If you wish to see the so-called 'beat generation' in action, drop in at the College of Complexes. -Dorothy Kilgallen (1960), The Playground for People Who Think
Slim Brundage was Chicago's last guerrilla fighter for free speech. We celebrate him today as an extinct volcano on the Chicago landscape. We loved his turbulence, his passionate fire, and his continuing unpredictability. His eruptions kept us alert. Hail, Slim Brundage! -Leon M. Despres
THAT'S WHAT THEY CALLED Chicago's College of Complexes in its heyday (1951-1961). A unique combination of tavern, university and nonstop wild party, the College was for many years the city's outstanding outsider outpost-a rare living link between the old IWW/Bughouse Square/Dil (yes-one l!) Pickle Club counterculture of the 1920s and the Beat Generation/New Left counterculture of the 1960s.
The writings collected here by the College's Founder and Janitor, Slim Brundage (1903-1990), chronicle the colorful history of what may well be the oldest continuous dissident workingclass intellectual community in the U.S.
Hobo, Wobbly, Soapboxer, veteran of Bughouse Square and the Dil Pickle, "little theater" playwright/actor, president emeritus of the Hobo College in the 1930s, housepainter, humorist and chief architect of the scandalous Beatnik Party during the 1960 electionss, Brundage was very much a maker of of the history he writes about. Here are exciting first-person accounts of tramping, open forums, the fabulous Pickle, the hobo colleges, the Radical Bookshop, and a guided tour of North Clark Street in its most deliriously disreputable days. And here too is the hilarious story of the College of Complexes as it evolved from the last of the old-time free-speech forums into Chicago's Number One "beatnik bistro." Also included are several of the Janitor's "Ravings" from the College's "official neurosis," The Curriculum, articulating his free-wheeling, let's-see-what-happens radical philosophy.
Franklin Rosemont's introduction discusses the IWW/hobohemian roots of the College, outlines the Janitor's radical (and Dadaist) critique of education, and relates Brundage's life, the College and Chicago's hobo/beat scenes to the broader struggles for a better, freer, truly eqalitarian and non-exploitative society.
Minors Admitted If Accompanied by Their Grandchildren
