"Painter, writer, sound poet, lyricist, performance artist - Brion Gysin (1916-86) first came to prominence in the 1950s in the heady atmosphere of the so-called Beat Hotel in Paris. His enormous range of radical ideas would become a source of inspiration for artists of the Beat Generation, as well as for their successors (among them David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Keith Haring, and Laurie Anderson)." "The sheer variety of visual material illustrated in this first comprehensive study of Gysin's life and work reveals him as a remarkable artist. The accompanying texts include a biographical outline by John Grigsby Geiger, together with first-hand reminiscences by Gysin's friends and contemporaries such as John Giorno and Bernard Heidsieck, and analyses of his work and ideas by later scholars."--Jacket.