In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Richard Brautigan was a
counter-cultural celebrity, a writer that the would-be hip just had to
read. The problem was that his fame did not rest on the considerable
literary virtues of his work but, to a great extent, on a mediated image
of cool hippie, which fell out of fashion in the mid-70s. This is the
first book-length study of Brautigan in English for 30 years. Its
purpose is to reclaim Brautigan's reputation. Dr. John Tanner analyses
Brautigan's fiction against the background of the cultural and literary
upheavals from which it emerged and demonstrates that Brautigan is no
mere Sixties curio but an innovative and vibrant American voice ignored
for far too long. John Tanner teaches English Literature and Creative
Writing at Bangor University. He is an elected member of the Welsh
Academy of writers and his poetry has appeared in various magazines, in
the anthology The Lie of the Land, and in the collected volume of his
verse, Pieces, both published by Cinnamon Press.