John Wilcock died yesterday at the age of 91. He was a major force behind the inauguration and nascence of alternative print media starting in the 1950’s including the Village Voice. He also edited edited the Witches Almanac as well as a series of occult travelogues for Britain, South America, etc. The New York Times obituary says, in part:
“In a 1973 profile, The New York Times called Mr. Wilcock ‘an influential man nobody knows,’ an ‘oracle of the nitty-gritty of inexpensive, traditional tourism’ and ‘an apostle and chronicler of the radical underground’ — although, the article noted, he looked ‘a bit too scruffy for a best-selling travel writer and far too straight for an underground celebrity.’
“Mr. Wilcock had worked for news organizations in Britain, Canada and the United States, including The Times, and was the first news editor of The Village Voice before he helped found The East Village Other in 1965. The paper was named for Carl Jung’s definition of ‘the other’ as ‘one who is outside society.’”
Read the whole interview here:
And read the his biography rendered as a graphic novel here: https://boingboing.net/tag/wilcock
Thanks to our beloved OHO Hymenaeus Beta for the tip!
