They called themselves “freaks,” although the media dubbed them “hippies,” and they created the world’s first psychedelic neighborhood, an alchemical chamber for social transformation. Collectively, these freaks rejected a large part of the mythology underlying the traditional American identity, passing over American exceptionalism, consumerism, misogyny, and militarism in favor of creativity, mind-body connection, peace, and love of all things—humans and the natural world alike.

Dennis McNally, author of the New York Times bestseller A Long, Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead, is a consummate historian of the counterculture. He knows the big picture of the American bohemian tradition going back a century with a depth that is unrivaled. In THE LAST GREAT DREAM, his accessible, often riveting scholarship establishes a multi-disciplinary aesthetic, populated by some of the most colorful and trailblazing characters of these times, from Allen Ginsberg to John Cage to Judith Malina and Julian Beck of the Living Theater, to Lenny Bruce, to Ken Kesey, and scores of lesser-known yet key names. It is a who’s who of the courageous pioneers who changed America forever without spilling a drop of blood. While all of these various strands have been written about before, none of their stories have been pulled together into a larger, expansive, more connected picture in the manner that McNally accomplishes with this definitive book.

THE LAST GREAT DREAM is a history of everything that led to the 1960s counterculture, when long-simmering resistance to American mainstream values birthed the hippie. It begins with the San Francisco Poetry Renaissance, peaks with the Human Be-in in Golden Gate Park, and ends with the Monterey Pop Festival that introduced Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin to the world. It ties everything together into a gripping narrative with a cast of scores of fascinating people, and tells several micro-histories in the process, including beat poetry, visual arts, underground publishing, electronic /contemporary compositional music, experimental theater, psychedelics, and more.

Fascinating, far-reaching, and definitive, THE LAST GREAT DREAM is the ultimate guide to a generation-defining countercultural movement, an Underground 101 course for newcomers and aficionados alike.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dennis McNally is an author, historian, and music publicist. His books include On Highway 61: Music, Race and the Evolution of Cultural Freedom, A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead, and Desolate Angel: Jack Kerouac, The Beat Generation & America. He lives in San Francisco.

About Da Capo

Da Capo is an imprint dedicated to publishing definitive biographies, memoirs, and narrative non-fiction about music and musicians. Through music, we encounter the world and the countercultural traditions that have animated creative movements in the 20th and 21st centuries. From classic rock and punk to metal, jazz, and hip hop, Da Capo’s books are made with the active listener in mind, whose music is a cornerstone of their identity.

About Hachette Book Group

Hachette Book Group (HBG) is a leading U.S. general-interest book publisher made up of dozens of esteemed imprints within the publishing groups Basic Books Group, Grand Central Publishing Group, Hachette Audio, Little, Brown and Company, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, Orbit and Workman Running Press Group. We also provide custom distribution, fulfillment, and sales services to other publishing companies.