Murdered by Capitalism: A Memoir of 150 Years of Life and Death on the American Left (Nation Books)

A San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of 2004 After spilling bourbon on Schnaubelt's grave, its pugnacious and very dead occupant becomes Ross's mentor, sidekick, and boozing companion through this epic telling of the hallucinatory, carnal, and ornery histories of the American Left and John Ross's own remarkable life. Schnaubelt navigates us through his seemingly boundless revolutionary battleground, uttering cries of subversion from within the grave while trying to remain out of earshot from the FBI snoop and local supermarket tycoon buried nearby. Ross's own story—hobo revolutionist, junkie, poet, and journalist is a contrapuntal to Schnaubelt's. Ross never takes himself too seriously, yet his most remarkable trait is the honesty with which he approaches life, even while trying to deconstruct his own faults, personal tragedies (including the death of his one-month-old son), and imperfections. His pursuit of revolutionary politics and poetics is the constant, often spent with his muse, Revolutionary Mexico. Ross concludes with a trip to Baghdad as a "human shield," before the Anglo-American invasion, ready to sacrifice his life as part of his perpetual struggle for justice. Award-winning writer John Ross's memoir is inspired from a tumbledown tombstone in California: The headstone reads: E. B. Schnaubelt 1855–1913, "Murdered by Capitalism." A San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of 2004 After spilling bourbon on Schnaubelt's grave, its pugnacious and very dead occupant becomes Ross's mentor, sidekick, and boozing companion through this epic telling of the hallucinatory, carnal, and ornery histories of the American Left and John Ross's own remarkable life. Schnaubelt navigates us through his seemingly boundless revolutionary battleground, uttering cries of subversion from within the grave while trying to remain out of earshot from the FBI snoop and local supermarket tycoon buried nearby. Ross's own story -- hobo revolutionist, junkie, poet, and journalist is a contrapuntal to Schnaubelt's. Ross never takes himself too seriously, yet his most remarkable trait is the honesty with which he approaches life, even while trying to deconstruct his own faults, personal tragedies (including the death of his one-month-old son), and imperfections. His pursuit of revolutionary politics and poetics is the constant, often spent with his muse, Revolutionary Mexico. Ross concludes with a trip to Baghdad as a "human shield," before the Anglo-American invasion, ready to sacrifice his life as part of his perpetual struggle for justice. Award-winning writer John Ross's memoir is inspired from a tumbledown tombstone in The headstone E. B. Schnaubelt 1855 -- 1913, "Murdered by Capitalism." "Two old men, one long dead, the other teetering on the lip of the grave, boozily reminisce about their own histories of struggle in a picturesque northern California boneyard. The payoff is an epic tale of the hallucinatory, carnal, ornery, and ultimately tragic-comedic history of the American Left." "E. B. Schnaubelt, the brother of the infamous Rudolph "Haymarket" Schnaubelt, navigates us through the seemingly boundless revolutionary battleground of his life, uttering cries of subversive defiance from beyond the grave that are duly recorded by the FBI snoop. Schnaubelt's co-stars in this extravangza are such long-dead radical luminaries as Lucy Parsons, Emma Goldman, Joe Hill, Big Bill Haywood, Sacco and Vanzetti, and the Haymarket martyrs." "John Ross's own deviant story - West Village red diaper baby, beat poet, Bay Area revolutionary, globe-trotting troublemaker, hobo journalist, jazz loving junkie, jailbird, "the Willie Loman of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation"--Plays contemporary counterpoint to Schnaubelt's old-time tall stories as he meanders through the past six decades of American resistance."--Jacket. Trinidad, California boasts that it is the smallest incorporated city in the Golden State-400 souls marinade here suspended in a fog-bound aspic where seasons are governed by salmon and crabs, Winnebagos, and well-heeled tourists.