Tom Robbins, Counterculture Scribe of ‘Even Cowgirls Get the Blues,' Dead at 92
Robbins died at his home in La Conner, Washington. His son Fleetwood confirmed the news but did not provide a cause of death.
More from Rolling Stone
Tony Roberts, Stage and Screen Actor Known for Woody Allen Films, Dead at 85
Mike Ratledge, Soft Machine Keyboardist and Co-Founder, Dead at 81
Irv Gotti, Music Producer and Murder Inc. Records Co-Founder, Dead at 54
At once an underground favorite and a best-seller, Robbins' comic novels — with their fantastical stories and far-out musings — were distinctly of the counterculture and soon became part of its fabric. He rarely plotted out his books, choosing instead to see where his imagination and characters led him.
'I've always wanted to lead a life of enchantment and writing is part of that,' Robbins told Rolling Stone in 1977. 'Magic is practical and pragmatic — it's making connections between objects, or events, in the most unusual ways. When you do that, the universe becomes a very exciting place. I'm a romantic, and I don't apologize for that. I think it's as valid a way of looking at life as any. And a hell of a lot more fun.'
Robbins published his first novel, Another Roadside Attraction (the 'quintessential counterculture novel,' RS declared), in 1971. He would publish seven more, each arriving about four or five years after the last. His final novel, Villa Incognito, arrived in 2003, though he subsequently published a short story collection, Wild Ducks Flying Backwards, in 2005; a novella, B Is for Beer, in 2009; and a memoir (or 'un-memoir,' as he called it) Tibetan Peach Pie: A True Account of an Imaginative Life, in 2014.
'Heartbroken to hear about the passing of Tom Robbins,' actress Marisa Tomei wrote on Instagram. 'His books weren't just stories — they were wild, mind-expanding adventures that made you see the world differently. His words were playful, rebellious, and full of magic, reminding us to embrace the strange, chase beauty, and never take life too seriously.'
Born July 22, 1932 in Blowing Rock, North Carolina, but raised largely outside Richmond, Virginia, Robbins showed a penchant for writing from a young age and expressed his desire to become a novelist as a teenager. His parents, however, pushed him more towards journalism, a career he pursued first in college and then picked up again after a stint in the Air Force.
But two distinctly Sixties experiences re-routed Robbins back to his ultimate calling. An LSD trip in 1963 convinced him to quit his day job at a Seattle newspaper and start writing for underground publications. Then, in 1967, while reviewing an awe-inspiring Doors concert, Robbins said he 'finally found [his] voice' and set about writing his first novel a few weeks later.
While Another Roadside Attraction failed to garner much attention when it was first published in hardback, the paperback edition steadily became a word-of-mouth hit, especially on college campuses. By the time his next novel, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, arrived in 1976, Robbins was a well-known quantity garnering both backlash and raves (including from the likes of Thomas Pynchon, who called Cowgirls 'a piece of working magic, warm, funny and sane').
Throughout the rest of his career, Robbins rarely deviated from his distinct style, retaining his devoted fans though sometimes exasperating critics. Despite their myriad out-there elements, his books were often optioned for films, but only one was ever made — Gus Van Sant's 1993 adaptation of Cowgirls, which was a critical and commercial flop.
As a parting word in his 1977 Rolling Stone interview, Robbins succinctly captured his singular style and creative approach. 'You can tell people that my goal is to write novels that are like a basket of cherry tomatoes,' he said, 'when you bite into a paragraph, you don't know which way the juice is going to squirt.'
Best of Rolling Stone
Every Super Bowl Halftime Show, Ranked From Worst to Best
The United States of Weed
Gaming Levels Up
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Eater
an hour ago
- Eater
It's Time to Be Romantic in North Beach
Garrett Schlichte is an award-winning columnist, writer, and chef living in San Francisco. Garrett's work has appeared online and in print in The Washington Post , The New York Times , THEM, Jezebel, Slate, and other outlets. Welcome to Fire the Menu, a column from chef and writer Garrett Schlichte about over-ordering, over-indulging, and almost overdoing it in their favorite city in the world, the place they call home, San Francisco. From pre-fixe to quick fix and everything in between, it's time to find your people, tuck in, and, well, fire the menu. I'd have thought that getting dumped by someone a little over halfway through their 20s, when I'm almost halfway through my 30s, would have been more embarrassing, but after you've willingly posted your first Instagram Reel, really, everything else feels rote in comparison. If I'm being totally honest, the only actually embarrassing part of that breakup, aside from the fact that I was still wearing my yellow kitchen clogs when it happened, is that it took getting swept off my feet by a 26-year-old for me to finally understand just how beautiful North Beach is. It's not that I'd never been to North Beach, of course. I'm not an idiot (mostly). When I first moved to the city, I made the customary pilgrimage to City Lights. I've spent several pie-eyed afternoons squirreled away in the ever-elusive second-floor booth at Vesuvio, gossiping with friends over too many martinis, making up stories about how strangers on the first floor might have met. I've eaten a slice from Golden Boy, and Tony's, and Golden Boy again. But all of those were special occasions that felt, to be totally honest, a little bit like work. Regardless of the fact that our sweet little city is famously 7x7, gorgeous, and uniquely walkable and bikeable, I have, at times, been uncharacteristically lazy when it comes to traveling so far that I'm required to carry the customary light jacket the microclimates necessitate. Until, of course, a hot guy invited me to a part of the city that required walking, a train, and a cable car. If any city transit officials are looking for ways to inspire people to use public transit more regularly, they might consider having more 6-foot-7 men in slutty little glasses invite people on dates — I have some empirical evidence pointing toward the success of this tactic. But I'm not here to save Muni (although, of course, save Muni), I'm here to talk about North Beach, and how one truly perfect date broke me out of my neighborhood vortex. It is considerably easier to get to North Beach by bus, bike, or on foot than it is to get there by cable car, but I now think riding a cable car, one of the last vestiges of an almost-but-not-quite-bygone era of San Francisco, into the heart of North Beach is one of the most perfect and romantic things you can do. I will admit that when my date and I hopped off BART at Powell and then had to walk and wait an additional 17 minutes for the cable car, I was suspicious. The bottle of wine he had tucked in his tote was helpful, but even then, I wasn't quite sure of the whole idea. Garrett Schlichte Garrett Schlichte I'd never ridden a cable car because I considered it to be nothing more than a tourist trap. What an idiot I am! When the trolley finally arrived and we boarded and sat down, I was instantly in love (with the trolley, not the man). Sure, I was a little tipsy. Yes, I was holding hands with a tall, cute man. Of course, the moon was out and full, but I'm still sure that even if none of those things were true, I would have found it magical. Riding into North Beach down Powell in the open air is a reminder that our city, which can feel wonderfully like a town at times, is very much a city. The flickering marques and neon signs and the grind of the electric motor of the trolley was a pulsing heartbeat saying I'm here, I'm back, I never left. I don't remember where we finally hopped off except that it was in the middle of an intersection, which, of course, I found particularly endearing. As we wandered away from the track, I did a few twirls on the sidewalk. Red, green, and white lights strung across the streets were stars in my eyes, and I smelled a new kind of pizza every couple of blocks. Heaven! In 1940, the columnist Herb Caen wrote that North Beach was '1,001 neon-splattered joints alive with the Italian air of garlic and the jukebox wail of American folk songs.' That night, and now, I find myself delighted by how true that description still is. The rest of the date was fine, but gilded to better-than-fine by the thick ambrosial air that wafts through every inch of North Beach. I don't remember what restaurant we ate at, which is good because the food wasn't, although that didn't stop me from loving it. Bad food can be compensated for when a restaurant's heart is in the right place, and wherever we were, it definitely was. The owner sat a few tables away from us and came over to pour us wine when our glasses got low. An extra little treat was gifted to us for dessert. Sure, the chicken was dry, but our waiter hugged us on the way out — ugh! Back out on the street, we held hands and walked past increasingly busier and louder bar fronts, and my date wondered aloud if stopping to kiss on a street corner might get us hate-crimed. I looked around. For maybe the first time in my life in San Francisco, I couldn't spot another gay person around me, aside from the one whose hand I was holding. Despite North Beach's history as San Francisco's first gayborhood, long gone were the Paper Doll, the Beige Room, Mona's, and a dozen other bars and restaurants that made it so. Petite Lil's keeps the romantic energy alive and well. Garrett Schlichte Although we didn't let the stifling heterosexuality stop us from expressing our god-given right to lock lips on a street corner (North Beach or not, it's still San Francisco, after all), I did wonder mid-make-out if the lack of a gay outpost was part of what had kept me from frequenting one of the most romantic parts of the city for so long. In the Castro and Soma, and even the Tenderloin and Bernal, you're never too far from a queer watering hole, but I wouldn't necessarily call those places inherently romantic, or at least not in the same way North Beach is. Even though my relationship with that tall man didn't last much longer after that date, it was just the beginning of my love affair with North Beach. A couple of weeks after that night, I found myself back under the neon lights for a friend's book reading, and then miraculously snatching up the last two bar seats at Tony's for a beer, pizza, and a perfect Italian chopped salad. A week later, I was back on the trolley and tucking into the window seat at Petit Lil's for a cold martini and even colder oysters. Then, it was Tosca, and a late-night burger at Sam's. Then, upstairs at Trattoria Contadina. A cannoli on the street here and there, a cigarette outside of Vesuvio. Europe in the Bay! I've been broken up with in other cities I've lived in, and I always found ways to avoid the parts of town where I spent time with that person. But when relationships have ended in San Francisco, I find myself returning to those spots again and again, regardless of the little heart pangs a street corner or a bar might elicit. Perhaps that's the magic of San Francisco — it's just too good to keep yourself from enjoying all of it. Paper covers rock, and San Francisco covers heartbreak. So, I believe it is time to go be romantic in North Beach. With yourself, with a lover, or with friends — and it doesn't matter what counter you do it at, because every spot is perfect, even if it's not exactly good. North Beach is not a neighborhood of hidden gems. No, in North Beach, all the gems are visible. It wears those 1,001 neon signs Caen was talking about like a crown, each one inviting you in and daring you not to fall in love, either with a person or with the city itself. Nights in North Beach end with Sam's. That's the rule. Garrett Schlichte Eater SF All your essential food and restaurant intel delivered to you Email (required) Sign Up By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Forbes
4 hours ago
- Forbes
NYT Strands Hints For Thursday, August 21: Today's Spangram And Answers (Marvel-Ous And Then Some)
Today's NYT Strands hints and answers. getty Before today's Strands hints, spangram and answers, here are Tuesday's: Forbes NYT Strands Hints For Wednesday, August 20: Today's Spangram And Answers (Mint Condition) By Kris Holt Hey, folks! Today's NYT Strands hints, spangram and answers for Thursday, August 21 are coming right up. The New York Times' Strands puzzle is a play on the classic word search. It's available on the NYT website and in the NYT Games app alongside the likes of Wordle and Connections (which we also cover in daily guides at Forbes Gaming ). There's a new game of Strands to play every day. The game will present you with a six by eight grid of letters. The aim is to find a group of words that have something in common, and you'll get a clue as to what that theme is. When you find a theme word, it will remain highlighted in blue. You'll also need to find a special word called a spangram. This tells you what the words have in common. The spangram links at least two sides of the board, but it may not start or end there. While the theme words will not be a proper name, the spangram can be a proper name. When you find the spangram, it will remain highlighted in yellow. Every letter is used once in one of the theme words and spangram. You can connect letters vertically, horizontally and diagonally, and it's possible to switch directions in the middle of a word. If you're playing on a touchscreen, double tap the last letter to submit your guess. If you find three valid words of at least four letters that are not part of the theme, you'll unlock the Hint button. Clicking this will highlight the letters that make up one of the theme words. Be warned: You'll need to be on your toes. Sometimes you'll need to fill the missing word(s) in a phrase. On other days, the game may revolve around synonyms or homophones. The difficulty will vary from day to day, and the puzzle creators will try to surprise you sometimes. Scroll slowly! Just after the hint for today's Strands puzzle, I'll reveal what the first two letters for the spangram and the other words are. The official theme hint for today's Strands puzzle is... Marvel-ous and then some Need some extra help? Here's another hint... Some might say we're in the Endgame now There are seven theme words to find today, including the spangram. Spoiler alert! Don't scroll any further down the page until you're ready to find out today's Strands opening letters. Here are the first two letters of every theme word in today's puzzle. They're ordered from left to right, then top to bottom by any letter of the word appearing for the first time: Before I reveal the other the full word list, I'll first tell you the spangram and show you where that is on the grid. This is your final spoiler warning! Scroll slowly, because I'll tell you what all the theme words are immediately after showing you where the spangram is. Today's Strands spangram is... SUPERHEROES Here's where you'll find it on the grid… New York Times Strands screenshot, showing the highlighted term SUPERHEROES Screenshot by Kris Holt Today's Strands theme words are... STORM SUPERHEROES WOLVERINE ROGUE DAREDEVIL THING HULK Here's what the completed grid looks like... Completed NYT Strands grid for August 21, including the words STORM, SUPERHEROES, WOLVERINE, ROGUE, DAREDEVIL, THING and HULK. Screenshot by Kris Holt Not much mystery about this one. I found the spangram right away – fun that it's in the shape of an "S," a bit like the Superman logo (yes, yes, I know he's not a Marvel character). I didn't have much trouble finding the various superheroes after that. I didn't use any hints and the spangram was the first theme word I found. See you tomorrow for more Strands fun! Follow my blog for more coverage of Strands, Connections and other word games as well as video game news, insights and analysis. It helps me out a lot! If you want to chat about Strands, Connections and other stuff with like-minded folks, join my Discord server ! Also, follow me on Bluesky ! It's fun there.
Engadget
14 hours ago
- Engadget
The White House now has a TikTok account
The White House has joined TikTok, the social media app that President Trump wanted to ban during his first term. Its first post shows clips of Trump in various events with Kendrick Lamar's track playing in the background. The New York Times notes that it references a popular video edit of Creed, a boxing movie starring Michael B. Jordan, on the app. In the TikTok post, Trump could be heard saying "I am your voice," while the caption reads "America we are BACK! What's up TikTok?" Trump's administration believes TikTok helped him win over young voters in the 2024 Presidential election, with the account he used to campaign having over 15 million followers. "President Trump's message dominated TikTok during his presidential campaign, and we're excited to build upon those successes and communicate in a way no other administration has before," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. The president wasn't always fond of the platform. He once vowed to ban the app in the US and signed an executive order to outlaw any transaction between the app and its China-based parent company ByteDance for national security reasons. TikTok's "data collection threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans' personal and proprietary information — potentially allowing China to track the locations of Federal employees and contractors, build dossiers of personal information for blackmail, and conduct corporate espionage," the executive order read. After taking office earlier this year, however, Trump quickly put a pause on the law that was supposed to ban TikTok in the US. He even delayed the ban a couple more times to give ByteDance more time to sell its US business. Trump previously claimed that a "very wealthy" group is poised to buy TikTok, but the administration has yet to reveal the identities of the people in it.
