Cultural Icons of the 1960s Trivia Quiz

Answer: Norman Mailer

Nachem Malech Mailer (1923-2007), better known by his pen name Norman Mailer, was one of the leading figures in the development of the non-fiction novel. This genre uses the techniques of fictional writing to deal with a factual subject in such a way as to create a sense of involvement with the reader. Truman Capote's 1965 'In Cold Blood' and Mailer's 1968 'The Armies of the Night: History as a Novel/The Novel as History' about the march on the Pentagon in October 1967 protesting American involvement in the Vietnam War are considered two of the classic examples.

In 1955 Mailer was one of the three cofounders of 'The Village Voice', an alternative newspaper published in Greenwich Village. 'The Voice' was a must-read for those interested in NYC politics and the arts during the 1960s, and continued to fulfil that role until it ceased print publication in 2017. A quarterly online version started in 2021.

Mailer's first novel, 'The Naked and the Dead', was published in 1948, and became a best seller that was turned into a movie in 1958. Its success gave Mailer the freedom to pursue a career of writing about the subjects he cared about, which led to the acclaimed novels 'Why Are We in Vietnam?' (1967) and 'The Executioner's Song' (1980).

Answer: Joan Baez

While you may think that Bob Dylan is the one who should be here as one of the quintessential figures of the 1960s, without Joan Baez's support he may never have had his big break. She was already established on the folk scene when he arrived in New York City, and they shared a lot of stages during the '60s. Her recording of some of his songs along with the more traditional folk ballads that had been her wont marked her expansion into a larger range of musical styles.

In 1968 she released 'Any Day Now', an album of Dylan covers. 'David's Album' was recorded at the same time, and dedicated to her then-husband David Harris, imprisoned for draft resistance. It had a distinctly country feel. In 1969 she appeared at Woodstock, and reached a whole new audience for her social protest material with the release of the documentary movie of that event. Her performance of the song 'Joe Hill', about the labor activist of the 1930s and of the spiritual 'Swing Low, Sweet Chariot' are on the film.

Answer: Andy Warhol

Warhol's most famous works are probably his silkscreen paintings 'Marilyn Diptych' and 'Campbell's Soup Cans', a set of 32 paintings, one for each of the flavors then being marketed. They were the product of his attempts to explore the relationships between art, advertising, and pop culture, work he conducted in his Manhattan workshop known as The Factory. The Factory was a cultural hot spot, attracting artists, musicians, intellectuals, celebrities, pretty much anyone who was anyone in the creative community.

His 1966 experimental film 'Chelsea Girls' featured a number of the people dubbed Warhol superstars, illustrating the dictum frequently attributed to him that anybody can be a star; in fact, "In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes." In 1966 he became the manager of The Velvet Underground, an experimental rock band featuring Lou Reed whose significance in the musical world was appreciated more after they disbanded during the 1970s than it was at the time.

Answer: Robert Crumb

Robert Crumb is often described as a countercultural cartoonist, being the founder of the first successful underground comix publication, 'Zap Comix', which published 16 editions starting in 1968. It featured his character Mr. Natural, a mystic guru speculated to have been created as a spoof of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, then at the peak of popularizing Transcendental Meditation.

While Mr. Natural gained a following in the comix world, the comic strip 'Fritz the Cat', depicting the wild (and often sexual) adventures of an anthropomorphic cat became an icon, especially when the 1972 animated film based on it became the first animated film to be given an X rating.

In addition to these projects, Robert Crumb has had an extensive career illustrating stories, novels and music album covers. The highest-profile album he designed was 'Cheap Thrills' by Big Brother and the Holding Company, their last album before Janis Joplin left for a solo career.

Answer: Jann Wenner

Jann Wenner cofounded 'Rolling Stone' in 1967, after dropping out of UC Berkeley. The magazine was originally known for its coverage of rock music (and the gonzo journalism of Hunter S. Thompson), and the first issue featured John Lennon on the cover. The magazine was the first to publish the photographs of Annie Leibovitz, and published in serial version Tom Wolfe's first novel, 'The Bonfire of the Vanities'. The magazine's title is variously said to have been inspired by a Muddy waters song with that title, by the Rolling Stones (whose name is a reference to the Muddy Waters song), and the Bob Dylan song 'Like a Rolling Stone', or a little from column A and a little from column B.

Whatever the inspiration for the magazine's name, its motto has a clear provenance. The New York Times famously claims to have 'All the News That's Fit to Print'; this was parodied in an April Fool's Day edition of the student newspaper the Columbia Daily Spectator as 'All the news that fits we print'. The shortened form 'All the news that fits' practically wrote itself!

Answer: Ken Kesey

Ken Kesey once described himself as "too young to be a beatnik, and too old to be a hippie.' He nevertheless became an icon of the counterculture of the 1960s. Following the 1962 success of his first novel, 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest', he was able to move on from participating in government studies on hallucinogenic drugs in order to supplement his income from working in a Veterans' Hospital.

He formed a group he called the Merry Pranksters who hosted happenings (impromptu artistic performances in a variety of media) they called Acid Tests, as ingesting LSD was an integral part of the experience. In the summer of 1964, they traveled the country in a psychedelically painted school bus, bringing their message to the whole country on their way from San Francisco to New York City. This tour was chronicled in Tom Wolfe's 1968 book 'The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test'.

Answer: LeRoi Jones / Amiri Baraka

LeRoi Jones was well known as a poet and playwright in the Beat movement, until the assassination of Malcolm X in 1965 led him to move away from that movement. He converted to Islam, changed his name to Amiri Baraka, moved from Greenwich Village to Harlem (leaving his first family behind) and established the BARTS to further the development of black artists. It only lasted for less than a year, but provided the stimulus for the creation of similar institutions around the country.

The writings of LeRoi Jones / Amiri Baraka have been condemned as homophobic, racist, antisemitic and misogynistic. They have also been an inspiration to countless Black artists, empowered by his vigor.

Answer: Abbie Hoffmann

Abbot Howard "Abbie" Hoffman (1936 - 1989) was a political activist who founded the Youth International Party, a revolutionary offshoot of the antiwar movement, in 1967. He became widely known following his arrest during demonstrations outside the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, and his subsequent trial as one of the Chicago Seven. Prior to that, he had engaged in numerous actions intended to gather the attention of the media, such as throwing dollar bills onto the floor of the NY Stock Exchange during trading, disrupting trading while everyone scrambled for the money. In the 1967 march on the Pentagon to protest the Vietnam War, he ostentatiously attempted to levitate the building.

After being booed off the stage at Woodstock for interrupting the performance of The Who to make an anti-war protest, Hoffman wrote, in his 1970 'Steal This Book', that taking the stage at a rock concert to use the amplification there to get your message out is to be encouraged, but best done between sets.

Answer: Paul McCartney

While not countercultural in the way many of those in this quiz were (actively fighting for change), the Beatles had such a high profile during the 1960s that they came to symbolise to many the changes that were developing during that decade. Comparing their album covers over the years provides a nice chronicle of the changes, from the clean-cut young lads in suits through the eclectic hippies of 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band', and on. Their music similarly evolved from its early roots in Skiffle and Rock and Roll to include a wider range of genres, including psychedelic and Indian influences. When they stopped touring in 1966, the last four years in which the band performed together focused on creative exploration rather than on 'pop' songs.

Paul McCartney and John Lennon wrote most of the band's material, the two bringing to the partnership attitudes and skills that complemented each other beautifully. While all of their songs were credited as being written by the pair, it was easy to see when a song was primarily written by one or the other. After the dissolution of the Beatles, all four members had successful careers as solo artists and/or with new bands. But they will always be the Beatles.

Answer: Timothy Leary

A Harvard professor of psychology, Timothy Leary started legal experiments with LSD and psilocybin during the 1950s and became convinced of their therapeutic value in psychiatry. He was fired from Harvard in 1963 primarily because of controversy about the way he ran his research project, and then set out to promote hallucinogenic use as widely as possible. Needless to say, this eventuated in multiple arrests, leading to a 10-year jail sentence in 1970. After an escape assisted by the Weathermen Underground, he fled abroad, but was rearrested in Afghanistan and returned to jail in 1973. Following his release in 1976, he became an informant to the FBI about the Weathermen, and entered witness protection.

Eventually he moved to Los Angeles and spent his time on the lecture circuit, where he carefully avoided active promotion of the use of illicit substances. In the 1980s, he declared that the PC was the new LSD, and urged people to "turn on, boot up, jack in", and update of his famous catchcry from the '60s of "turn on, tune in, drop out".