Tempus Fugitive By Dion Wright

Over 100 images are included in this book about “Art, Beatniks, Sex, Hippies, Art Festivals, Mind Expansion, and Mortality.” Tempus Fugitive is Dion's honest, humorous, and personal history of the American counter-culture of the 20th century, as he experienced, observed, and documented it.

About the book, Dion says, “Tempus Fugitive is a historical memoir of mid-20th Century American culture and counter-culture, with emphasis on art, psychology, philosophy, and how the pursuit of expanded consciousness via chemistry, relative to these and other subjects, had many and often mortal unforeseen consequences. All of this high-falutin’ intent is carried in a narrative by real stories about real people.”

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“If you think the ‘50s to the ‘70s were interesting, find out for sure, and read Tempus Fugitive, a true and funny history of the time.”

— Ian Bernard

“Dion Wright's book is a marvel. Our paths crossed in and out of one another's during the ‘60s, linked by people like Stewart Brand and Tim Leary, and though we might have disagreed about much ‘in the day’ both our communities ‘played for keeps.’ This is a deep and authentic view into the life and sensibilities of a group like mine, The Diggers, but with its own, more psychedelicized orbit. Both of us were (perhaps too) fearless explorers. Both made mistakes and both he and I have lived to write about the great, late 20th-century upheaval, which changed cultural premises of our Nation. We’re still dealing with those changes today. I so recognized the tone of the time in these pages and urge you to read it.”

— Peter Coyote

“First, I found myself traveling West- and East- Coastally by pickup truck in artist Dion Wright’s memoir Tempus Fugitive: A Personal History of the American Counter-Culture of the 20th Century. Then, serendipitously, I next rode pillion on Oliver Sacks’ BMW R60 (and its lesser antecedents) in On the Move: A Life. While each of our lives involves a search for meaning, Wright's (like Sacks') peripatetic quest takes us through territory few of us have travelled and lived to tell about. Wright (like Sacks) has the literary chops to channel us with him by extensive gauntlets of modern Scyllas and Charybdises and beckoning Lotus Eaters, a truly mythic world of ‘Art, Beatniks, Sex, Hippies, Art Festivals, Mind Expansion, Mortality.’ Wright’s completely engaging tale is rich in famous and infamous people, critical insight, irony, honesty, and laugh-out-loud turns of phrase.”

— George Voland

“Sharing space at the Festival of Arts in Laguna, Dion and I were disillusioned by cement and straights. I went surfing; Dion (Dionysus - god of sex and wine and patron of the arts) went seeking. In the waning Beat scene of the ‘50s, Wright begins an Odyssey through mind expansion and politically unsettled times. An admitted ‘fly on the wall’ as well as participant, we’re entertained by the sex and foibles of a like-minded community of artful seekers through the keen memory and acerbic wit of Mr. Wright. It is an encyclopedia of hipsters, potheads, and psychedelic voyagers...”

— John Severson

“I was fascinated by Dion’s narrative and high literary description of other characters and the important history of the time and place, being a geography south of San Francisco and the Beats a demised scene comparatively, I think. It should be taught in every school, a VERY important well-written book done by a master welder who sealed that hot seam of history.”

— Charley Plymell

“The book Tempus Fugitive is a gold mine for artists and art students. Dion Wright attempted to extricate himself from the narrative and focus on the route of the specific counterculture he participated in and observed, always including artists, and from his perspective (as an artist). By not focusing on himself, he richly demonstrates the idiosyncratic, signature artists’ mind, and is a touchstone for any of us struggling in the world of fine art. We will find our own idiosyncrasy has intelligent companions.”

— Larry Gill

“Tempus Fugitive is a crystal-clear reflection of a simpler time filled with vivid characters who would be mostly gone now if Dion hadn’t put them to paper. Their voices resound with new life while the attitude and tendencies remain as before, youthful and undaunted. The stories of their art, work, and play remain fresh and relevant. Listen closely and hear Krishna's flute...”

— William "Bud" Hedrick