Steven L. Davis

Bill Minutaglio

From Bill Minutaglio and Steven L. Davis, authors of the PEN Center USA award-winning Dallas 1963, comes a madcap narrative about Timothy Leary's daring prison escape and run from the law. On the moonlit evening of September 12, 1970, an ex-Harvard professor with a genius I.Q. studies a twelve-foot high fence topped with barbed wire. A few months earlier, Dr. Timothy Leary, the High Priest of LSD, had been running a gleeful campaign for California governor against Ronald Reagan. Now, Leary is six months into a ten-year prison sentence for the crime of possessing two marijuana cigarettes. Aided by the radical Weather Underground, Leary's escape from prison is the counterculture's union of "dope and dynamite," aimed at sparking a revolution and overthrowing the government. Inside the Oval Office, President Richard Nixon drinks his way through sleepless nights as he expands the war in Vietnam and plots to unleash the United States government against his ever-expanding list of domestic enemies. Antiwar demonstrators are massing by the tens of thousands; homemade bombs are exploding everywhere; Black Panther leaders are threatening to burn down the White House; and all the while Nixon obsesses over tracking down Timothy Leary, whom he has branded "the most dangerous man in America." Based on freshly uncovered primary sources and new firsthand interviews, THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA is an American thriller that takes readers along for the gonzo ride of a lifetime. Spanning twenty-eight months, President Nixon's careening, global manhunt for Dr. Timothy Leary winds its way among homegrown radicals, European aristocrats, a Black Panther outpost in Algeria, an international arms dealer, hash-smuggling hippies from the Brotherhood of Eternal Love, and secret agents on four continents, culminating in one of the trippiest journeys through the American counterculture.

Timothy Leary, Richard Nixon and the Hunt for the Fugitive King of LSD

The Most Dangerous Man in America

City On Fire

Presents an account of the radicals, reactionaries, and extremists who turned Dallas into a city infamous for the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

Dallas 1963

'It's a rollicking tale that brings to life the antic atmosphere of America in the 'Me' Decade' Wall Street Journal 'A madcap chase... this is a well-written chronicle of 28 months when the world went slightly mad' Sunday Times 'A suitably head-spinning account of LSD High Priest Dr Timothy Leary' Mail on Sunday On the moonlit evening of September 12, 1970, an ex-Harvard professor with a genius IQ studies a twelve-foot high fence topped with barbed wire. A few months earlier, Dr. Timothy Leary, the High Priest of LSD, had been running a gleeful campaign for California governor against Ronald Reagan. Now, Leary is six months into a ten-year prison sentence for the crime of possessing two marijuana cigarettes. Aided by the radical Weather Underground, Leary's escape from prison is the counterculture's union of "dope and dynamite," aimed at sparking a revolution and overthrowing the government. Inside the Oval Office, President Richard Nixon drinks his way through sleepless nights as he expands the war in Vietnam and plots to unleash the United States government against his ever-expanding list of domestic enemies. Antiwar demonstrators are massing by the tens of thousands; homemade bombs are exploding everywhere; Black Panther leaders are threatening to burn down the White House; and all the while Nixon obsesses over tracking down Timothy Leary, whom he has branded "the most dangerous man in America." Based on freshly uncovered primary sources and new firsthand interviews, THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA is an American thriller that takes readers along for the gonzo ride of a lifetime. Spanning twenty-eight months, President Nixon's careening, global manhunt for Dr. Timothy Leary winds its way among homegrown radicals, European aristocrats, a Black Panther outpost in Algeria, an international arms dealer, hash-smuggling hippies from the Brotherhood of Eternal Love, and secret agents on four continents, culminating in one of the trippiest journeys through the American counterculture.

Finalist, 2021 Writers’ League of Texas Book Award For John Nance “Cactus Jack” Garner, there was one simple rule in politics: “You’ve got to bloody your knuckles.” It’s a maxim that applies in so many ways to the state of Texas, where the struggle for power has often unfolded through underhanded politicking, backroom dealings, and, quite literally, bloodshed. The contentious history of Texas politics has been shaped by dangerous and often violent events, and been formed not just in the halls of power but by marginalized voices omitted from the official narratives. A Single Star and Bloody Knuckles traces the state’s conflicted and dramatic evolution over the past 150 years through its pivotal political players, including oft-neglected women and people of color. Beginning in 1870 with the birth of Texas’s modern political framework, Bill Minutaglio chronicles Texas political life against the backdrop of industry, the economy, and race relations, recasting the narrative of influential Texans. With journalistic verve and candor, Minutaglio delivers a contemporary history of the determined men and women who fought for their particular visions of Texas and helped define the state as a potent force in national affairs.

A History of Politics and Race in Texas

A Single Star and Bloody Knuckles

STEVEN L. MINUTAGLIO DAVIS (BILL.)

Winner of the PEN Center USA Literary Award for Research Nonfiction Named one of the Top 3 JFK Books by Parade Magazine. Named 1 of The 5 Essential Kennedy assassination books ever written by The Daily Beast. Named one of the Top Nonfiction Books of 2013 by Kirkus Reviews. In the months and weeks before the fateful November 22nd, 1963, Dallas was brewing with political passions, a city crammed with larger-than-life characters dead-set against the Kennedy presidency. These included rabid warriors like defrocked military general Edwin A. Walker; the world's richest oil baron, H. L. Hunt; the leader of the largest Baptist congregation in the world, W.A. Criswell; and the media mogul Ted Dealey, who raucously confronted JFK and whose family name adorns the plaza where the president was murdered. On the same stage was a compelling cast of marauding gangsters, swashbuckling politicos, unsung civil rights heroes, and a stylish millionaire anxious to save his doomed city. Bill Minutaglio and Steven L. Davis ingeniously explore the swirling forces that led many people to warn President Kennedy to avoid Dallas on his fateful trip to Texas. Breathtakingly paced, DALLAS 1963 presents a clear, cinematic, and revelatory look at the shocking tragedy that transformed America. Countless authors have attempted to explain the assassination, but no one has ever bothered to explain Dallas-until now. With spellbinding storytelling, Minutaglio and Davis lead us through intimate glimpses of the Kennedy family and the machinations of the Kennedy White House, to the obsessed men in Dallas who concocted the climate of hatred that led many to blame the city for the president's death. Here at long last is an accurate understanding of what happened in the weeks and months leading to John F. Kennedy's assassination. DALLAS 1963 is not only a fresh look at a momentous national tragedy but a sobering reminder of how radical, polarizing ideologies can poison a city-and a nation.

The rich, complex lives of African Americans in Texas were often neglected by the mainstream media, which historically seldom ventured into Houston's Fourth Ward, San Antonio's East Side, South Dallas, or the black neighborhoods in smaller cities. When Bill Minutaglio began writing for Texas newspapers in the 1970s, few large publications had more than a token number of African American journalists, and they barely acknowledged the things of lasting importance to the African American community. Though hardly the most likely reporter—as a white, Italian American transplant from New York City—for the black Texas beat, Minutaglio was drawn to the African American heritage, seeking its soul in churches, on front porches, at juke joints, and anywhere else that people would allow him into their lives. His nationally award-winning writing offered many Americans their first deeper understanding of Texas's singular, complicated African American history. This eclectic collection gathers the best of Minutaglio's writing about the soul of black Texas. He profiles individuals both unknown and famous, including blues legends Lightnin' Hopkins, Amos Milburn, Robert Shaw, and Dr. Hepcat. He looks at neglected, even intentionally hidden, communities. And he wades into the musical undercurrent that touches on African Americans' joys, longings, and frustrations, and the passing of generations. Minutaglio's stories offer an understanding of the sweeping evolution of music, race, and justice in Texas. Moved forward by the musical heartbeat of the blues and defined by the long shadow of racism, the stories measure how far Texas has come . . . or still has to go.

A Journey to the Soul of Black Texas

In Search of the Blues

Original edition: New York: HarperCollins, 2003.

The Explosion that Devastated a Texas Town and Ignited a Historic Legal Battle

City on Fire

For John Nance “Cactus Jack” Garner, there was one simple rule in politics: “You’ve got to bloody your knuckles.” It’s a maxim that applies in so many ways to the state of Texas, where the struggle for power has often unfolded through underhanded politicking, backroom dealings, and, quite literally, bloodshed. The contentious history of Texas politics has been shaped by dangerous and often violent events, and been formed not just in the halls of power but by marginalized voices omitted from the official narratives. A Single Star and Bloody Knuckles traces the state’s conflicted and dramatic evolution over the past 150 years through its pivotal political players, including oft-neglected women and people of color. Beginning in 1870 with the birth of Texas’s modern political framework, Bill Minutaglio chronicles Texas political life against the backdrop of industry, the economy, and race relations, recasting the narrative of influential Texans. With journalistic verve and candor, Minutaglio delivers a contemporary history of the determined men and women who fought for their particular visions of Texas and helped define the state as a potent force in national affairs.

Lorsque Timothy Leary, ancien professeur d'Harvard, s'enfuit d'une prison californienne, il ne se doute pas qu'une des plus impitoyables chasses à l'homme serait lancée... La nuit du 12 septembre 1970, l'apôtre de la contre-culture hippie et grand manitou du LSD Timothy Leary s'évade d'une prison californienne. Arrêté quelques mois plus tôt en possession de deux joints de marijuana, il avait été condamné à dix ans... Son évasion spectaculaire fut le grand fait d’armes de la mouvance révolutionnaire américaine la plus radicale, déterminée à renverser le gouvernement. À Washington, le président Nixon aligne les nuits sans sommeil, embourbé dans la guerre du Vietnam. Les manifestations tournent à l'émeute, des bombes explosent partout dans le pays et les Black Panthers menacent la Maison-Blanche. Le président n’a dès lors plus qu’une obsession : mettre la main sur Timothy Leary, qu’il qualifie « d’homme le plus dangereux d’Amérique ». Basée sur de nombreux témoignages et documents inédits, voici l'histoire d'une trépidante chasse à l’homme menée par le FBI, des USA à l’Afghanistan. Un récit déjanté où se croisent hippies défoncés, radicaux américains, aristocrates européens, trafiquants d’armes et agents secrets. Un trip délirant au cœur de la contre-culture américaine ! Les auteurs se penchent sur la cavale effrenante de Timothy Leary et découvrent de nouveaux témoignages et des sources inédites. Par ce récit au rythme haletant, découvrez un pan inconnu de l'histoire des Etats-Unis des années 70 ! EXTRAIT Après cette rencontre avec le Secrétaire d’État, Nixon demande qu’une « Conférence de presse de la Maison-Blanche sur la Toxicomanie » soit organisée. Les soixante-dix dirigeants de médias conviés par le président auront la primeur d’entendre les avancées faites par l’État pour endiguer l’épidémie de narcotiques. Avec démonstration à l’appui. Kishi, une femelle berger allemand, chien renifleur, est présentée pour démontrer ses capacités à trouver une planque de haschich. Les agents des douanes disposent sur la pelouse de la Maison-Blanche trente-trois colis postaux non réclamés, sélectionnés au hasard pour l’occasion. Les agents complètent le lot par un paquet dans lequel a été caché un kilo de chanvre bien emballé. Devant l’assemblée attentive, on lâche Kishi. La chienne commence à renifler frénétiquement les colis et trouve rapidement le bagage dans lequel la drogue est dissimulée. Chacun applaudit. Soudain, Kishi renifle avec insistance un autre colis, et commence à le gratter. Ce n’était pas au programme des agents fédéraux. Ils regardent le président avec confusion. Une bougie de 20 × 10 cm est retrouvée, fourrée de 200 gr de hasch de première qualité. À PROPOS DES AUTEURS Bill Minutaglio a notamment écrit pour le New York Times, le Guardian, Newsweek, le Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Il est professeur à l’Université du Texas à Austin et reçut pour le livre Dallas 1963, coécrit avec Steven L. Davis, le prix PEN du meilleur essai. Il est aussi l’auteur de l’anthologie In Search of the Blues et de livres encensés traitant de George W. Bush, de l’écrivaine Molly Ivins et du plus grand désastre industriel arrivé en Amérique (www.billminutaglio.com). Steven L. Davis a reçu le prix PEN du meilleur essai pour le livre Dallas 1963 (coécrit avec Bill Minutaglio). Auteur de deux livres sur le Texas, il est également éditeur.

Bill Minutaglio

About

Books

Join the club