Amerikan Krazy Unboxing

A few cartons of the hardcover of Amerikan Krazy arrived today for the book launch at Chevalier’s Books next Wednesday!

Wanting to share my excitement with fans, I took a quick photo series of the unboxing of the copies.

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If you haven’t RSVP’d for the reading and book signing, there’s still some room left. Please RSVP at Boffo Socko Books or on Facebook.

Can’t wait for Wednesday or want to read it before the book signing? You can buy the hardcover or e-book version on Amazon or wherever fine literature is sold.

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From The Unintentional Last Words of 13 Writers | Vulture

“I taught the yuppies … Perfectly sound young men came out of college, went to work for Nixon, and were hardened criminals on Wall Street before you knew it.”

— James Baldwin, 1987 as quoted in The Unintentional Last Words of 13 Writers — Vulture

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Ebook version of Exact Change is now available on Amazon

My first book Exact Change: Short Fiction is now available on Amazon!

Here’s a quick excerpt from the publisher’s website:

Henry James Korn’s first book, this collection of short form fiction was originally published by Assembling Press in 1974 with an original lithograph cover by photographer and print-maker Scott Hyde.

It now finds a new life in digital form as an e-book. Of particular interest to modern audiences are several clear links from Korn’s late 60’s and early 70’s literary experiments to the anticipated major themes, characters, and plot points in his forthcoming debut novel Amerikan Krazy.

Memorable stories include King Kong in the Kitchen, The Condemned of Altoona, and One Thing Perfectly Clear. It also contains one of his earliest modular experimental efforts The Pontoon Manifesto which was published separately in a variety of formats.

Source: Exact Change: Short Fiction | Boffo Socko Books

I’d kindly ask those who enjoy reading it to leave reviews on Amazon, Goodreads, LibraryThing, or your own blog. Sharing via social media is also appreciated!

Purchase

Buy now on Amazon.com.

P.S.: You can get it for free if you’re a Kindle Unlimited subscriber. If not you can join now for 30 Days Free.

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Yes, Eisenhower expelled me from Johns Hopkins University

Last week, I was asked an interesting question about Amerikan Krazy on my author page at Goodreads.com.  I thought I’d post the answer here as well.

Question:

Is it true that you were expelled from Johns Hopkins University by university president Milton S. Eisenhower (President Dwight Eisenhower’s brother) for an article you edited/published in the college student newspaper which defamed sitting President Lyndon B. Johnson? Can you tell us more about the incident and how it influenced the plot of your book Amerikan Krazy?

Answer:

Yes and yes. Ironically, I landed at Johns Hopkins University as a freshman in the fall of 1963 as a result of a successful encounter with Dr. Milton S. Eisenhower at Rockefeller University arranged by my late dad through his bank.

As an impressionable Hopkins student, I continued to admire Ike’s younger brother (who was an international relations expert in his own right) from afar. Nevertheless, in 1967, Dr. Eisenhower informed me via a hand-delivered letter on embossed stationary that I had brought great shame upon the University by calling President Lyndon B. Johnson a murderer in public print because of his role in the JFK assassination cover-up and the Vietnam war.

In Amerikan Krazy, a boy named Herbert Horn fears an imminent atomic attack and, as a result, wears patriotism on the sleeve of his cut-down Eisenhower jacket and takes comfort from Ike’s peculiar but reassuring resemblance to Proctor and Gamble’s “Mr. Clean.” As a teenager, Herb Horn similarly perceives young Senator Kennedy as his nation’s well-scrubbed savior but Herb’s fragile psyche is soon shattered by Kennedy’s brutal public execution. In response to Kennedy’s death, Herb crafts a satire defaming his successor, Lyndon B. Johnson similar to the Hopkins Newsletter essay that enraged Milton S. Eisenhower. This formative, high-profile experience beneath the iron heel of Presidential authority results in Herb’s radicalization manifested in sleepless nights, revenge fantasies, odd longings, substance abuse, patricidal nightmares, war wounds, terror bombings and fantasies about new Presidential assassination plots.

“Don’t ask a stupid question like that because the undergraduate newspaper is subsidized.”
Milton S. Eisenhower

Incidentally, when I was suspended from school and the story was published round the world, Lou Panos, who wrote the Inside Baltimore column of The Evening Sun interviewed Milton Eisenhower and asked him where freedom of the press fit in? Panos reported that the ordinarily unflappable Eisenhower snapped, “Don’t ask a stupid question like that because the undergraduate newspaper is subsidized.” Panos concluded that Dr. Eisenhower’s answer indicated that the President of one of the America’s leading universities believed there should be two kinds of press–one paid and the other free.

As another interesting aside, my true-life confrontation with the arbitrary power of the ruling elites at an early age had a bit of a happy ending. Several days after my reinstatement as a Hopkins student, I was surprised to receive a letter from Joseph Heller, author of Catch-22 (and a major literary hero of mine then and now) expressing the wish that I was in Washington, D.C. running the country and that the folks in Washington, D.C. were in school learning a few things.

PS: Friends are encouraged to click on a You Tube link that features Milton S. Eisenhower championing the establishment of concentration camps for 120,000 Japanese-American citizens during World War II. Readers are cordially invited to view this ten-minute War Relocation Agency propaganda film and post opinions on the question of who shamed Hopkins.

 

Other Questions?

If you’ve got your own question about me, my books, or my writing, feel free to ask it yourself at Goodreads.

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In Movies, Books and TV, a Rabbit Hole of Kennedy Conspiracies | The New York Times

If you can’t wait for the release of the upcoming novel Amerikan Krazy, perhaps this soupçon of JFK Conspiracy Theory literature and film will assist you:

As Presidents’ Day and the premiere of the Hulu series “11.22.63” approach, consider these varied takes on the Kennedy assassination.

Source: In Movies, Books and TV, a Rabbit Hole of Kennedy Conspiracies – The New York Times

 

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Save the Date: Amerikan Krazy Reading at Chevalier’s Books

We’ll be launching Amerikan Krazy on March 2, 2016 at Chevalier’s Books in Los Angeles.

March 2, 2016 at 7 pm

Chevalier’s Books

126 North Larchmont Boulevard
Los Angeles, California 90004

Come for an entertaining reading and then purchase your copy and have it signed or inscribed by the author.

Other upcoming appearances, readings, and book signings can be found at our appearances page.

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