The life and times of the great hippie poet

I’ve written several biographies and I’m kind of proud of them. But then I got this new biography ofRichard Brautigan.

It’s as if I’m standing at the urinal, looking down, congratulating myself.You know, that’s not bad . . . I’m pretty good, I guess.



ThenWilliam Hjortsbergwalks up to the next urinal and unfurls a monster.

“Water’s cold,” he muses.“Deep, too.”

Hjortsberg’s book,Jubilee Hitchhiker(Counterpoint, $42.50) will inspire biography-envy in the heart of any writer who tries to tell the sto...