William J. Craddock
| William J. Craddock | |
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William J. Craddock, 1960s photograph (Metro Silicon Valley July 12, 2012)
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| Born | William J. Craddock July 16, 1946 Los Gatos, California, U.S. |
| Died | March 16, 2004 Santa Cruz, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Nationality | American |
| Genre | Psychedelic, sixties |
| Notable works | 'Twilight Candelabra (Doubleday,1972) Be Not Content: A Subterranean Journal (Doubleday, 1970) |
William J. "Billy" Craddock (July 16, 1946 – March 16, 2004) was an American author who published two novels in the early 1970s chronicling psychedelic and biker culture in California in the 1960s.Doubleday published Craddock's books Be Not Content: A Subterranean Journal in 1970, and Twilight Candelabra in 1972. Craddock has been called one of the seminal chroniclers of the psychedelic period, along with Timothy Leary, Alan Watts and Andrew Weil.
Craddock was born July 16, 1946, in San Jose, CA; son of William O. (an executive) and Camille J. (Hatch) Craddock. He grew up in Los Gatos, California. He graduated from Los Gatos High School in 1964 and moved to San Jose to attend San Jose State College.
Craddock was editor of the underground newspaper The Mobius Strip, in 1966 and 1967. Craddock also wrote a column for the Los Gatos Times-Observer and, later, for a weekly in Santa Cruz, California. In 2007, the family of Neal Cassady republished Craddock's February 3, 1968 column eulogizing Cassady, whom he’d met at a party thrown by Ken Kesey near San Francisco. "The faster-than-light, holy beat power behind On the Road is gone. Cody, the incredible, always moving, sad-mad Dharma Bum is dead," Craddock wrote.
He married Carole Anne Bronzich on November 27, 1967. The marriage ended in divorce. He married Teresa Lynn Thorne on July 27, 1975 and moved to Santa Cruz, California, where he lived until his death in 2004. In Santa Cruz, Craddock operated a retailer of restored vintage motorcycles with musician Patrick Simmons of the Doobie Brothers.
Be Not Content: A Subterranean Journal was published in 1970. The book is structured as a story within a story: Abel gives the book manuscript to his friend Curt, who is on an LSD trip. The manuscript is then found by a friend named "mindless Eddie" (a result of too much LSD) who then eats it page by page.
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