Writer and poet Richard Brautigan created a counter cultural presence all his own. Brautigan did not identify with the hippies or the Beats, despite his proximity to them. He grew up impoverished and dirt poor in Tacoma, Washington before moving south to California. Living in San Francisco in the ‘60s, he was surrounded by activists and bohemians. Brautigan’s work challenged American life but he was also something of an optimist, posturing himself as a clear heir to Hemingway, Thoreau, and other writers of the great outdoors as a place of discovery in a chaotic, ever changing world.
