Customer Reviews

The Greatest Men's Party on Earth: Inside the Bohemian Grove

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There's a lot to this book that can be missed on the first read.

I was lucky enough to find a nice copy at the Friends of Torrance Library sale.

Published in 1974, the first half of this book gives an interesting historical background of the Bohemian Club and camp from the late 1800's right up into the Nixon years. But it's a lot less about the specific members of the Grove and more of a general portrait of what camp-life was like.

John van der Zee does a good job of sprinkling in tales from the past to help explain the atmosphere of the Grove. Towards the end, he gets in to a lot more of the fraternal aspects of the encampment.

Anyone interested in learning more about the Bohemian Grove could benefit greatly by reading this book. I would love to know how the Grove has changed in the last 35 years, so I might check out some of the newer books. However, I enjoyed that the tone of this book didn't come off as a "Tell-All" or pander to the paranoia and occultism crowd. However, van der Zee does give a good breakdown of the Cremation of Care on pages 9-10.

A very interesting book indeed!