The Walrus And The Elephants

Description

In late 1971 John Lennon left London and pop stardom behind and moved to New York City, eager to join a movement for social justice and an end to the Vietnam War. He was embraced by radicals, hippies and Yippies alike. Lennon was soon on the front lines of the antiwar movement, inspiring solidarity - and suspicion. The Walrus and the Elephants is told by the unlikely cast of friends, including feminist leader Gloria Steiem and legendary poet-activist John Sinclair. The book is a look back at that time and at the revolutionary John Lennon through the eyes of fellow fighters.

Author JAMES A. MITCHELL is the author of But for the Grace- Profiles in Peace from a Nation at Wa (Mansion Field, 2009), the story of an orphanage in Sri Lanka's war-torn northeast; rock biography It Was All Right- Mitch Ryder's Life in Music (Wayne State University Press, 2008); and tales from a rural newspaper, Applegate- Freedom of the Press in a Small Town (2002, University Press of America). A reporter and editor for more than twenty years, Mitchell was a US Army soldier-journalist, and spent a decade in New York working for Firehouse and Video Business magazines. His works on a wide range of subjects have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, the Humanist, and Starlog. From South Asia, Mitchell produced video features for CNN's iReports in the aftermath of the twenty-six-year civil war. Mitchell lives in southeast Michigan, and serves with a nonprofit organization that supports the Grace Care Center children's home in Sri Lanka. The author makes frequent appearances before community and civic groups regarding Sri Lanka, and has appeared on radio and TV shows to discuss Detroit rock and roll.

"James Mitchell carefully and lovingly has reconstructed an inspiring and poignant chapter both in John Lennon's odyssey and in the tangled flow of the American anti-war and other protest movements of the late nineteen sixties and early seventies. The Walrus and The Elephants is an indispensable window into an amazing time in American history and the history of rock and roll." -Danny Goldberg, author of Bumping Into Geniuses "This book serves as a backstage pass to the missing link between Lennon's music and his activism, ranging from decriminalization of marijuana to termination of undeclared war-both ends of that spectrum fueled by the government's misuse of power without compassion-revealing how the Nixon administration tried to silence him." -Paul Krassner, author of Confessions of a Raving, Unconfined Nut: Misadventures in the Counterculture "Lennon is one of the most documented individuals in modern culture, yet never before has this early New York period of his history been examined with greater depth and clarity." -Lee Ranaldo, co-founder of Sonic Youth