Paul Krassner was the Alexander Pope, the Dorothy Parker, and the F. Scott Fitzgerald of the 1960s. In his satirical magazine The Realist, which began publication in 1958, he revealed himself as a creature very much of his time but somehow separate from it. He was the voice of sardonic, pomposity-deflating laughter, his barbs aimed at the culture and counter-culture alike. Here's Krassner describing LSD: "Last week I took my third acid trip. This time I saw God. Otherwise, it was nothing."

Krassner was a fellow traveler in drug exploration with Timothy Leary, in political agitation with Abbie Hoffman, in comic innovation with Lenny Bruce. The Realist was the dark, warped conscience of the 1960s. With a staff of basically two people, Krassner and a great editor, Bob Abel, it attracted writers like Bruce, Woody Allen, Terry Southern (author of Dr. Strangelove), and Avery Corman...