Orders placed directly with Feral House receive a signed photo of Eugene Robinson. Quantities are very limited.

A rollicking no-holds barred memoir from journalist and musician Eugene S. Robinson that takes readers along through the story of his life.

“A weird rollicking ride” frames how author Eugene S. Robinson views his journey from a Brooklyn kid with decidedly offbeat punk rock proclivities to the realities of California hardcore and dark detours into shows, tours, drugs, porn, guns, MMA fighting, an Ivy League-esque education and his eventual entry into the US Defense industry just in time to see his boss dragged into Contragate.

Robinson’s writing mirrors his fighting style intensity, ferocity, and brutal truth. He knows exactly who he is and how he is perceived by the white people and white culture that surrounds him. Robinson challenges accepted norms. He fights against easy answers and safe passages. He says:

“No one who ever gets a life sentence for just about anything really expects it to last a lifetime. Even if the modifier is “without the possibility of parole.” Hope springs eternal but there’s always the undiscussed other option. The one where the fate is chosen, freely, and the protagonist has about as much interest in escaping as he does of being almost anywhere else at all. Which is to say: not at all.”

A Walk Across Dirty Water is Robinson’s memoir of growing up in Brooklyn during the 1970s, playing in punk bands and touring the world during the eighties, taking a break to attend Stanford, and accidentally becoming a famous television personality in Germany.

“These devils and red-eyed bunnies are powerful, devoid of cutesy charm, and the language and lettering that presents them is integral and key—the “Dukes,” the “Knights,” the “Kings,” the gleeful usage of archaic words like “Thee” never uttered in the United States, except perhaps by cults—and while they crop up elsewhere, they certainly seem to have become more rooted n Chicago than anyplace else. “  From Anthony Haden-Guest’s foreword to Compliments of Chicagohoodz.

A rare, private collection of photos, calling cards, and ephemera serves as inspiration for Compliments of Chicagohoodz.  The book analyzes the unique visual language and graphics of Chicago’s gangs, drawing upon decades of interviews, documentation, and collecting of memorabilia, and featuring commentary from gang members and Chicago artists.

The practice of creating and distributing gang business (“compliment”) cards was popular in Chicago for over fifty years. These displayed the organization and branch, its active and fallen members, and rivalries. Compliments of Chicagohoodz tells the stories behind the names, bringing the reader closer to the individuals who created, owned, and added their personal touches to the card as it passed from hand to hand.

James “Jinx” O’Connor’s photographic documentation of gang graffiti and members captures a lost era of large-scale color promotional murals and an extraordinary style distinct within street art. The book also explores other forms of representation including varsity-style sweaters, patches, and drawings. Through these images, Compliments of Chicagohoodz traces the development and consolidation of the neighborhood street organization from doo-wop to hip-hop, from greasers to gangster rap, from dances, bands, and softball teams to racketeering, narcotics trafficking, and domestic terror.

 

“Mexico’s go-to Web site on information on the country’s drug war.” — MSNBC

“A gritty, front-row seat to Mexico’s drug war.” — Houston Chronicle

“Some of the horror it displays makes the 2002 film City of God, charting the drug war on the streets of Brazil’s look like a Disney film.” — The Daily Mail

 

What is the value of telling the truth? For an independent blog reporter in the midst of the Mexican Drug War, it’s as important as her very life, which is threatened on a daily basis.  The internationally famous Blog Del Narco is an anonymously typed blog that documents a rare insider’s views of the elusive and highly violent drug war in Mexico.

 

Hidden by veils of Internet privacy due to death threats, this 30-year-old blogger has become a local hero and is documenting Mexico’s decline.  She reveals the horrible savagery of the drug cartels with gruesomely graphic pictures, videos and stories of beheadings, death squads, paramilitary cops in ski masks dragging people off and public humiliation.  Blog Del Narco’s highly viewed site (Alexa rated 50 in Mexico, 5,000 in the US, 128,000+ twitter following) has become an international mecca of information into a world that few have gone, and even fewer have lived to tell about.

Original handpicked blog entries are formatted to describe an epic and tragic true story that unfolds the savagery of daily life in Mexico.   This book contains both the original Spanish-language posts in addition to their English translations. Truth is risky, and sometimes it’s also harsh.  Dying for the Truth addresses narco-censorship, government corruption, and an ever-rising death toll all driven by American demand for the products controlled by the cartels and their government collaborators.  Blog Del Narco has fought back, and in turn, created hope in its people and an immense cult following for truth.

The anonymous author is the only person in Mexico daring to write the truth about the violence and corruption of the horrifying drug war in a country that is quickly becoming one of the most dangerous in the world.  Her life has been threatened dozens of times, and her informants have often been killed. It’s a certainty she will be horribly murdered. Both the cartels and the government have searched for her. Her crime: reporting the truth.

 

“What can happen to one can happen to all.”
—  Publilius Syrus, 1^stcentury B.C.

On May 12, 2013, 48-year-old Vicky Isaac of rural Puxico, Missouri—a woman with a history of learning disabilities, traumatic brain injuries, and drug addiction— loaded a .22 caliber handgun and shot her violent addict husband while he slept in the trailer they shared with Vicky’s adult son. Or did she? According to police reports, Vicky called 911 and confessed to the crime.

Was this another sad case of murder amongst addicts or something more?

Betty Frizzell escaped her family’s legacy of crime, addiction, and abuse to become a respected law enforcement officer and teacher. Drawn back to the town and people of her past, Betty works to uncover the truth of murder and her family’s history of violence. Her investigation uncovers sad realities about mental illness, small-town politics, and a society that doesn’t care about “poor, white trash”.

There are never easy answers when the odds are stacked against you and no amount of “elegies” will save your family.

Betty Frizzell is the former chief of the Winfield, Missouri Police Department. Betty began her law enforcement career in 1997 with an aim to assist victims of sexual assault. She served as a Deputy Sheriff in both the Lincoln and Ripley County (MO) Sheriff’s Departments. During her time with the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department, she helped develop the first sex crimes unit and was the first female officer to join the S.W.A.T. team. She later worked as a police officer and gang investigator for the city of Louisiana, Missouri before becoming the Chief of the Winfield Police Department. Upon retiring from policing, Frizzell began teaching courses on sexual assault investigations as an adjunct professor of criminal justice. She holds an M.F.A in Writing and an M.S. in Criminal Justice Administration. She served as a member of the Citizens Advisory Board for the State of Missouri Department of Corrections: Probation and Parole Division and was honored as the Lincoln County Law Enforcement Officer of the Year in 2001. Frizzell currently resides in Seattle, Washington, but remains closely connected to Missouri.

Here are the erotic writings of a Jewish lesbian who met fame in Germany before and during the Nazi era.

Marie-Madeleine was a German Jew, lesbian poet and novelist whose eroticism and love for morphine was revealed in many of her shocking, sensational, and bestselling books of the early twentieth century. Born Gertrud Günther, and starting at age 15 she wrote over 46 books until 1932 when Nazis condemned her work as degenerate. In 1943 she entered a sanatorium for morphine addiction where she died a mysterious death while under the care of Nazis doctors.

Priestess of Morphine: The Lost Writings of Marie-Madeleine contains many of this fascinating woman’s works, translated for the first time into English, and also contains Stephen J. Gertz’s Foreword and Dr. Amy Shapiro’s Afterword explaining why Marie-Madeleine has become a rediscovered heroine of lesbian and drug literature. Fascinating period images from Marie-Madeleine’s lost literature and career supplement Dr. Ronald Siegel’s amazing rediscovery.

Craig Smith was a 1960s golden boy – good looking, charismatic, outgoing; a preternaturally gifted musician and songwriter whose songs were recorded by some of the biggest names in entertainment – Andy Williams, Glen Campbell, the Monkees. His future success seemed assured, until an unexpected turn of events plunged him into a terrifying darkness. Clean-cut Craig Smith became Maitreya Kali, the self-proclaimed psychedelic Messiah. He laid out his poignant, disturbing schizophrenic vision on a sprawling self-released double-album before disappearing completely. Author Mike Stax spent fifteen years piecing together the mystery of Maitreya Kali, uncovering one of the strangest and most tragic untold stories of the 1960s and ‘70s.

Swim Through the Darkness reveals author Stax’s fifteen year quest in tracking down this strange saga of American pop culture. Included in the story are Smith’s close ties to the Monkees, particularly Mike Nesmith, who produced and promoted Smith’s band, Penny Arkade. Also covered are the bizarre self-released albums he made as Maitreya Kali, which now command thousands of dollars among psychedelic music collectors.

Check out these rare and unreleased tracks by Craig Smith/Maitreya Kali, Penny Arkade, Heather MacRae, The Happeners, and Craig & Chris on our Soundcloud page!