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Emmett Grogan (c. 1943 - 1978) was a founder of the Diggers in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, California, USA who inspired Abbie Hoffman to undertake a similar venture on the Lower East Side of New York City during the mid-1960s.

The Diggers were a hippie group that scrounged for and provided food and other services. They took their name from the Diggers of 17th Century England who were a radical movement opposed to feudalism, the Church of England and the British Crown. The Diggers of the 1960s can be compared with the present-day Food Not Bombs who feed homeless youth.

Grogan's penchant for personal myth making and distrust of the mainstream media resulted in few details of his life being reliably recorded. His 1972 autobiography, Ringolevio (A life played for keeps), is filled with embellishments and large portions of his pre-Digger life appear to be outright fabrications. This flexibility with the truth was part of Grogan's larger social and political analysis and was meant to further Digger ideals.

Grogan sang back-up with Ramblin' Jack Elliott on Mr. Tambourine Man written by Bob Dylan. Dylan also dedicated his 1978 album "Street-Legal" to Grogan.

Bibliography[]

  • Ringolevio (A life played for keeps), by Emmett Grogan. - Little Brown & Company, 1972. Library of Congress No.78-186970. (The story of the Diggers in the Haight-Ashbury district during the mid-1960s.


http://www.wikicities.com/images/Smallwikipedialogo.png This page incorporates content from Wikipedia. The original article was at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmett_Grogan but you are free to edit it. The text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.



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