An Unseemly Man : My Life As Pornographer, Pundit, and Social Outcast

This century's most ardent advocate of the First Amendment and one of the country's most controversial and outspoken figures shares his life story, from growing up in Appalachia to his troubles in Beverly Hills. 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. Controversial and outspoken, hated and adored, the infamous life of Larry Flynt needs no exaggeration to make it one of the most interesting stories of our time. The real events of Flynt's life are captured here—from his roots in Appalachia to the founding of Hustler magazine, from the shooting that left him confined to a wheelchair to his legal battles and First Amendment advocacy.