Bill Pester

William Frederick "Bill" Pester (born Friedrich Wilhelm Pester, July 18, 1885 – July 1963) was a German-born American pioneer of hippie lifestyles in California in the first half of the twentieth century, known as "the Hermit of Palm Springs". He was described as epitomizing "the strong link between the 19th century German reformers and the flower children of the 1960s", and inspired the eden ahbez song "Nature Boy", recorded by Nat King Cole and others.

Pester was born in Borna, Saxony, Germany, the third son of Hermann Friedrich Pester and his wife Maria. After his mother's death, he was apprenticed as a stonemason. In 1906 he left Germany to avoid military service and went to the United States. A follower of the philosophy of lebensreform, he was also influenced by popular novels written by Karl May about Native Americans, writer Gordon Kennedy suggesting that "in the hearts and minds of every young German immigrant were dreams of some magic lands in the far west of America, where cactus grew and massive mountains emptied their streams into some palm oasis in the sandy deserts, along with the obligatory wild Indians still in residence."

Pester traveled west and, after a year in Hawaii, settled, in about 1916, in Tahquitz Canyon, near Palm Springs, California, part of the ancestral home of the Cahuilla people. His presence was accepted by local people, and he built himself a palm hut beside a stream and palm grove. He spent much of his time exploring the local area, as well as reading and writing. According to writer Gordon Kennedy,

He earned some of his living making walking sticks from palm blossom stalks, selling postcards with lebensreform health tips, and charging people 10 cents to look through his telescope while he gave lectures on astronomy. He made his own sandals, had a wonderful collection of Indian pottery and artifacts, played slide guitar, lived on raw fruits and vegetables and managed to spend most of his time naked under the California sunshine.

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