Two years after the death of Leonard Alfred Schneider …, the Lenny Bruce cult continues to flourish, especially among the young who never saw the prophet, never heard his voice or touched the hem of his garment. They know only his records and his writings, neither of which do justice to the man or his message.

At the peak of his powers, when he populated his pulpit with dozens of flawlessly articulated characters,… Lenny was incomparable, both as a comedian and as an evangelist. Toward the end of his ministry broke and beaten, his face puffy, his gaze uncertain, the man was something of a disaster area and his message had become a bit garbled. Both, however, have claimed the reverence of a generation whose own world is anything but tidy and rational….

In student-union lounges where John Kennedy's thousand days have come to be regarded as Camelot on...