Run Run Run: The Lives of Abbie Hoffman

Linking the events of Hoffman's personal life with the political and social climate of the 1960s and beyond, an engrossing biography of Abbie Hoffman recreates the complexities of his life and his role as an activist, from the perspective of his younger brother.

The obsessive inner forces that drove Abbie Hoffman (1936-89), antiwar protester, media manipulator and grassroots organizer, are illuminated in this engaging biography by his younger brother. Jack Hoffman's intimate first-person narrative is coauthored with Simon, cofounder of Four Wall Eight Windows publishing. The book offers close views of Abbie's troubled relationship with his conservative father, his contentious first marriage and his role in the 1969 Chicago Conspiracy trial. Also revealed are his constant drug use, including his 1973 cocaine bust and his fugitive years with ex-model Johanna Lawrenson, during which, as "Barry Freed," he organized an environmentalist campaign to save the St. Lawrence Seaway. We learn that Abbie took lithium for manic-depressive disorder; Jack Hoffman retracts his statement alleging foul play, made shortly after Abbie died of barbituate poisoning, and describes his brother's self-medicating at the time of his death. Photos.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A touching portrait of a complex and tortured soul, written by his brother. Abbie Hoffman, one of the best-known radicals of the 1960s, kept in almost daily contact with his kid brother, Jack, even during his days of hiding as a fugitive. With the help of Four Walls Eight Windows copublisher Simon, Jack now chronicles their relationship and his brother's life. From humble Russian-Jewish origins, they were the sons of a long-suffering father, whom they compared to Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman, and a mother best described as eccentric. Experimenting with drugs and gradually becoming politicized, Abbie joined SNCC in 1964 and helped raise funds for their Freedom Summer efforts. Later he founded the Youth International Party (the Yippies) with Jerry Rubin and organized the protests against the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago. He established himself as the clown prince of the counterculture, writing Revolution for the Hell of It and Steal This Book. The humor with which he approached the Chicago 7 conspiracy trial and his appearance before HUAC is vividly depicted. His continuing drug use and experimentation led to his arrest in 1973 on cocaine charges. Abbie went underground for almost seven years. Hiding first in Mexico, he later returned to the US, living in upstate New York under the alias Barry Freed. Unable to stay out of politics, he became a noted environmental activist. He also battled manic-depression. In 1980, he reemerged and surrendered to authorities; after about a year in prison, he was paroled. He became increasingly depressed, however, and drugs and alcohol only compounded the problem. He took his own life in 1989. These events are well known, and Jack Hoffman is curiously removed from the story he tells. He elaborates little, if at all, on how it felt to be the younger brother of such a notorious figure, as if he were still content to remain in Abbie's lingering shadow. Nevertheless, this is the forceful story of an American original. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

During the silver anniversaries of Woodstock and the Chicago conspiracy trial, Abbie Hoffman's name was mentioned on more than a few occasions. Now, the iconoclast's brother Jack--keeper of the family business while Abbie was off saving the world--shares his recollections of his sib in a personal, informative biography that effectively evokes the vitality, charisma, and commitment of the late radical prankster. Abbie has gotten his share of vilification and lionization over the years, but Jack, with the competent assistance of Daniel Simon, lovingly depicts him as full of contradictions--antic performer and hermit, street tough and intellectual, political scientist and flower child, middle-class kid and revolutionary--but with a heart dedicated to good works. Abbie was a textbook manic-depressive: when he was up, he was flying; when he was down, he was suicidal (indeed, he took his own life in 1989). Jack pulls few punches in presenting Abbie's irresponsibility and psychological fragility (while a fugitive, Abbie's worst fear was that the FBI didn't really want to catch him) but counters it with demonstrations of selflessness and generosity (Abbie gave much of his income away and, contrary to FBI misinformation, always eschewed limousines). Jack does a fine job covering all the major events--the Yippies, the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago, the conspiracy trial, the many arrests, the cocaine bust, the fugitive years, the resurfacing, and the later years when Abbie floundered and lost his grip. Ultimately, Jack Hoffman does justice to his brother's spirit. Benjamin Segedin