406 Duboce Avenue, San Francisco, Calif., February 9, 1967

Dear Thurl,

I did move to San Francisco, 1/7/67. Moved in at this address with Claude & Helene Hayward.

In San Francisco what's happening is a drug-oriented social revolution centered in a neighborhood called Haight/Ashbury (those being the main intersecting streets thereof). A psychedelic community has sprung into existence, based essentially on pot & LSD. (Note: the pill inclosed with this letter is 1000 micrograms of LSD—hereinafter & henceforth called Acid. Divide it in half & share it with thine frau.) The operating principles of this community—more than 20,000 people—are Love & Freedom.

And it's a lovely place. Everyone wears long hair and odd clothes & strange jewelry. I myself have grown a beard, given up cutting my hair, returned to boots, taken to wearing things & beads around my neck, & look generally quite picturesque, but fairly drab within my environment.

Naturally, I leapt into this community with the joy of an otter in water. With the 2nd BUTTERFLY check I made downpayment on a Gestetner silk-screen stencil duplicator & Gestefax electronic stencil cutter, with which Claude & I have set ourselves up as The Communication Company. The piece of paper headed thus explains what we're doing.

Most of my writing lately has been for the company, and is enclosed. I'm also at work on a novel: THE LOVE FREAK, set in & playing with this community. This is the one I expect to be a best seller.

Anyhow, I'm now a community leader and, since it's a revolutionary community, a political/revolutionary/ultraradical leader as well. It's all enormous fun, & I wish you would come out here & join me. You'd have no trouble supporting wife & Kind here. In fact, within six weeks the company will probably be able to afford to hire you. We're beginning to make money.

Claude is advertising manager for the Sunday Ramparts — the newspaper published by Ramparts magazine. He & I have interested the magazine in the hip community (whose members, including us, are called hippies). So the magazine is using me, at $2.00 an hour, as a researcher, investigating the community & pulling stories out of it. What this means is that I'm being paid to do what I'd be doing anyhow, a very dolce arrangement.

Why have you not written? Did you get THE BUTTERFLY KID? Shortly I'll send you a copy of FOX & HARE similarly duplicated. But why have you not written?

The Communication Company (a member of the Underground Press Syndicate) is about to publish: High Tea (with notes); A Handbook for Unicorns; Poems Good & Bad (i.e., every poem of mine I can still stand); The Changes, a magazine of basically literary pretensions; The Underhound, a satire mag I used to run in my North Beach days; all of which, along with everything else we put out that's appropriate, you'll get for enjoyment & archives.

I am exceedingly happy. Money is no longer a problem. I'm high most of the time & about to get high the rest of the time. I'm busy, creative, engaged, involved, having a ball. Why haven't you written?

I'm also writing a regular column on Total Art for the San Francisco ORACLE, a subscription to which I have entered in your name.

All the stuff in this mailing I wrote.

Love & joy,

Chester