Stephen Kessler

At the dark end of the 1960s, a young poet is launched on a bizarre odyssey that takes him from a San Francisco jail cell to a Los Angeles psychiatric hospital, with numerous picaresque detours in between, in search of his role in the Revolution. Visions of peace and love in a time of war abroad and political upheaval at home collide with nightmarish realities of existential disorientation. An antinostalgic, at times terrifying, frequently funny journey through the tragicomedy of an era that is often misremembered in the popular imagination, The Mental Traveler is tale of artistic initiation rich with historical detail and archetypal undertones.

I travel'd thro' a Land of Men,
A Land of Men & Women too,
And heard & saw such dreadful things
As cold Earth wanderers never knew.
—William Blake

Your sons dream they have been lost in kinky hair,
no one can find them,
neighbors walk shoulder to shoulder for three days.
And your sons are lost in the immense forest.
—Robert Bly

This novel, written in 1990-93, remains as yet unpublished in book form. The story of Stephen K, a young poet losing his mind amid the cultural turmoil of the time, can be sampled here for the first time.

“A harrowing, heart-rending odyssey…an intelligent, coherent novel of the sixties, and beyond.” —Barry Gifford, author of Wild at Heart

“Essential reading for anyone who wonders how this generation’s most interesting poets and maniacs got that way.” —Carolyn Cooke, author of The Bostons

“Hectic, desperate, lyrical and inspired…a fascinating journey.” —Diana O’Hehir, author of I Wish This War Were Over

The Mental Traveler
Click on any chapter title below for a sample from the book: