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A revelatory cultural history of free spirits and wild ideas from Alan Watts to George Lucas and far beyond.
"Those of us who grew up in Marin always knew it was a special place. Just how special, and why, is brilliantly articulated in this exhaustively researched book." —Huey Lewis
"As close to a perfect history of Northern California and the various artists that nursed at its breast." —Peter Coyote
"Reading Morning in Marin, you get the sense it served as America's leading countercultural way station." —Los Angeles Times
Cross the Golden Gate and enter the rollicking creative scene of midcentury Marin County, a fertile font of risk-takers and radical thinkers. In these misted hills, currents of art and philosophy swirl, giving rise to the seismic cultural awakening out of which Star Wars, Alan Watts, and the Grateful Dead all emerge. Marin is where Anna Halprin dances, Philip K Dick dreams, Gary Snyder circumambulates, and Janis Joplin hides. What made Marin such a galvanizing force of iconoclasm and counterculture: Was it the money, Mount Tamalpais, the acid trips? With a fresh voice steeped in local lore, David Perlis dips into parties on Sausalito houseboats, hangs around communes in West Marin, and introduces us to the visionaries who sowed the seeds of an organic inner revolution that bloomed into a global commercial empire—transforming Marin along the way as outsider elements became the consummate insiders. Blending pop culture, biography, and a deeply affectionate sense of place into an immersive narrative history, Morning in Marin traces a movement of Zen thinkers, Beat poets, mystic feminists, and psychedelic rockers from their radical beginnings through their crises and contradictions. Forging an unbroken chain from bohemians and Beats to New Age and New Hollywood, Perlis reveals how the people, places, and ideas of Marin combined to create a lasting American mythology.
Top 40 Independent Press Bestseller
Northern California Indie Bookseller Bestseller
"A lively account of a countercultural haven." —Kirkus
"A gonzo love letter to a bygone Northern California counterculture." —Publishers Weekly
"Reading Morning in Marin, David Perlis’ history of the place and its outsize cultural influence for much of the 20th century, you get the sense it served as America's leading countercultural way station. [...] And Perlis' storytelling skills make it seem like good fun as he pingpongs from artist to artist, each somehow inventing a meaningful, or at least recognizable, cultural touchstone." —Los Angeles Times
"Morning in Marin is a high-speed tour de force, alighting on just about every cool thing that took place on this side of the Golden Gate Bridge during that golden era." —Marin Independent Journal
"In Morning in Marin, Perlis expertly tells the story of a history that spans more than 50 years, a brilliantly written book with a fast-paced and fascinating narrative full of rich, immersive, and often conspiratorial details. Through painstaking research and more than 60 interviews, he reveals the machinations behind individuals and events whose profound impact on art, music, and writing still resonates today." —7x7
"Over more than five years, Perlis combed through archives across the state, working through autobiographies, oral histories, contemporary interviews and—his favorite source—personal correspondence. [...] What he found in his research surprised him. Marin’s cultural fingerprints weren’t confined to the Bay Area; its influence, it became increasingly clear, was national and even global." —Pacific Sun
"Those of us who grew up in Marin always knew it was a special place. Just how special, and why, is brilliantly articulated in Mr. Perlis's exhaustively researched book. Settled by artists and European influences after WWII, Marin became home to many of the important artists, writers, musicians, comedians, and entertainers of the last seventy-five years. Art for Art's sake indeed." —Huey Lewis, musician
"Reading this book is like being catapulted to 30,000 feet. Only a slight turn of the head can expose vast geographical territory. Dave Perlis must have been everywhere. He knew everyone I knew and recorded them perfectly. He knew their antecedents and their antecedents. He captured their stories. It's as close to a perfect history of Northern California and the various artists that nursed at its breast. It’s a wonderful book. If I could have written it I would have. But I couldn’t. Dave Perlis could and did. Don’t miss it." —Peter Coyote, actor, Zen priest, author of Sleeping Where I Fall
"David Perlis has recaptured the times in a way that allows us to remember. For the younger generation of artists and seekers who are searching for such fertile ground and community, this journey back is a documentary of the remarkable, a tender ode to the magic." —Daria Halprin, dancer, author, cofounder of the Tamalpa Institute
"An enchanted fog's-eye view of the hyperreality on the far side of the Waldo Tunnel and how it rippled out to the rest of us. Both dreamy and meticulous." —Jesse Jarnow, author of Heads: A Biography of Psychedelic America, cohost of The Good Ol' Grateful Deadcast
David Perlis is a writer, musician, and filmmaker from Marin County, California. For nearly a decade he co-hosted the late night talk show Night People on WFMU. He has worked for the New York Public Library and the American Museum of Natural History. He now lives in Corrales, New Mexico.