BOOK-INTERVIEWS WITH ICONS

Interviews with Icons
by Lisa Law - Paperback, 225 pages

In this engaging document of the times, award-winning photographer and documentary filmmaker Lisa Law uses 28 interviews with 1960s 'icons' to expand and explain the marching orders for a whole generation: 'make love not war,' 'tune in, turn on, drop out,' 'Question Authority.' Perhaps as much as anything, Interviews with Icons serves as a direct rebuttal to the revisionists of recent years who debate the relevance and legacy of the '60s and challenge the efficacy of the counterculture and the 'revolution' which it advocated and idealistically pursued.

Collected here are not only philosophical musings, but some great personal stories such as Dennis Hopper's telling of Dylan's writing 'The Ballad of Easy Rider,' or Viet Nam vet Craig Preston's account of his homeless life in Golden Gate Park. The book not only contains a gala of famous names (Leary, Fonda, Ginsberg, Taj Mahal...), but also chronicles many of the behind-the-scenes characters and movers-and -shakers from the flowerpower years (Mountain Girl, Jahanara Romney, Viola Spolin, Ron Thelin, Rick Klein...) who have equally integral stories.