Oscar "Zeta" Acosta: The Uncollected Works [Paperback]

Oscar Zeta Acosta (Author), Ilan Stavans (Author, Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1996

This milestone collection gathers unpublished stories, essays, letters, poems and a teleplay written by Acosta (1935-1974), the Chicano attorney, political activist and writer, between the early 1960s and shortly before his misterious disappearance in Mazatlán, Mexico in 1974.

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

The Brown Buffalo bellows from beyond the grave--and the roar resounds. Oscar ``Zeta'' Acosta is most widely remembered as the model for Hunter S. Thompson's drug-gobbling Samoan attorney in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, a masterpiece of demented reportage. The Mexican-American civil rights lawyer and political activist disappeared in Mexico in 1974; Acosta's editor and biographer Stavans (Bandido: Oscar ``Zeta'' Acosta and the Chicano Experience, 1995) suggests that he died in an accident or was murdered, but, more tantalizingly, also offers the theory that Acosta may have simply decided to vanish south of the border to acquire an Ambrose Biercelike mystique. Acosta's previously published writings include two fine books, Revolt of the Cockroach People and Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo, as well as a handful of stories, articles, and letters. Stavans adds considerably to this stock with a sampling of Acosta's acid (that is to say, both lysergic-fueled and scathing), often howlingly funny poems, a quartet of roughly shaped short stories, and a play, all of which will be welcome to students of Chicano literature and Acosta fans. Especially valuable are a handful of brown-power pamphlets and a politically charged autobiographical essay in which Acosta addresses his fellow Mexican-Americans. ``You can't be a class or a nation without land,'' he asserts. ``We have to develop the consciousness of land as the principal issue just as three years ago we had to develop the consciousness of identity as the principal issue.'' Acosta reiterates, in a madcap letter to Playboy magazine, that he can rightfully claim coauthorship of the theory of ``Gonzo journalism,'' which Thompson rode to fame: ``These matters I point out not as a threat of legalities or etcetera but simply to inform you and to invite serious discussion on the subject.'' Stavans does service to Acosta's memory and to Chicano literature, with this collection. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Review

"The Brown Buffalo bellows from beyond the grave--and the roar resounds..." -- Booklist

Product Details

• Paperback: 312 pages
• Publisher: Arte Publico Pr (May 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558850996
• ISBN-13: 978-1558850996
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #741,995 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars work of literature, July 31, 2000

By 

Kellen Beck - See all my reviews

This review is from: Oscar "Zeta" Acosta: The Uncollected Works (Paperback)

With this book the Brown Buffalo has established himself as a great writer of gonzo.