Walter Bowart

This article is a stub. You can help by expanding it.

Biographical Information

Walter Bowart (died in 2007), "a founder and the first publisher of The East Village Other, a New York newspaper so countercultural that it made The Village Voice look like a church circular, died on Dec. 18 in Inchelium, Wash... Published twice a month from 1965 to 1972, The East Village Other was among the country’s first major underground newspapers. Founded by Mr. Bowart and three colleagues — John Wilcock, Sherry Needham and Allan Katzman — the paper had, at its height, a circulation of 60,000.

"Mr. Bowart, who left the paper in 1968, was later best known for his book “Operation Mind Control” (Dell, 1978), which argued that the United States government conducted covert psychological experiments on unwitting people.

"For seven heady years, The East Village Other waxed lyrical on the counterculture’s movers and shakers, among them Allen Ginsberg, Timothy Leary and Abbie Hoffman. As publisher, Mr. Bowart (pronounced BO-art) came to national attention in 1966 after he recommended, in testimony before the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency, that the committee members try LSD...

"Mr. Bowart’s four marriages, to Linda Dugmore, Peggy Mellon Hitchcock, Margo Jordan and Rebecca Fullerton, ended in divorce. Besides Wolfe, his son from his first marriage, who lives in Perth, Australia, Mr. Bowart is survived by two daughters from his second marriage, Sophia Bowart of San Francisco and Nuria Bowart of Berkeley, Calif.; a son from his fourth marriage, Wythe, of San Francisco; three sisters, Janet Ryan of Inchelium, Nancy Maloney of Grover Beach, Calif., and Kathy Hollis of Hamilton, Mont.; and two grandchildren."

In Bowart’s later years, he researched and wrote prolifically. He created The Freedom of Thought Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to the education of the public about mind control. [1] wiki

"Bowart left the East Village Other in 1968 but remained involved in publishing. In Arizona, he started Omen Press, which published materials about Eastern mysticism and metaphysics. He later lived in Aspen, Colo., where he wrote for the Aspen Daily News, and in Washington state, where he published the Port Townsend Daily News. During the 1980s, he was editor of Palm Springs Life magazine, which he once characterized as "a Sears catalog for the congenitally rich." Bowart was not born to wealth but married well. His second wife was Peggy Hitchcock, an heiress to the Mellon banking fortune. When they divorced in 1981, he successfully sued her for alimony, winning $2,000 a month for 15 months." [2]

Affiliations

• Former contributing editor, Mindnet Journal

Resources and articles

Related Sourcewatch

• Fletcher Prouty [3]