25 Facts About Paul Krassner

Paul Krassner was an American writer and satirist.

Paul Krassner was the founder, editor, and a frequent contributor to the freethought magazine The Realist, first published in 1958.

Paul Krassner was a child violin prodigy and performed at Carnegie Hall in 1939 at age six.

Paul Krassner's parents practiced Judaism, but Krassner chose to be firmly secular, considering religion "organized superstition".

Paul Krassner majored in journalism at Baruch College and began performing as a comedian under the name Paul Maul.

Paul Krassner was a founder of the Youth International Party in 1967, even credited with coining the word "Yippie," and a member of Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters, famous for prankster activism.

Paul Krassner was a close protege of the controversial comedian Lenny Bruce, and the editor of Bruce's autobiography, How to Talk Dirty and Influence People.

Paul Krassner was demonstrating how preposterous it was for so many people to be responding to both words with such cockamamie Pavlovian fear and alarm.

Paul Krassner revived The Realist as a much smaller newsletter during the mid-1980s when material from the magazine was collected in The Best of the Realist: The 60's Most Outrageously Irreverent Magazine.

In 1962 Paul Krassner published an anonymous interview with Dr Robert Spencer detailing his involvement in illegal but safe abortions.

Paul Krassner was later subpoenaed to appear before grand juries investigating abortion crime.

In 1968, Paul Krassner signed the "Writers and Editors War Tax Protest" pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War.

Paul Krassner was a contributor to early issues of Mad magazine.

Paul Krassner often appeared as a stand-up comedian, and he was among those featured in the 2005 documentary The Aristocrats.

Paul Krassner was a prolific lecturer and was a frequent speaker at both the Starwood Festival and the WinterStar Symposium.

Paul Krassner was a columnist for The Nation, AVN Online and High Times.

Paul Krassner blogged at The Huffington Post and The Rag Blog.

Paul Krassner wrote about the Patty Hearst trial and possible connections between the Symbionese Liberation Army and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Paul Krassner's legs appeared in John Lennon and Yoko Ono's 1971 film Up Your Legs Forever.

Paul Krassner is the only person to have won awards from both Playboy magazine and the Feminist Party Media Workshop.

Paul Krassner received an American Civil Liberties Union Uppie Award for dedication to freedom of expression, and, according to the FBI files, he was described by the FBI as "a raving, unconfined nut".

Paul Krassner was criticized, along with many males on the Left, in Robin Morgan's feminist manifesto, "Goodbye to All That," written in 1970:.

Paul Krassner married Jeanne Johnson in 1963 and had one daughter named Holly.

In 1985, Paul Krassner moved to Venice, California where he met his wife of 32 years, artist and videographer Nancy Cain, one of the original Videofreex and founder of Camnet.

Paul Krassner suffered for several years from a neurological disease, and died on July 21,2019, at his home in Desert Hot Springs.