Abbie Hoffman : Steal This Book

Description

Steal This Book by Abbie Hoffman . Pirate Editions, 1971.

First edition, unstated later printing of the counter-cultural survival manual turned cult-classic by Yippie movement leader Abbie Hoffman. Most famous for their acts of absurdist direct action like the campaign to elect a literal pig for president or nearly causing a riot by raining Monopoly money  onto the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, the Yippie ethos was as much a cultivated sardonic prankster attitude making mockery of mainstream society as much as it was a “philosophy”. Steal This Book, with its evocative, imperative, title, serves as an encapsulation of the attitudes, ideas, and techniques from the turbulent immediate post-1960s period, reflected in Abbie Hoffman ‘s inclusion of sections on constitutional law, holding press conferences, stealing food, providing first aid to street fighters, and cartoonish schematic instructions for the creation of Weather Underground-esque improvised explosives.

Small 8vo, printed black paper wraps with original price of $1.95 on front and back wrapper, Grove  and Pirate Edition logos in red on spine and front wrapper. Price obscured by marker on front wrap. Wear with color losses to front wrap, some yellowing to back, some creasing to front wrap corners. Reading creases and wear to spine corners. Book block and pages yellowed but clean. Good condition.

 

If you liked this book, you might also like this rare hand stapled magic zine by New York’s “Anarchist Necromancer” Patrick Geoffrois, the “Lucifer of the Lower East Side”.