Tosh: Growing Up in Wallace Berman's World

TOSH: Selling and Marketing Points:

Candid, funny, name-dropping, page-turning memoir by Tosh Berman, the son of Wallace Berman.

Wallace Berman is one of the most significant artists of American culture, associated with the Abstract artists, as well as the Beat Generation. He is “the father” of assemblage art.

To get a sense of how well-known he was in his own time, Wallace Berman was featured on The Beatles' “Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band” album cover, standing next to Tony Curtis.

Cast of characters in the memoir is famous and distinguished, with photographs of many of them in their gorgeous prime included in the book:

Actors: Dennis Hopper, Dean Stockwell, Toni Basil (fascinating back story on the woman most of us only know for “Mickey”), Russ Tamblyn, Amber Tamblyn (Russ’s daughter, who authors preface), Billy Gray, and Randy Mantooth.

Musicians: Brian Jones, Keith Richards, and Mick Jagger (of the Rolling Stones), James Brown, Neil Young, Phil Spector, Jim Morrison, Sammy Davis Jr. , Devo, Sparks, Donovan, Micky Dolenz, Oingo Boingo, Brian Ferry, John Cage, and Ramblin’ Jack Elliot.

Artists and writers: Andy Warhol, Bruce Conner, Jasper Johns, , Marcel Duchamp, William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Cameron, Michael McClure, John Wieners, Walter Hopps, George Herms, Robert Frazer, Alexander Trocchi, Diane di Prima, Billy Jahrmarkt, Robert Duncan, Jess, and Ed Kienholz.

Tosh Berman was a long-time bookseller at Book Soup in Los Angeles, and is eager to do events in California, New York, and from other interested stores.

Wallace Berman’s reputation continues to grow, as evidenced by the recent book, Wallace Berman: American Aleph and the reissue of his Semina Culture

Likely excerpts of this book in The Paris Review and The Evergreen Review.

Have contacts at art magazines like Frieze, and Artforum, and will seek interviews with Tosh.

Many famous people providing endorsements for this book, which attests to Wallace Berman’s wide-ranging and enduring influence and big fan base: filmmakers Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola, actor Jason Schwartzman, musicians John Zorn, Richard Hell, Thurston Moore, and John Taylor of Duran Duran, and writers Luc Sante, Gillian McCain, Jonathan Ames and Lisa See.

Book Trailer to come.

Tosh Berman producing a web-based interview series, TOSH TALKS, dedicated to the book, featuring interviews with those mentioned, blurbers, art critics, culture vultures, and many more fascinating people bonded by a love of Wallace Berman’s work. City Lights will heavily promote on our popular social media channels with 44,000 fans on Facebook and 129,000 fans on Twitter

© 2019 City Lights Publishers (Ebook): 9780872867642

Release date

Ebook: 12 February 2019