16 Facts About Ed Sanders

Edward Sanders was born on August 17,1939 and is an American poet, singer, activist, author, publisher and longtime member of the rock band the Fugs.

Ed Sanders has been called a bridge between the Beat and hippie generations.

Ed Sanders dropped out of the University of Missouri in 1958 and hitchhiked to New York City's Greenwich Village to attend New York University.

Ed Sanders graduated in 1964, with a degree in Greek.

Ed Sanders wrote his first notable poem, "Poem from Jail", on toilet paper in his cell after being jailed for protesting the launch of nuclear submarines armed with nuclear missiles in 1961.

Ed Sanders opened the Peace Eye Bookstore at 383 East Tenth Street in what was then the Lower East Side; the store became a gathering place for Bohemians, writers and radicals.

In late 1964, Ed Sanders founded the Fugs with Tuli Kupferberg.

On October 21,1967, on the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam's March on the Pentagon, Ed Sanders helped The Fugs and the San Francisco Diggers in an attempt to "exorcise" The Pentagon.

In 1969, Ed Sanders recorded and released his first solo album for Reprise Records, Ed Sanders' Truck Stop.

In 1971, Ed Sanders wrote The Family, a profile of the events leading up to the Tate-LaBianca murders.

Ed Sanders attended the Manson group's murder trial, and spent time at their residence at the Spahn Movie Ranch.

Later in the 1970s, Ed Sanders contracted to write a book about the popular rock band the Eagles.

In 1998, Ed Sanders began work on a 9-volume America, A History in Verse.

Ed Sanders received a Guggenheim Fellowship in poetry in 1983, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in poetry in 1987.

Ed Sanders was chosen to deliver the Charles Olson Memorial Lectures at SUNY Buffalo in 1983.

Ed Sanders invents musical instruments, including the Talking Tie, the microtonal Microlyre, and the Lisa Lyre, a musical contraption involving light-activated switches and a reproduction of Da Vinci's Mona Lisa.