Collectively, the titles in Johnny Dolphin’s trilogy (39 Blows on a Gone Trumpet, Journey Around an Extraordinary Planet and Liberated Space) explore every area of human activity while simultaneously illuminating a time period — the sixties — that remains one of the most vigorous and captivating eras of the last century.
In 39 Blows, the protagonist Joe Madison comes face to face with the power of the world, his own power, and the prospect of having an influence on the course of history — across Manhattan, Iran, and Morocco.
In Journey Around an Extraordinary Planet, Joe Madison explores global synchronicity through adventures in Tangiers, Egypt, Asia, and Vietnam, returning to New York at the start of the American counter-revolution.
In Liberated Space, we follow Joe Madison into the heart of Haight-Ashbury during the counter-revolution — perhaps the most accurate and conclusive chronicle of that particular time and place ever written.
Throughout, the trilogy reflects a fervent passion for the literature of the ages: from Mayakovsky’s ardor to Blake’s ecstatic wrath; from Whitman to Joyce; from Burroughs to Brecht; from Khayyam to Baudelaire.
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Why this book matters
- The complete Trilogy of the Sixties in one volume — a sweeping literary portrait of a generation’s search for meaning, freedom, and consciousness
- Traces one man’s journey from Manhattan to Morocco, Egypt, Vietnam, and Haight-Ashbury — a map of the 1960s drawn from the inside
- Widely regarded as the most accurate and conclusive chronicle of the Haight-Ashbury counter-revolution ever written
- Woven through with the great literary voices of the ages — Blake, Whitman, Joyce, Burroughs, Brecht, Khayyam, Baudelaire
- A rare work that makes the universal feel intimate and the historical feel alive — essential reading for anyone drawn to the spirit of the sixties
