The Prankster and the Conspiracy: The Story of Kerry Thornley and How He Met Oswald and Inspired the Counterculture

Adam Gorightly

New York

:

Paraview Press

,

2003

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First Edition.

22.5cm x 15cm. 290 pages, black and white illustrations. Pictorial wrappers.

“One of the 1960s counterculture’s most fascinating characters was Kerry Wendell Thornley — a writer, philosopher, Zen dishwasher, enlightened prankster, and, possibly, an Oswald double with disturbing ties to the Kennedy assassination. A lifelong provocateur, Thornley was linked to many of the fringe elements of the time. He helped create the spoof religion called the Discordian Society and its tract, the Principia Discordia. He coined the term paganism to describe various nature religions. And he befriended Robert Anton Wilson, inspired the Illuminatus, and gave his anarchic support to the Bavarian Illuminati, a brilliant prank.” (publisher’s blurb)

. New Book.