The Silver Snarling Trumpet: The Birth of the Grateful Dead—the Lost Manuscript of Robert Hunter

In this hit-or-miss memoir—written in the early 1960s and unearthed 60 years later by Hunter’s widow and literary executor—the late Grateful Dead lyricist recalls his early relationship with future band leader Jerry Garcia. The narrative unfolds in Menlo Park, Calif., where the aimless, college-age Hunter and Garcia soak in “the scene” at the local coffeehouse, go to parties, and regale each other with half-baked philosophizing (“You’re saying that the ultimate goal in life is to find another goal.... What happens when there are no more goals?”). Scattershot attempts are made to harness the scene’s energy: a friend tries to organize a commune called the Co-op, which fizzles before it starts; Garcia and Hunter form a folk-guitar duo that soon founders due to artistic differences. Hunter’s fond snapshot of an embryonic counterculture is richly observed and rife with vibrant character sketches, though retellings of his hallucinatory dreams and meandering prose (“There is waiting; waiting for you know not what... never certain that it will come, but waiting against the day when it might”) can slow the proceedings to a crawl. Deadheads will drink this in, but more casual fans may lack the patience. (Oct.)