Roland I. Swanson Jr.

Very much a book of its time, produced by Hallmark Cards in 1971.
The book attempts to put into context the youth counterculture of the freaks/hippies in a sympathetic way to the words of William Shakespear.
With black and white photographs predominently from Carter Hamilton and Fred W. McDarrah (amoung others).

The first 3/4 of the book show the carefree days of youth. One page near the begining has the famous kiss (between Nick and Bobbi Ercoline) taken during the Woodstock Arts and Music Fair of 1969, with the quote "And bleat the one at the other; what we chang'd was innocence for innocence; we knew not the doctrine of ill-doing, nor dream'd We were as twinn'd lambs that did frisk i' the sun That any did" [The Winter's Tale, I/ii].
The book continues through to the student *protests on May 22, 1969 in Berkeley, California showing National Guardsmen forcing student protestors into an empty lot where they were eventually arrested, during which time thousands were tear gassed and one died; with the quote "But in the gross and scope of my opinion, This bodes some strange eruption to our state." [Hamlet, I/i]
Another image is of a crowd of demonstrators gathered at the Washington Monument for a rally to protest the Vietnam War on Nov. 15, 1969, to the words "As many arrows, loosed several ways, Fly to one mark; So many a thousand actions, once a foot, End in one purpose, And be all well borne Without defeat." [Henry V, I/ii]
The final image is of a couple in repose in one anothers arms, to the words "Hereafter, in a better world than this, I shall desire more love and knowledge of you. [As You Like It, I/ii].

This is a simple book, but the message is powerfull.

*The protest and arrests were in connection with the conflict that developed between UC Berkeley administration, merchants, students, and the then governor of California, Ronald Reagan regarding the creation of a park on land owned by UC Berkeley… (mehr)