Publishers - News & Media Biography, Journalists - News & Media Biography
Log in to track your reading progress.
Overview
Controversial and outspoken, hated and admired, the infamous Larry Flynt's life needs no puffery or exaggeration to make it one of the most interesting life stories of our time. He is this century's most ardent advocate of First Amendment rights, a man whose landmark Supreme Court cases are studied by every law student in America. He is the founder and publisher of Hustler magazine, a journal often described as tasteless, crude, scatological, and gynecologically explicit - to which he would reply, "Good!" For Flynt, tastelessness is "a necessary tool in challenging preconceived notions in a world where people are afraid to discuss their attitudes, prejudices, and misconceptions." Born in the hills of Kentucky, in the poorest county in America, Flynt became a teenage runaway, an underage recruit in both the army and the navy, a bootlegger, a scam artist, a bar owner, the proprietor of a string of go-go clubs, an evangelical Christian, an atheist, and eventually a millionaire pornographer and publisher. A prodigious sexual athlete, Flynt was shot down in his prime by an assailant's bullet and paralyzed from the waist down. Wheelchair bound and racked by years of searing pain, he became a pain-medicine junkie and habitue of America's courtrooms. Persecuted by the self-righteous Charles Keating, prosecuted by ambitious district attorneys, sued by moral crusaders like Jerry Falwell, and hounded by the government, Flynt forged a blazing trail through the American legal system. Remarkably, Larry Flynt has never told his story before. This highly personal and reflective account will surprise everyone, offend a few, and entertain many.Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
The life of Larry Flynt should make for a great autobiography. But the manic glee, unabashed sleaze or righteous anger that could have energized the life story of the founder of Hustler magazine isn't here. Instead-perhaps because its publication will follow the release of a film (The People vs. Larry Flynt) focusing on Flynt's time in court-this mannered narrative, written with the help of Ross (Compassionate Capitalism), seems to strain toward respectability-even though Flynt admits he has spent most of his life on dope or drink. Flynt (b. 1942) left Appalachia for the Army at 15 and grew up fast, soon taking from his unfaithful wife the lesson never to be faithful to a woman again. He built an empire from go-go bars, then in 1974 established Hustler. He claims his magazine's notorious explicitness caters to the "erotic imaginations of real people," and he somewhat pompously contends that the working out of his principles in print has protected press freedoms (a parodic Hustler ad lampooning Jerry Falwell was defended, ultimately, by the Supreme Court). Flynt's most tender moments here come when reflecting on his strong-willed, hell-raising, drug-addicted wife, Althea, who eventually died from AIDS. In 1978, while he was being prosecuted for obscenity, Flynt was shot by an unknown assailant, and lost the use of his legs; nonetheless, he says that he has found happiness despite a core of sadness. Maybe so, but-at least judging from this book-he seems to have lost his edge in the process. Photos not seen by PW. (Dec.)Book Details
Published
October 1, 1996
Publisher
Dove Books
Pages
265
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780787111434