True tales of writers and pirates, painters and potheads, guitar pickers and drug merchants in America’s southernmost city For Hemingway and Fitzgerald, there was Paris in the twenties. For others, later, there was Greenwich Village, Big Sur, and Woodstock. But for an even later generation—one defined by the likes of Jimmy Buffett, Tom McGuane, and Hunter S. Thompson—there was another moveable feast: KeyWest, Florida. The small town on the two-by-four-mile island has long been an artistic haven, a wild refuge for people of all persuasions, and the inspirational home for a league of great American writers. Some of the artists went there to be literary he-men. Some went to re-create themselves. Others just went to disappear—and succeeded. No matter what inspired the trip, Key West in the seventies was the right place at the right time, where and when an astonishing collection of artists wove a web of creative inspiration. Mile Marker Zero tells the story of how these writers and artists found their identities in Key West and maintained their friendships over the decades, despite oceans of booze and boatloads of pot, through serial marriages and sexual escapades, in that dangerous paradise. Unlike the “Lost Generation” of Paris in the twenties, we have a generation that invented, reinvented, and found itself at the unending cocktail party at the end—and the beginning—of America’s highway.

Mile Marker Zero: The Moveable Feast of Key West

Biographies & Memoirs

McKeen, William

Arts & Literature

Crown

Mile Marker Zero: Key West's Moveable Feast in the Seventies

Crown Publishing Group

The career of the Beatles, England's and probably the world's most famous rock 'n' roll musical group of the 1960s, has interested a wide variety of people from journalists to rock historians, from popular writers to the American public. In this one-volume reference book, McKeen traces The Beatles' career from the first American appearance in a film clip on the Jack Paar show in 1964 to their breakup in 1970.The first part of the book contains a biographical essay, and chapters on the group's work--albums, films, performances--their influence on popular culture, and a summary of what happened to John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr after the dissolution of the group in 1970. Part II continues with reference material, a discography, a bibliography and a list of concerts, television appearances, and film performances. The final chapter is a chronology of events from 1940-1970. This book is an invaluable resource for courses in Rock Music, Popular Music, and Introduction to Music. It is also a priceless reference book for rock historians and will certainly interest Beatle fans.

The Beatles: A Bio-Bibliography (Popular Culture Bio-Bibliographies)

Greenwood

A true icon of American popular culture, songwriter and entertainer Bob Dylan was a catalyst for changing social currents in the 1960s. His songs of the 60s, such as Blowin' in the Wind, immediately conjure up an era even for those too young to have witnessed it. Although he often shuns the public eye and has dropped out of sight for long periods in his career, Dylan continues to write and perform and remains influential on the popular music scene. Unswerving in his antiwar stance, he shocked audiences of the February 1991 Grammy Awards ceremony, at which he was honored with a lifetime achievement award, by singing his Masters of War during Operation Desert Storm.
Elusive to biographers, Dylan has inspired relatively few substantive accounts, although much has been written about his music. The present study presents an accurate summary of his life and an analysis of his pivotal role in popular music. His more than 400 songs and other writings, recordings, concert tours, and film and television appearances are all fully documented, as are bootleg recordings and recordings of his music by other singers. Presented in a lively manner with much anecdotal material, the facts and the myths about Dylan and the strengths and weaknesses of writings about him are carefully assessed in this one-volume source on the man and his work.

Bob Dylan: A Bio-Bibliography (Popular Culture Bio-Bibliographies)

Highway 61: A Father-and-Son Journey through the Middle of America

A father-and-son road trip through some of the most musically fertile and diverse landscapes in America. Long-distance father William McKeen watched his son grow up during summers, holidays, and long weekends. Now, with Graham in college, the two take a summer road trip down Highway 61, the legendary road of the blues, from the Canadian border to the Gulf of Mexico. In cheap motels and smoky bars, with obscure bluesmen and barnstorming guitar heroes, they discover how the highway links rich and poor, black and white. In Minnesota and Iowa, William shows his son where he spent boyhood summers with his father, who died a decade before Graham was born. In St. Louis, there's another nostalgic return to a former haunt, a slice of rock-and-roll heaven called Blueberry Hill. In Memphis, they find the genuine, uncommercialized side of the city's legendary music world, and deep in the heart of the Mississippi Delta they stand over the grave of legendary bluesman Charley Patton, listen to the murmur of wind over the cotton fields, and offer silent benediction. As they venture together through magnificent country, walking the hometown streets of Bob Dylan and Mark Twain, standing at Robert Johnson's haunted crossroads, journeying from the Delta Blues Museum to Doe's Eat Place to the Alachafaya Café of New Orleans, father and son come to realize that they have a permanent connection that can never be broken by age or distance. "Rock authority, scholar, and newly minted good ol' boy when he feels like it, William McKeen doesn't even know how to be uninteresting, least of all on Highway 61." ―Tom Wolfe "I read the book with joy and admiration for a writer at the top of his game. The book bursts with inspiration and cunningly chronicles the nuances of father/son relations in the broader context of a rock 'n' roll illusion. McKeen achieves a stunning narrative velocity and scope. A brilliant writer!" ―Nick Fowler, author of A Thing (or Two) About Curtis and Camilla "All the senses are touched in this sassy but poignant road book. William McKeen's stick-to-the-ribs words will make readers hunger for greasy burgers, thirst for icy beer, and listen to a constant serenade of music and poetry from the shoulders of the highway. En route they eavesdrop on a father and son memorizing each other during their free-fall journey without any reservations." ―Michael Wallis, author of Route 66: The Mother Road "From the Iron Range of Minnesota, where they search for the spirit of Bob Dylan, to the Mississippi Delta haunted by the ghost of Robert Johnson, William McKeen and his son take the reader down Highway 61 on a trip as rich as the musical roots they explore en route." ―Curtis Wilkie, author of Dixie

W.W.Norton&Company

"If you like rock and roll, you'll love this raunchy, rollicking anthology―great writers, great music, and astounding musicians dead and alive." ―Carl Hiaasen An electrifying collection of the finest, most entertaining, and illuminating writing on and from the rock and roll scene--from its earliest days to the present, from the brightest moments of the biggest stars to obscure but compellingly significant treasures. The crazy, exhilarating, endlessly creative world of rock and roll has fascinated us--and some of our best writers--since the earliest days of the genre. William McKeen has assembled in this book the writing of those who played the music and pushed it to new limits, as well as those who were on the scene to witness and celebrate its magic. The story of rock and roll music and the rock and roll life lifts from these pages with marvelous immediacy, in selections ranging from Bruce Springsteen on his experience of backing up Chuck Berry, to Joan Didion sitting in on a Doors recording session, to Henry Rollins on Madonna, to Roddy Doyle's The Commitments. Tom Wolfe, Patti Smith, Don DeLillo, John Lennon, Frank Zappa, Nick Hornby, and many others contribute to this portrait of the music and its culture from its ancestors in the blues to its latest variants beyond grunge and rap. The book is organized into sections that create provocative and eye-opening juxtapositions, from "Superstardom" to "Weirdness," from "Present at the Creation" to "Soul." A section on rock critics shows how these writers matched the music with their own sharp rhythm, while "Tributes" rounds off the volume by remembering in their glory some of the greats who are making noise in the hereafter.

Rock and Roll Is Here to Stay: An Anthology

Literature & Fiction

William, Mckeen

Essays & Correspondence

The famous inventor of Gonzo journalism portrayed as never before, both his charisma and his adventurous work. Hunter S. Thompson detonated a two-ton bomb under the staid field of journalism with his early magazine pieces and revelatory "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" and "Fear and Loathing" campaign coverage in Rolling Stone. When Thompson was on, there was no one better at capturing who Americans were and what America was, be it in politics, at the Kentucky Derby, or in the Hells Angels' lair. William McKeen became friends with Thompson after writing a monograph on his journalism. McKeen now has interviewed many of Thompson's associates who wouldn't speak before, from childhood friends to colleagues, to assistants who sat around the Woody Creek, Colorado, kitchen control room late at night when Thompson did most of his work. McKeen gets behind the drinking and drugs to show the man and the writer―one who was happy to be considered an outlaw but took the calling of journalism as his life. 16 pages of photographs

Outlaw Journalist: The Life and Times of Hunter S. Thompson

Professionals & Academics

"Gets it all in: the boozing and drugging…but also the intelligence, the loyalty, the inherent decency." ―Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post
Hunter S. Thompson detonated a two-ton bomb under the staid field of journalism with his magazine pieces and revelatory Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. In Outlaw Journalist, the famous inventor of Gonzo journalism is portrayed as never before. Through in-depth interviews with Thompson’s associates, William McKeen gets behind the drinking and the drugs to show the man and the writer―one who was happy to be considered an outlaw and for whom the calling of journalism was life. 16 pages of photographs

Long-distance father William McKeen watched his son grow up during summers, holidays, and long weekends. Now, with Graham in college, the two take a summer road trip down Highway 61, the legendary road of the blues, from the Canadian border to the Gulf of Mexico. In cheap motels and smoky bars, with obscure bluesmen and barnstorming guitar heroes, they discover how the highway links rich and poor, black and white. In Minnesota and Iowa, William shows his son where he spent boyhood summers with his father, who died a decade before Graham was born. In St. Louis, there's another nostalgic return to a former haunt, a slice of rock-and-roll heaven called Blueberry Hill. In Memphis, they find the genuine, uncommercialized side of the city's legendary music world, and deep in the heart of the Mississippi Delta they stand over the grave of legendary bluesman Charley Patton, listen to the murmur of wind over the cotton fields, and offer silent benediction. As they venture together through magnificent country, walking the hometown streets of Bob Dylan and Mark Twain, standing at Robert Johnson's haunted crossroads, journeying from the Delta Blues Museum to Doe's Eat Place to the Alachafaya Café of New Orleans, father and son come to realize that they have a permanent connection that can never be broken by age or distance."Rock authority, scholar, and newly minted good ol' boy when he feels like it, William McKeen doesn't even know how to be uninteresting, least of all on Highway 61." --Tom Wolfe "I read the book with joy and admiration for a writer at the top of his game. The book bursts with inspiration and cunningly chronicles the nuances of father/son relations in the broader context of a rock 'n' roll illusion. McKeen achieves a stunning narrative velocity and scope. A brilliant writer!" --Nick Fowler, author of A Thing (or Two) About Curtis and Camilla "All the senses are touched in this sassy but poignant road book. William McKeen's stick-to-the-ribs words will make readers hunger for greasy burgers, thirst for icy beer, and listen to a constant serenade of music and poetry from the shoulders of the highway. En route they eavesdrop on a father and son memorizing each other during their free-fall journey without any reservations." --Michael Wallis, author of Route 66: The Mother Road "From the Iron Range of Minnesota, where they search for the spirit of Bob Dylan, to the Mississippi Delta haunted by the ghost of Robert Johnson, William McKeen and his son take the reader down Highway 61 on a trip as rich as the musical roots they explore en route." --Curtis Wilkie, author of Dixie

Memoirs

This first edition reader introduces students to 26 of our greatest literary journalists, from Ernie Pyle to Hunter S. Thompson. It is the most current and complete anthology of the best of literary journalism.

Literary Journalism: A Reader (Wadsworth Series in Mass Communication and Journalism)

Business & Money

Chance, Jean

Industries

Wadsworth Publishing

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by McKeen, William. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by McKeen, William

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by McKeen, William. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Mile Marker Zero: The Moveable Feast of Key West

Mile Marker Zero: Key West's Moveable Feast in the Seventies

The Beatles: A Bio-Bibliography (Popular Culture Bio-Bibliographies)

Bob Dylan: A Bio-Bibliography (Popular Culture Bio-Bibliographies)

Highway 61: A Father-and-Son Journey through the Middle of America

Rock and Roll Is Here to Stay: An Anthology

Outlaw Journalist: The Life and Times of Hunter S. Thompson

Outlaw Journalist: The Life and Times of Hunter S. Thompson

Highway 61: A Father-and-Son Journey through the Middle of America

Literary Journalism: A Reader (Wadsworth Series in Mass Communication and Journalism)