Skeleton Key: A Dictionary for Deadheads

For fifty years and more than two thousand shows, the Grateful Dead have been earning the "deadication" of more than a million fans. Along the way, Deadheads have built an original and authentic American subculture, with vivid jargon and rich love, and its own legends, myths, and spirituality.

“Replete with a healthy sense of humor and an obvious love for its subject . . . the mix of concrete and the absurd reminds you of the Dead's music itself.”—Rolling Stone

Skeleton Key: A Dictionary for Deadheads is the first map of what Jerry Garcia calls "the Grateful Dead outback," as seen through the eyes of the faithful, friends, and family, including Bill Walton, Elvis Costello, Tipper Gore, Al Franken, Bob Bralove, Dick Latvala, Blair Jackson, David Gans, Bruce Hornsby, Rob Wasserman, and Robert Hunter. Skeleton Key puts you on the Merry Pranksters' bus behind the real Cowboy Neal, uncovers the origins of Cherry Garcia, follows the dancing bear on its trip from psychedelic artifact to trademarked icon, and unlocks the Dead's own tape vault.

Informative reading for the new fan or the most grizzled "tourhead," Skeleton Key shines throughout with Deadheads' own stories, wit, insiders' knowledge, sincere appreciation of the music of the "band beyond description," and the diverse and soulful culture it inspires.

DAVID SHENK is the author of six books, including The Genius in All of Us, Data Smog, and The Immortal Game. His book The Forgetting inspired an Emmy-winning PBS film of the same name and was featured in the Oscar-nominated film “Away From Her.” He has advised the President’s Council on Bioethics and contributed to The New Yorker, National Geographic, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Gourmet, Harper's, Spy, and NPR. Shenk lives in Brooklyn. More at davidshenk.com.

STEVE SILBERMAN is an investigative reporter whose feature articles have appeared in Wired, The New Yorker, and many other national magazines. He is also the author of NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity (Avery/Penguin 2015) and one of Time's selected science tweeters (@stevesilberman). More at stevesilberman.com.