Paul Krassner, RIP (1932 – 2019)

[Update: Check out Jesse Walker's Reason interview with Paul]

Author, activist, and self-described "investigative satirist" Paul Krassner died at the age of 87 today in Desert Hot Springs, California. He was a personal friend and an early supporter of Boing Boing when it was a zine. Here are a few highlights of his long, active life:

He wrote for MAD magazine in the 1950s.
He launched a political satire/non-fiction zine called The Realist in 1958, which ran some of Robert Anton Wilson's first published work, and which was a big inspiration for Boing Boing. Paul kindly swapped subscriptions once Carla and I got Boing Boing off the ground.
He edited Lenny Bruce's autobiography, How To Talk Dirty and Influence People.
In the early 1960s he started an abortion referral service when abortions were illegal.
When he moved to San Francisco, he became a roommate with Whole Earth Catalog editor Stewart Brand. Today, Brand tweeted "Farewell to my early role model and later roommate, Paul Krassner. 87. I remember that whenever he encountered a loose thumbtack, he reflexively turned it point-side-down."
In 1967 he memorialized Walt Disney's death by commissioning a Realist illustration by famous cartoonist Wally Wood called "Disneyland Memorial Orgy," which featured famous Disney characters having sex with each other and taking drugs.
He co-founded the Youth International Party (Yippies) in the 1960s with Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman, and entered a pig as the Yippie Party presidential candidate in the 1968 election.
He was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Chicago Seven trial.
He, Rubin, and Hoffman caused pandemonium when they threw dollar bills on the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
He realized that "Spiro Agnew" was an anagram for "Grow A Penis."
In 1979 he was covering the San Francisco protest about the lenient sentence given to Dan White for murdering San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone. A cop beat Paul so badly that he lost the use of one of his legs.
He took LSD with Groucho Marx and wrote about it.
He continued to write prolifically for magazines, newspapers, and websites right up until his death.