Coyote, Peter

The Rainman's Third Cure: An Irregular Education

ISBN: 9781619024960
Berkeley, CA: Counterpoint, 2015. First Printing. Hardcover. “The rainman gave me two cures/And he said, ‘Just jump right in.’/The one was Texas Medicine/And the other was railroad gin./And like a fool I mixed them/And they strangled up my mind/Now people just get uglier/And I have no sense of time.”--Bob Dylan, “Stuck Inside Mobile With The Memphis Blues”. Peter Coyote is an American actor, director, screenwriter, and author. Coyote’s worked on such films as “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial” (1982), “Cross Creek” (1983), “Patch Adams” (1998), “A Walk To Remember” (2002), and “Femme Fatale” (2002). Coyote was also one of the founders of the “Diggers”, an anarchist improv group based out of Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco, during the mid 1960’s. Coyote was embroiled in the counterculture of the 60’s. His formative years were spent blowing his mind on psychedelics, writing and getting involved in the local comedy scene, and, like all good 20 somethings in the 60’s, voraciously read the Beats. Through reading the works of Jack Kerouac (1922-1969), Gary Snyder, and Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997), Coyote discovered and fell in love with Zen Buddhism. Aside from defining his spiritual life, the Beats would go on to define his writing as well. Coyote’s articles for “Mother Jones” magazine are often “Howl”-esque critiques of the military-industrial complex, his memoir “Sleep Where I Fall” (1998) is a phantasmagoric melding of Burroughs’ (1914-1997) “Junky” and Kerouac’s “On The Road”, and his 2021 poetry collection “Tongue Of A Crow” is filled with the musicality, enthusiasm, zeal, love and insight that reminds one of the Beats at their best and most optimistic. The focus of this particular curation, “The Rainman’s Third Cure” (2015) is a tapestry of sorts, outlining and highlighting the mentors in Coyote’s life including his violent father, a bass player, a Mafia consiglieri, and of course Gary Snyder the Beat poet who introduced him to Zen and shaped his writing to a not-insignificant degree. “The Rainman’s Third Cure” is a deeply intimate look into Coyote’s life and the figures that shaped him most, a portrait of influences that would come to define the arc of his life, and an overall odyssey through multiple decades on a journey of self-discovery. Hardcover in unclipped dust-jacket, first edition though not explicated as such on the copyright page, first printing as indicated by the number sequence thereon. Book is in very fine condition with minor wear to fine edges; Dust-jacket is in very fine condition as well with light tearing at top edge to front and back covers, and minimal smudging to same. An extra handling fee will be added for shipping due to the weight of this item. Very Fine / Very Fine. [Item #5672]

Price: $30.00