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Ringolevio: A Life Played for Keeps
"Ringolevio" is the memorable tale of Emmett Grogan and the Diggers, the irreverent urban guerrillas anti masters and masters of street theater who made San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury a home, putting on Grateful Dead dances in Golden Gate Park, ladling out free stew to all comers in the park's Panhandle, and keeping the peace with the cops. While Kesey's Merry Prankster's were off tripping the light fantastic, the Diggers were transforming the Haight from a seedy district of abandoned Victorian houses into an evanescent paradise on earth. For anyone who thinks that those were days only of peace, love and flower power, Ringolevio will be a revelation, as it evokes the gritty urban sensibility that supplied the backbone to the community's free flights of fancy. Vastly entertaining, Ringolevio is at once high adventure, political screed, social history. and hyperbolic memoir. This classic traces the story of Emmett Grogan, a larger-than-life sixties legend of great controversy, from the streets of New York to the heights of the Haight. Citadel Underground's edition of Ringolevio features a new introducing by the actor Peter Coyote, one of Grogan's oldest friends, a fellow Digger and a veteran of the San Francisco Mime Troupe. "The San Francisco Diggers combined Dada street theater with the revolutionary politics of free". Slum-alley saints, they lit up the period by spreading the poetry of love and anarchy with broad strokes of artistic genius. Their free store, communications network of instant offset survival poetry, along with an Indian-inspired consciousness, was the original white light of the era. Emmett Grogan was the hippie warrior par excellence. He was also a junkie, amaniac, a gifted actor, a rebel hero, ...and above all a pain in the ass to all his friends. Ringolevio is half-brilliant". -- Abbie Hoffman
532 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1972
22 people are currently reading
956 people want to read
About the author
Emmett Grogan
6 books39 followersEugene Leo "Emmett" Grogan was a founder of the Diggers in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, California. The Diggers took their name from the English Diggers (1649-1650), a radical movement opposed to feudalism, the Church of England and the British Crown.
The San Francisco Diggers were a legendary group that evolved out of two radical traditions that thrived in the Bay Area in the mid-1960s: the bohemian/underground art/theater scene, and the New Left/civil rights/peace movement.
The Diggers combined street theater, direct action, and art happenings in their social agenda of creating a Free City. Their most famous activities revolved around distributing free food ("Free because it's yours!") every day in the park, and distributing "surplus energy" at a series of Free Stores (where everything was free for the taking.)
The Diggers coined various slogans that worked their way into the counterculture and even into the larger society — "Do your own thing" and "Today is the first day of the rest of your life" being the most recognizable.
The Diggers inspired Abbie Hoffman to undertake a similar venture on the Lower East Side of New York City during the mid-1960s (although Grogan ultimately saw Abbie Hoffman as a lifestyle poseur, as described in Emmett's memoir of the late 1960s).
Grogan's penchant for personal myth-making and distrust of the mainstream media resulted in few details of his life being reliably recorded. His 1972 autobiography, RINGOLEVIO (A LIFE PLAYED FOR KEEPS), is filled with embellishments and large portions of his pre-Digger life appear to be outright fabrications.
This flexibility with the truth was part of Grogan's larger social and political agenda, and was meant to further Digger ideals, to whit, the use of his name (alternately, "Emma Grogan") as a community pseudonym, in pursuit of social justice activities as a member of the Diggers: "Emmett Grogan" is code for anti-establishment; the outlaw ethos in literary and other artistic endeavors.
Emmett Grogan sang back-up with Ramblin' Jack Elliott on "Mr. Tambourine Man" written by Bob Dylan. Dylan dedicated his 1978 album Street Legal to Grogan. After the success of RINGOLEVIO, Grogan was also the author of FINAL SCORE, a (not very good) crime thriller.
On April 6, 1978, 35-year-old Emmett Grogan was found dead on an F Train subway car in New York City, the victim of a heart attack possibly induced by chronic heroin use. This has been disputed and alternative theories exist.
On April 6, 2018, an announcement was made regarding the forthcoming publication of a new novel, TWELVE STORIES. Released October 23, 2018, the privately-published work has gone on to sell over 3000 copies in Canada.
October 17, 2025 will see the publication of a companion volume to TWELVE STORIES, the novel DIFFERENT TIMES, for fans of Truman Capote, Raymond Carver, Charles Bukowski, Mordecai Richler, Hunter Thompson, Kurt Vonnegut, and other legendary literary authors, the type of which who are no longer being supported by contemporary publishing.
A celebration of Emmett Grogan’s 80th birthday, alongside the 80th birthday of Jimi Hendrix, was observed on November 28, 2022.
The San Francisco Diggers were a legendary group that evolved out of two radical traditions that thrived in the Bay Area in the mid-1960s: the bohemian/underground art/theater scene, and the New Left/civil rights/peace movement.
The Diggers combined street theater, direct action, and art happenings in their social agenda of creating a Free City. Their most famous activities revolved around distributing free food ("Free because it's yours!") every day in the park, and distributing "surplus energy" at a series of Free Stores (where everything was free for the taking.)
The Diggers coined various slogans that worked their way into the counterculture and even into the larger society — "Do your own thing" and "Today is the first day of the rest of your life" being the most recognizable.
The Diggers inspired Abbie Hoffman to undertake a similar venture on the Lower East Side of New York City during the mid-1960s (although Grogan ultimately saw Abbie Hoffman as a lifestyle poseur, as described in Emmett's memoir of the late 1960s).
Grogan's penchant for personal myth-making and distrust of the mainstream media resulted in few details of his life being reliably recorded. His 1972 autobiography, RINGOLEVIO (A LIFE PLAYED FOR KEEPS), is filled with embellishments and large portions of his pre-Digger life appear to be outright fabrications.
This flexibility with the truth was part of Grogan's larger social and political agenda, and was meant to further Digger ideals, to whit, the use of his name (alternately, "Emma Grogan") as a community pseudonym, in pursuit of social justice activities as a member of the Diggers: "Emmett Grogan" is code for anti-establishment; the outlaw ethos in literary and other artistic endeavors.
Emmett Grogan sang back-up with Ramblin' Jack Elliott on "Mr. Tambourine Man" written by Bob Dylan. Dylan dedicated his 1978 album Street Legal to Grogan. After the success of RINGOLEVIO, Grogan was also the author of FINAL SCORE, a (not very good) crime thriller.
On April 6, 1978, 35-year-old Emmett Grogan was found dead on an F Train subway car in New York City, the victim of a heart attack possibly induced by chronic heroin use. This has been disputed and alternative theories exist.
On April 6, 2018, an announcement was made regarding the forthcoming publication of a new novel, TWELVE STORIES. Released October 23, 2018, the privately-published work has gone on to sell over 3000 copies in Canada.
October 17, 2025 will see the publication of a companion volume to TWELVE STORIES, the novel DIFFERENT TIMES, for fans of Truman Capote, Raymond Carver, Charles Bukowski, Mordecai Richler, Hunter Thompson, Kurt Vonnegut, and other legendary literary authors, the type of which who are no longer being supported by contemporary publishing.
A celebration of Emmett Grogan’s 80th birthday, alongside the 80th birthday of Jimi Hendrix, was observed on November 28, 2022.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 74 reviews
January 14, 2010
An immensely faulty book--arrogant, hectoring, repetitive, self amused, not to mention fantastically sexist and homophobic with touches of serious racism--that still remains nonetheless somehow inspiring. Like so many memoirists of the 60s, Grogan is absolutely convinced he is right-- so much so that much of the book is given over to speeches he forces various leftist/radical groups to listen to about how they should do what they're doing. All of these speeches involve him showing up to a meeting unannounced (having decided in advance that everyone involved is a lackey or a bourgeois or on a poverty vacation), standing up and orating for what seems like hours about how worthless and stupid they are and how they should actually be doing things, then immediately leaving without listening to what anyone else has to say. So many people in the book are portrayed as villains (and Grogan so heroic and always in the right) that you eventually get that suspicious feeling from Grogan that you get from people who tell you about the hundreds of purely evil roommates they've had, who've all fucked them eight ways from Sunday, while they were just being decent individuals, minding their own business. This is not only suspicious and unbelievable but seriously boring, superficial, and uninspired. Coupled with an attitude toward women that only lets them graduate *sometimes* from being attractive fucktoys, abject contempt for queer people, and frequently inexcusable remarks about black people, the book is pretty fucking hard to swallow.
Yet at its core, there's this truly valuable point made over and over again-- which was, in part, what the Diggers sought to communicate-- that politics is all just words, and what matters is putting food in people's bellies, making sure their heat is on in the winter, and finding roofs under which people can sleep. The Diggers worked hard to provide free food for a lot of people, and that can't be denied. The directness and utility of their purpose should remain an example of everyone who wants to help out other people. It's just a shame that an idea as selfless and pure as that would be ultimately remembered in a book as selfish and tiresome as this.
Yet at its core, there's this truly valuable point made over and over again-- which was, in part, what the Diggers sought to communicate-- that politics is all just words, and what matters is putting food in people's bellies, making sure their heat is on in the winter, and finding roofs under which people can sleep. The Diggers worked hard to provide free food for a lot of people, and that can't be denied. The directness and utility of their purpose should remain an example of everyone who wants to help out other people. It's just a shame that an idea as selfless and pure as that would be ultimately remembered in a book as selfish and tiresome as this.
May 10, 2014
A bit of a scumbag, a lousy lay, full of blarney, sometimes puerile and petty minded, after 400 pages I was fed up with this guy. Still, this was an interesting read.
April 9, 2017
As a "good read" - not so much. As a faithful account, at least of the 1966 period when I knew the Diggers, the best you will find. Because he wrote about these events soon after they took place, this book is a reliable chronology and examination of the time and place - a far better resource than all the CNN, Monterey Pop, and Woodstock retrospectives that fixate on the same celebrities and the same hype.
First a disclaimer, in that I have not read the entire book, but found a PDF of Part Three (pp. 201-498) online. So I've not read about his early life, and don't especially plan to.
Clearly Emmett was no writer! I agree with readers who find his writing arrogant, full of braggadocio, self-centered. I'll even add petulant, incoherent, cryptic, and ineffective as his account moves into 1968-69. Emmett wasn't like that in person. I remember him being very unassuming and treating us all as friends and equals (the opposite of the attention-seeking "Abbott" Hoffman).
In 1966 I was 18 and Emmett was 23. I knew him and Billy when they started making the stew and bringing it to the Panhandle. Like he says, we invited the Diggers to make their stew in milk cans at our kitchen a few times. After the Thanksgiving at the garage/store on Page Street I migrated to Manhattan's Lower East Side. At separate times in 1967 I ran into Emmett and Billy on Saint Marks Place once or twice (and also knew Abbott Hoffman). I never saw them again. I thankfully missed out on the so-called Summer of Love in SF. I came back to the Haight in May 1968, and I wasn't into all the politics. But the Haight had become just like Emmett says - a real zoo and all the good vibes were gone.
First a disclaimer, in that I have not read the entire book, but found a PDF of Part Three (pp. 201-498) online. So I've not read about his early life, and don't especially plan to.
Clearly Emmett was no writer! I agree with readers who find his writing arrogant, full of braggadocio, self-centered. I'll even add petulant, incoherent, cryptic, and ineffective as his account moves into 1968-69. Emmett wasn't like that in person. I remember him being very unassuming and treating us all as friends and equals (the opposite of the attention-seeking "Abbott" Hoffman).
In 1966 I was 18 and Emmett was 23. I knew him and Billy when they started making the stew and bringing it to the Panhandle. Like he says, we invited the Diggers to make their stew in milk cans at our kitchen a few times. After the Thanksgiving at the garage/store on Page Street I migrated to Manhattan's Lower East Side. At separate times in 1967 I ran into Emmett and Billy on Saint Marks Place once or twice (and also knew Abbott Hoffman). I never saw them again. I thankfully missed out on the so-called Summer of Love in SF. I came back to the Haight in May 1968, and I wasn't into all the politics. But the Haight had become just like Emmett says - a real zoo and all the good vibes were gone.
December 13, 2015
I both love and hate this book. Boy-oh, boy-oh does it start good, describing a game of ringolevio on the streets of Little Italy in 1950s New York.
Ringolevio is a sort of kid’s wargame in which the object was to capture the majority of the opposing team’s members and hold them in a “prison” while fighting off any attempt to free them. It’s a kid’s game, innocent and brutal at the same time. Grogan’s at his best here, limning the New York streets with hardboiled prose, slapping down the names of gang members, streets, describing how a starter’s pistol shatters a window, and how the game reaches a tragic end.
This is a sort of autobiography, though Grogan’s stand-in is one Kenny Wisdom, one of those allegorical names that you wish you came up with but didn’t yet might someday rip-off for your own novel. Kenny is unbelievably street-wise, smart and strong, savvy. One moment he’s a junkie; the next he’s in prison; the next he’s a proletariat sap who wins a scholarship to a tony academy. And we believe it all. Not because it’s believable, but because Grogan lets it all spiel with a ease and naturalness, just word after word. This is what happened.
So in a way we believe that Kenny Wisdom broke into Park Ave apartments and liberated the wealth he found there. We believe that he amassed enough of a fortune to tour Europe without concern. To spend liberally. To see what few have seen. Kenny Wisdom apparently lives a charmed life.
Soon, however, Kenny realizes that he’s living a lie. He’s no more living an authentic life than those he sees on a movie screen. He’s merely playing the role of Kenny Wisdom and as such he must create his own life. After some consideration he names himself: Emmett Grogan.
It’s at this point that the book completely falls apart as literature. Up to here it’s been a kind of roller coaster, a thrill ride of rebellion and anarchy, an American middle finger to expectation and conformity. That spirit continues from here, but the writing doesn’t follow suit.
From here, Emmett is a reporter. He sees and writes. He uses his book as a pulpit.
Emmett Grogan is one of the founders of the Diggers, a group often called “anarchist” that created an alternative to the Flower Power mentality of the times. Grogan’s point of view is essential: be change you want. Don’t just suggest how to clean up the slums, simply clean them up. Show people that the world is theirs if they have the guts to take it. It's likely no coincidence that Emmett Grogan shares initials with another famous anarchist.
Yes, his book suffers in the second half. He can’t pull off the story of the Diggers with panache. But that doesn’t mean it’s not important. According to Emmett, the Diggers had a profound influence on the 60s counterculture. Exposed to Leary, he decried him as a fraud. Given Jagger, no more than a puppet. Ginsberg he respected. Burroughs was the man. Dylan fares well.
For a man that shunned the limelight throughout his career this book makes no sense. Here, Grogan is a stage hog. He dominates, pushing everybody else aside, condemning, cursing, ranting. What’s the deal, Emmett?
Grogan probably had revolution down better than any of his contemporaries, that it was better to lead by physical example than academic rhetoric.
This is not a good book. It is, however, an essential one.
Ringolevio is a sort of kid’s wargame in which the object was to capture the majority of the opposing team’s members and hold them in a “prison” while fighting off any attempt to free them. It’s a kid’s game, innocent and brutal at the same time. Grogan’s at his best here, limning the New York streets with hardboiled prose, slapping down the names of gang members, streets, describing how a starter’s pistol shatters a window, and how the game reaches a tragic end.
This is a sort of autobiography, though Grogan’s stand-in is one Kenny Wisdom, one of those allegorical names that you wish you came up with but didn’t yet might someday rip-off for your own novel. Kenny is unbelievably street-wise, smart and strong, savvy. One moment he’s a junkie; the next he’s in prison; the next he’s a proletariat sap who wins a scholarship to a tony academy. And we believe it all. Not because it’s believable, but because Grogan lets it all spiel with a ease and naturalness, just word after word. This is what happened.
So in a way we believe that Kenny Wisdom broke into Park Ave apartments and liberated the wealth he found there. We believe that he amassed enough of a fortune to tour Europe without concern. To spend liberally. To see what few have seen. Kenny Wisdom apparently lives a charmed life.
Soon, however, Kenny realizes that he’s living a lie. He’s no more living an authentic life than those he sees on a movie screen. He’s merely playing the role of Kenny Wisdom and as such he must create his own life. After some consideration he names himself: Emmett Grogan.
It’s at this point that the book completely falls apart as literature. Up to here it’s been a kind of roller coaster, a thrill ride of rebellion and anarchy, an American middle finger to expectation and conformity. That spirit continues from here, but the writing doesn’t follow suit.
From here, Emmett is a reporter. He sees and writes. He uses his book as a pulpit.
Emmett Grogan is one of the founders of the Diggers, a group often called “anarchist” that created an alternative to the Flower Power mentality of the times. Grogan’s point of view is essential: be change you want. Don’t just suggest how to clean up the slums, simply clean them up. Show people that the world is theirs if they have the guts to take it. It's likely no coincidence that Emmett Grogan shares initials with another famous anarchist.
Yes, his book suffers in the second half. He can’t pull off the story of the Diggers with panache. But that doesn’t mean it’s not important. According to Emmett, the Diggers had a profound influence on the 60s counterculture. Exposed to Leary, he decried him as a fraud. Given Jagger, no more than a puppet. Ginsberg he respected. Burroughs was the man. Dylan fares well.
For a man that shunned the limelight throughout his career this book makes no sense. Here, Grogan is a stage hog. He dominates, pushing everybody else aside, condemning, cursing, ranting. What’s the deal, Emmett?
Grogan probably had revolution down better than any of his contemporaries, that it was better to lead by physical example than academic rhetoric.
This is not a good book. It is, however, an essential one.
March 13, 2022
Anyone who writes an autobiography in the third person has a gigantic ego problem. And to be fair to Grogan, he admits it. The admission comes late on, but at least it comes. What comes at the beginning is Peter Coyote's introduction and claim that the reader shouldn't believe everything that they are about to read. When someone tells you not to believe everything it becomes difficult to believe anything. Especially when it is written by someone who is so obviously self-mythologizing as Grogan. For the first couple of hundred pages my feeling was: okay, what I'm reading might be bullish*t, but it's extremely well written and interesting bullish*t. The fine writing continues throughout the second half of the book; the interest does not. For if there's one thing to be said about counter-culture politics is that it's dull. Grogan doesn't help with his self-aggrandising. But even without that the last three hundred pages would still be tedious. What it needed was someone with a sense of humour to tell the story. Someone who could laugh at himself once in a while. What you get instead is a dry, ego-trip, of a tale that doesn't leave you moved, enlightened or connected. It was a relief to get to the end.
September 1, 2011
Loved his story. An interesting book that is weirdly inspiring. Before you exit this review: hear me out. Although his lifestyle was quite flawed. (Drug addict, sexist, selfish) Emmett Grogan was unafraid of the cards life dealt him, he took it on the chin and was unafraid to fight for beliefs and do the things he wished to do.
October 26, 2021
Back in the hirsute Seventies as a callow youth, when I first read about this hippie Robin Hood, I considered him to be a hero – the archetypal rebel without a cause, cocking a snook at the ‘Establishment.’ Those were the Mary-Jane-suffused days of Hair and Woodstock, Lucy ruled the Skies (skies that were kissed by Jimi Hendrix) with Diamonds, deaf, dumb and blind Tommy played Who’s Pin Ball and we ‘freaked out.’ Now weary with years of cynicism behind me, I find the author to be a mere on-and-off junkie, compulsive thief and regular jailbird
Kenny Wisdom spent seven months without bail in that cramped moss-ridden-rat-infested-syphilitic-conjunctivitic-tuberculous-marasmic-anaemic-choreal-cancerous-scabied-ringwormed-rotten-crippling-languishing-ulcerated-septic dungeon of bronchopneumonia…The hippie ethos was embodied in the nihilistic manifesto of The Hun
Give up jobs. Be with people. Defend against property
February 16, 2009
This is the strange but true story of a working class Irish kid from NYC who eventually became one of the core founders of "The Diggers", a radical, anarchist, collective serving free food to people in Haight-Ashbury as well as providing free clothes, and some social services to folks during the Summer of Love. On the way to Haight Ashbury he works as a criminal in NYC, flees to Italy, lives there eventually studying film, goes to Ireland and works with the IRA, becomes a porn writer in London, then comes back to America joining the San Francisco Mime Troupe, which was different from the stereotypical (but interesting) miming associated with Marcel-Marceau. "Ringelevio" was the name of a street game that he played as a kid in his neighborhood.
July 5, 2013
God I loved this book, just a wild tale of growing up in a time of turmoil. I read this just after reading On The Road and Electric Kool Aid Acid Trip and loved it just as much as those.
September 8, 2008
I wrote this book. Signed, Emmett Grogan.
January 8, 2009
Lies! Not complete lies, but lies nonetheless. While he may or may not have been the founder of the Diggers is irrelevant. It's a good yarn!
June 23, 2011
A fantastic book and autobiography. I can't believe that this man did all the things in the book.
March 20, 2016
Is this truth and autobiography or more histrionics than history? I don't mind that Eugene "Emmett" Grogan calls himself Kenny Wisdom for this first act of this memoir any more than I care that Billy Pilgrim in Slaughterhouse-Five is not the real name of Vonnegut's comrade-in-arms Edward R. Crone, Jr. I don't know that anything is not factual here, it may all be psychologically correct. Grogan did not appear to care enough about fact checking as to filling in details like looking up the name of Caresse Crosby to identify the Italian village's benefactor he heard about, etc. So, maybe some things are misremembered, or whatever. Either way, this is an activist who started on the NYC streets as a ruffian and user and died there at 36 from an overdose. In between, he traveled, he co-founded The Diggers and found a place in-between Robin Hood and The Salvation Army to put his criminal inclinations and prodigious energy to work making a free frame of reference for hippies, Black Panthers, Methodists, runaways, and more to consider as a lifestyle alternative. Such prodigious energy that there was actually no more one Emmett Grogan than one Dread Pirate Roberts? This author only calls such instances frauds and does more name-calling than name-dropping: Timothy Leary was more drug pusher than prophet, Abbie Hoffman a plagiarist and Eldridge Cleaver crazy and homicidal. This is a unique journey through the 60s. Like most stories of that decade, something coalesced post-Beat that seemed beautiful full of potential while blossoming during The Summer of Love only to descend into murders, lost friendships, and substance abuse before the 70s were underway.
December 7, 2020
Emmett Grogan's story is interesting, but needs a good editor. There will probably never be a way to tease apart fact from fantasy in this long, rambling, self-centered narrative. For me, the most interesting take-away is Emmett's contention that the people who popularized hippie-dom (Tim Leary, Abbie Hoffman and the Haight Street merchants, to name a few) were cynical self-marketers who never pushed an idea they couldn't profit from. In his telling, the people who really understood what the counter-culture could offer (the Diggers) did what they did entirely for free, and completely anonymously. Exactly how the 'anonymous' part aligns with this 498 page behemoth of a book that purports to spill all Emmett's deepest secrets is just one more impenetrable contradiction in this weird book.
August 30, 2012
An amazing story. A really really amazing story. Emmett Grogan's account is nigh-on unbelievable but true though hyperbolic account of his rise from the streets of Brooklyn through heroin, high-class jewel thievery, the Mafia, Film school in Rome, the I.R.A., and finally the Haight-Ashbury underground during the mid and late sixties. Some parts of the story are pretty hard to take especially when sexism, racism, or homophobia raise their heads. However the stories of the Diggers in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco and the births of the community anarchists and the free food movement are fabulous and the early part in New York is magical.
August 22, 2008
What I learned from this book: I learned about Haight-Asbury and the "love child" era. I was actually the right age, but in the wrong place;I yearned to know more. Years later, when I read this book I was glad I never made it to San Francisco. But this book talks about the humanitarian efforts of Paul Grogan in rescuing, feeding and saving all of the hippies who tripped their brains out. His group was called the Diggers. More later.
May 26, 2015
Very good. I found it most surprising that I had never heard about Grogan in all the reading I have done about the 60s. He seems to have been so influencial and instrumental, and yet...well, they say that history is written by the winners. What I find most disturbing about the book is that he has such a negative opinion of the people and organisations I grew up to admire and that influenced my own political awareness. While it is a memoir, it is also an important alternative history.
December 8, 2009
"'This book is true.' But it doesn't mean it all happened." In Ringolvio: A Life Played for Keeps, Emmett Grogan willed himself a hero. (An idea I find really refreshing). Nice memoirs of living in the Bay Area in the 1960s, as well as NYC, Italy; there are passages that took place literally down the street from my apartment. One of the best openings I have read in awhile.
May 8, 2017
Una gran historia estropeada por un protagonista harto chulo y repelente. Está escrito hablando de él mismo en tercera persona y en la primera parte se hace llamar "Kenny Wisdom". En fin, tenía muchísimas ganas de leerlo y no lo pude acabar...
May 5, 2009
This is the lost Beat masterpiece and the story of the original Digger.
July 21, 2012
This book is hard to put down. I would have to say that some parts of it are not as believable as others, however if even half of it is true it's a he'll of a story
June 20, 2013
Emmett Grogan...didn't mess around. Many stories about his life and the causes of his death, some of which may even be true.
November 24, 2013
the real story of the 60's ... maybe
January 2, 2019
A semi-autobiographical novel set in the hippie era in the USA.
March 13, 2022
I read this book back to back with Peter Coyote's "Sleeping Where I Fall". I am mentioning this, because it probably skews my opinion a little, as I have read about the same events and contexts from two different perspectives. I really liked Coyote's book, I liked his prose, and his egotism didn't bother me much, as his telling felt honest.
I did not like this book, but I still finished it, because it does have some historical value.
I found the prose for the most part close to unreadable. I understand the need for transliterating slangs and accents when quoting, but consistently letting it seep into prose just felt detrimental to the reading. Not that Grogan ever seems to care about the reader at all. His thoughts are scattered, long periods without punctuation jumping from thought to thought, talking about events with barely any context as if the reader is already familiar with all of them.
Grogan's goals writing this are unclear; clearly his main one is jerking off his self proclaimed huge ego, and posthumously reappropriating what was done anonymously for the San Francisco Diggers. This part is interesting, because Grogan undoubtedly put the hard work in, and has real knowledge about communal work and self sufficiency which he does share with different level of clarity at different times.
I found the ridiculous amounts of lies and inventions in the book a fascinating example of narcissism, as in, using ambiguity to self aggrandizement while still not taking oneself too seriously. Some episodes, even some of the most unbelievable, are nice to read and ponder about what truth could be in there. The first part is actually quite pleasant and flowed quite quickly, as it has less pretense to historical and political value, providing an overall compelling narrative.
However, Grogan's egotism is unnerving. He even goes as far as thinking himself a good writer. This makes the last part, the one about the San Francisco Diggers, which is the one I - like most, I guess - was actually interested in, a strain. He has overwhelmingly negative opinions about almost all people he mentions, which he just introduces with spite, and often with no lucid justification; opinions that for the most part don't even feel relevant in the flow of narration, and are just there because the author wanted to jam then in somewhere. His judgement is always given priority over facts and analysis. It often feels childish and petulant.
He barely ever admits being at fault, and when he does, he does so quite vaguely and unapologetically. He barely ever expresses feelings other than rage at things not being his way. The narrator barely feels human at all, let alone relatable.
Overall, it does give insight into the mind of a person of his time. The egotism itself is telling of the same hedonistic narcissism much of the counterculture was made of. The politics described sometimes are indeed cunning and inspiring. It's not hard to believe Grogan was skilled in jestering power relationships.
I think that this is a decent document, and great testament to the concept of "life acting" the Diggers tried to implement in their lifestyle, a very postmodern approach to truth and identity; it can be interesting if approached as such. As a reading, though, it leaves a lot to be desired.
I did not like this book, but I still finished it, because it does have some historical value.
I found the prose for the most part close to unreadable. I understand the need for transliterating slangs and accents when quoting, but consistently letting it seep into prose just felt detrimental to the reading. Not that Grogan ever seems to care about the reader at all. His thoughts are scattered, long periods without punctuation jumping from thought to thought, talking about events with barely any context as if the reader is already familiar with all of them.
Grogan's goals writing this are unclear; clearly his main one is jerking off his self proclaimed huge ego, and posthumously reappropriating what was done anonymously for the San Francisco Diggers. This part is interesting, because Grogan undoubtedly put the hard work in, and has real knowledge about communal work and self sufficiency which he does share with different level of clarity at different times.
I found the ridiculous amounts of lies and inventions in the book a fascinating example of narcissism, as in, using ambiguity to self aggrandizement while still not taking oneself too seriously. Some episodes, even some of the most unbelievable, are nice to read and ponder about what truth could be in there. The first part is actually quite pleasant and flowed quite quickly, as it has less pretense to historical and political value, providing an overall compelling narrative.
However, Grogan's egotism is unnerving. He even goes as far as thinking himself a good writer. This makes the last part, the one about the San Francisco Diggers, which is the one I - like most, I guess - was actually interested in, a strain. He has overwhelmingly negative opinions about almost all people he mentions, which he just introduces with spite, and often with no lucid justification; opinions that for the most part don't even feel relevant in the flow of narration, and are just there because the author wanted to jam then in somewhere. His judgement is always given priority over facts and analysis. It often feels childish and petulant.
He barely ever admits being at fault, and when he does, he does so quite vaguely and unapologetically. He barely ever expresses feelings other than rage at things not being his way. The narrator barely feels human at all, let alone relatable.
Overall, it does give insight into the mind of a person of his time. The egotism itself is telling of the same hedonistic narcissism much of the counterculture was made of. The politics described sometimes are indeed cunning and inspiring. It's not hard to believe Grogan was skilled in jestering power relationships.
I think that this is a decent document, and great testament to the concept of "life acting" the Diggers tried to implement in their lifestyle, a very postmodern approach to truth and identity; it can be interesting if approached as such. As a reading, though, it leaves a lot to be desired.
June 12, 2021
The guy who invented teh Diggers writes a memoir i the aftermath of the sixties counterculture before disappearing into an addiction he dabbled with to test himself.
The book itself is really enjoyable. I first picked it up because the cover of one version matched or had a very similar design to that of Papillon and Banco the Henri Charriere memoirs. Possibly placing all of them under the vague rubrik of crime/counterculture. I used to visit several charity shops around Dublin in the early 90-s and go through the racks. Found some cool stuff taht way.
This is pretty different to the Charriere books though, does have some similarities . I think the author got his name from having to be on the run in Dublin where he took his name from a couple of Republican heroes. The title comes from a wild game he played in his youth. A wilder game of tag or something.
I think I lost that copy of the book after lending it to a friend and it disappearing from where they were staying. maybe somebody else got to read it. THink its worth reading.
Grogan wound up in San francisco in the mid 60s and was confronted with a lot of people he wound up feeding by running various scams on transport depots and things wich lead to hi getting free food. Abbie Hoffman heard about teh scams collected them in one place as Steal This Book which I think had teh effect of letting those people whose loopholes Grogan was utilising hearing about the loopholes and closing them or something similar. Grogan talks about that here and what he did in revenge.
Anyway I was glad i found the book since i was into the San Francisco scene for the music years after the fact and this gives a lot of grounding for the early days.
I found another copy in a charity shop some years after my first one disappeared but it has been a while since I read it
The book itself is really enjoyable. I first picked it up because the cover of one version matched or had a very similar design to that of Papillon and Banco the Henri Charriere memoirs. Possibly placing all of them under the vague rubrik of crime/counterculture. I used to visit several charity shops around Dublin in the early 90-s and go through the racks. Found some cool stuff taht way.
This is pretty different to the Charriere books though, does have some similarities . I think the author got his name from having to be on the run in Dublin where he took his name from a couple of Republican heroes. The title comes from a wild game he played in his youth. A wilder game of tag or something.
I think I lost that copy of the book after lending it to a friend and it disappearing from where they were staying. maybe somebody else got to read it. THink its worth reading.
Grogan wound up in San francisco in the mid 60s and was confronted with a lot of people he wound up feeding by running various scams on transport depots and things wich lead to hi getting free food. Abbie Hoffman heard about teh scams collected them in one place as Steal This Book which I think had teh effect of letting those people whose loopholes Grogan was utilising hearing about the loopholes and closing them or something similar. Grogan talks about that here and what he did in revenge.
Anyway I was glad i found the book since i was into the San Francisco scene for the music years after the fact and this gives a lot of grounding for the early days.
I found another copy in a charity shop some years after my first one disappeared but it has been a while since I read it
April 13, 2024
Part III of this autobiography/novel is indispensable for understanding the Haight-Ashbury scene and the Diggers during the late 1960s. I suggest reading Peter Coyote's Sleeping Where I Fall, Chicago '68 by David Farber, and Black Against Empire by Joshua Bloom and Waldo E. Martin, Jr. to fill out the context for Grogan's very personalized and sometimes self-serving view of events. Be sure to read Coyote's introduction only after you've read Ringolevio. The first two parts I had to wade through. The this-happened-then-this-happened, etc. pattern meant that I had to take it in small doses. Two premeditated murders, a description of an appalling bit of pornography he wrote, the casual racism and sexism throughout, and the unending bragging make Grogan an often unsympathetic character in his own book, but Grogan was a fascinating key figure and observer of his time. If you want to see a really surreal epilogue to this book, check out Grogan's appearance on the 1972 game show To Tell the Truth, which can be found on YouTube.
February 27, 2019
Here's how I decided on 3 stars: I loved the first 300 pages, couldn't refrain from telling everybody I know that they have to read the book, couldn't put it down, it reawakened the fondest memories of living in San Francisco & the Haight; then, I believed, they changed authors on me, I hated the last 200 pages & give it zero stars, I'm embarrassed about recommending the book & am having an increasingly hard time in turning the pages until I finally say "fuck it" & skip the last 10 or 15 pages. In some ways, the book really does parallel the the rise & decline of the Haight-Ashbury experience. The first 300 pages are a must read & the last 200, equally a mist skip.
November 14, 2024
Amusing and a great roadmap for many of the events of the counterculture and the 50s and 60s. I did enjoy this book and breezed through it but I can’t be overstated that a lot of what Grogan wrote is fiction. Beyond that his ego is pretty out of control which is kind of ironic considering all the things he did to keep himself anonymous. He’s a very flawed person with narcissistic personality traits but i think a good writer with good ideas on how to keep people fed and surviving in an urban environment. If anything, take away his lessons that were employed by the Diggers and their work with the free food in San Francisco.
December 23, 2024
I read this circa the mid-80s and thought it was amazing, I was in my early 20s, pre-Internet days, bliss !.. now, everyone including myself included jumps on for immediate investigation of pretty much anything, this book would at that time have been no exception..immediate gratification.. so it stayed with me.
One of the stories I recall was when some undesirable junkie was hot-dosed with Lead scrapings from a car battery cell and pegged it, other than that it's a distant memory, so time for another purchase and read.
40 years older, wiser..to a degree and just as skint I wonder how my mind will accept each chapter.. let's see!
Chapter 1....
One of the stories I recall was when some undesirable junkie was hot-dosed with Lead scrapings from a car battery cell and pegged it, other than that it's a distant memory, so time for another purchase and read.
40 years older, wiser..to a degree and just as skint I wonder how my mind will accept each chapter.. let's see!
Chapter 1....
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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