Run Run Run

August 29, 1994
The obsessive inner forces that drove Abbie Hoffman (1936-89), antiwar protester, media manipulator and grassroots organizer, are illuminated in this engaging biography by his younger brother. Jack Hoffman's intimate first-person narrative is coauthored with Simon, cofounder of Four Wall Eight Windows publishing. The book offers close views of Abbie's troubled relationship with his conservative father, his contentious first marriage and his role in the 1969 Chicago Conspiracy trial. Also revealed are his constant drug use, including his 1973 cocaine bust and his fugitive years with ex-model Johanna Lawrenson, during which, as ``Barry Freed,'' he organized an environmentalist campaign to save the St. Lawrence Seaway. We learn that Abbie took lithium for manic-depressive disorder; Jack Hoffman retracts his statement alleging foul play, made shortly after Abbie died of barbituate poisoning, and describes his brother's self-medicating at the time of his death. Photos.

September 15, 1994
During the silver anniversaries of Woodstock and the Chicago conspiracy trial, Abbie Hoffman's name was mentioned on more than a few occasions. Now, the iconoclast's brother Jack--keeper of the family business while Abbie was off saving the world--shares his recollections of his sib in a personal, informative biography that effectively evokes the vitality, charisma, and commitment of the late radical prankster. Abbie has gotten his share of vilification and lionization over the years, but Jack, with the competent assistance of Daniel Simon, lovingly depicts him as full of contradictions--antic performer and hermit, street tough and intellectual, political scientist and flower child, middle-class kid and revolutionary--but with a heart dedicated to good works. Abbie was a textbook manic-depressive: when he was up, he was flying; when he was down, he was suicidal (indeed, he took his own life in 1989). Jack pulls few punches in presenting Abbie's irresponsibility and psychological fragility (while a fugitive, Abbie's worst fear was that the FBI didn't really want to catch him) but counters it with demonstrations of selflessness and generosity (Abbie gave much of his income away and, contrary to FBI misinformation, always eschewed limousines). Jack does a fine job covering all the major events--the Yippies, the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago, the conspiracy trial, the many arrests, the cocaine bust, the fugitive years, the resurfacing, and the later years when Abbie floundered and lost his grip. Ultimately, Jack Hoffman does justice to his brother's spirit. ((Reviewed September 15, 1994))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1994, American Library Association.)