Committed: A Rabble-Rouser's Memoir - Hardcover

Mathews, Dan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0743291875 ISBN 13: 9780743291873

Publisher: Atria, 2007

Synopsis

The vice president of PETA describes the high-profile and often incendiary awareness-raising events that have marked his career, from the demonstration during which he dressed like a carrot to promote vegetarianism only to have farming children throw bologna slices at him, to his attack on a GM Rose Parade float to protest their use of animals in crash tests. 40,000 first printing.

About this title

About the Author

Dan Matthews worked as a dancing tree in the Disneyland Christmas parade, a burger flipper at McDonald's, and a model and actor in Italy before earning a history degree from American University. Upon graduating, he took a job as receptionist at PETA and worked his way up for more than twenty years to become the group's vice president, charged with increasing awareness of animal rights through a variety of provocative campaigns. He lives in Portsmouth, Virginia.

Reviews

Having grown up poor and gay, with a penchant for punk rock and Lawrence Welk, Mathews, who is now campaign chief for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, had a rough start. But his camp, cosmopolitan and crass memoir is like a life lesson from the Island of Misfit Toys: a study of the unwitting heroism and adventures of an outsider dedicated to a cause. Less a treatise than a picaresque tale, his book wouldn't be complete without a bit of persuasion, whether detailing the horrors of the fur industry, factory farming or animal experimentation. But he's as willing to make fun of himself as he is of his many targets—including Vogue editor Anna Wintour (who, he says, "looks as if she has constant, painful gas") and deli-meat–hurling Iowan children. Then again, this is a man who dresses up regularly in a carrot costume. Aided by humor, luck and friends like Pamela Anderson and Morrissey, Mathews makes clear there is savvy to his controversial methods. "The flair you bring to a protest is as important as the issues themselves—if you want to reach beyond the small core of whoever might care about an issue." Those at odds with Mathews's ideals are bound to find him irritating, but open-minded readers will discover a charming polemicist. (Apr. 17)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Animal rights activist Mathews is the exuberant mastermind behind many of the audacious, headline-grabbing protests that have made PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) such an effective and controversial organization. And just as PETA's approach to raising awareness of scientific, agricultural, and industrial cruelty toward animals involves strategic high jinks, saucy irreverence, and shock tactics, Mathews, an "agitator by nature," mixes outrageous humor with dishy anecdotes and searing revelations to create a wildly entertaining memoir and a spirited overview of a serious social issue. Openly gay and steeled by the bullying he endured as a boy, Mathews has always felt empathy for animals. Initially a receptionist for PETA in 1985, he proved to be an outside-the-box thinker and daredevil protestor, possessed of as much charm as daring and, at six foot five, impressive good looks. Mathews has enlisted the likes of rockers Morrissey and Chrissie Hynde and sex symbol Pamela Anderson in the cause, and he has advocated and been arrested all over world. The force of his convictions and his love of life electrify every page. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Atria
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0743291875
• ISBN 13: 9780743291873
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 253