John Wilcock
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
John Wilcock (b. Sheffield, England, Aug 4, 1927) is a British journalist and one of the five co-founders of the New York Village Voice in October 1955. He had previously worked for newspapers in his home country, the Daily Mail and the Daily Mirror, as well as magazines in Toronto, Canada. His weekly column in the Voice lasted from 1955 to 1965 when he left to edit New York's first underground paper, the East Village Other. Meanwhile, he served three years as a travel editor at The New York Times.
In 1960 he wrote the first of several travel books for Arthur Frommer, Mexico On $5 a Day, following up with guides to California, Greece, Japan and India. While co-ordinating the Underground Press Syndicate (200 papers worldwide), he guest-edited "underground" papers in London, Los Angeles and Tokyo, returning to New York to publish his own underground tabloid, Other Scenes; and co-edit (with Elizabeth Pepper) The Witches Almanac. Three books resulted from this collaboration: Magical & Mystical Sites (Europe); an Occult Guide to South America and A Guide to Occult Britain. At the invitation of the Venezuelan government he researched and wrote Traveling in Venezuela in 1979 and, in the 1980s and '90s. wrote/edited 25 books for Insight Guides.
During a five-year association with Andy Warhol, Wilcock audiotaped the enigmatic artist's closest associates asking them to "explain" him, publishing the results as The Autobiography & Sex Life of Andy Warhol in 1971. This $5 biography became a rare book offered for sale on Amazon at prices close to $100.
In 2001, Wilcock began publishing an international monthly magazine, the Ojai Orange, free to his friends in a dozen countries and all issues of this are now available on his website along with his weekly column (now in its 51st year) and his weekly public access cable TV travel show. His 'Column of Lasting Insignificance', is now published in the Huffington Post.
