Mostly on the Edge

Karl Hess participated in many of the seminal events of twentieth-century America. His is the story of a self-taught boy who became a self-made journalist. Hess left school at age fifteen to write for the Washington Star, and wound up, just a few years later, as a senior editor at Newsweek. He helped William F. Buckley Jr. found the National Review, then he worked with Sen. Joseph McCarthy to fight Communism. Later he became a shining light of individualism, and the subject of the Academy Award-winning documentary Toward Liberty. He also served as the main speechwriter for Barry Goldwater's 1964 presidential campaign. But true to a conscience that found him constantly questioning the claims and authority of others, Hess eventually rejected conservatism to become a spokesman for the New Left. He used drugs, smuggled guns, rode motorcycles, and published an article in Playboy that defined libertarianism and ignited a national debate. As an anti-Communist, he cooperated with the FBI but as a libertarian he fought the IRS until he was nearly destitute. He despised conceit, exposed intolerance, and embraced life as an experiment in historical consciousness. It is a book about a man for all seasons and written for an audience of all political persuasions.