"Enclosed in this beautiful package, please find: an agile mind, a
perfect style, a canny and undeceivable heart, and a welcome, enduring
presence in the reader's life." --Michael Chabon
A portrait of a keen social observer at the center of the last 50 years
of cultural life, captured through a vivid selection of O'Brien's own
writings on music to fashion to downtown art and, just as importantly
and unexpectedly, the political temperature of America.
Glenn O'Brien collaborated with visual artists, writers, fashion houses,
and musicians throughout his almost 50-year career. Intelligence for
Dummies gathers Glenn O'Brien's essays, aphorisms and tweets, to create
a portrait of the artist as cultural bellwether, complimented by artwork
and photographs from his collaborators. A full color, hardcover edition,
Intelligence for Dummies is a deeply personal aperçu into Patti Smith
and Jean Michel Basquiat's New York, and the culture of money that
ensued. It also reveals O'Brien's incisive and prescient understanding
of America's political culture, and of our current president.