Naked in the Woods
In 1970 I dropped out with my husband, ten friends and an ever changing mix of strangers to live communally in the back woods of Oregon, leaving my Yale graduate degree behind.
“Naked in the Woods,” is the story of those compelling, iconoclastic, life-changing days illustrated with photographs I took at the time. It chronicles my shift from reluctant hippie to committed utopian, against the story of our loss of innocence.
Brotherhood frayed. We vied for food. These were small skirmishes, ones we could absorb. Land was a bigger problem. Money and our futures were at stake. Ultimately we were not as far out as we thought.
Reading from Naked in the Woods
Order Naked in the Woods
Naked in the Woods Press
MONTANA PUBLIC RADIO - SEPTEMBER 9, 2015
CHÉRIE NEWMAN
Margaret Grundstein talks about and reads from her memoir NAKED IN THE WOODS: My Unexpected Years In A Hippie Commune. She also comments on why feminism failed in the commune.
MISSOULA INDEPENDENT - AUGUST 20, 2015
INTERVIEW WITH DAVE MILLER
A lot of people heeded that mantra in the 1960s and 70s, leaving behind the consumer economy to set up utopian communes. Some of those people ended up in rural Oregon, including Margaret Grundstein. She left behind the Ivy League to follow her husband and friends to a plot of land without electricity, plumbing, or phones.
OREGON PUBLIC BROADCASTING - JUNE 15, 2015
BY CHRIS LA TRAY
I have always found the idea of retreating from the mainstream fascinating, As I’ve grown older, I still wonder if it’s something I would be capable of, living in some type of off-grid community or commune. I know I’ve become less attached to material possessions in general, even as I have become more attached to those specific things I he chosen o hold onto (sorry, Buddha). It is an odd push an pull , this desire to withdraw but not to give up too much.
BLOGTALKRADIO - JUNE 3, 2015
INTERVIEW WITH GIOVANNI GELATI ON G-ZONE
Margaret Grundstein was raised in Detroit, headed east for education and tuned left to follow the great radical migration west of the 1970's.
BLOGTALKRADIO JUNE 2, 2015
REVIEW WITH CYRUS WEBB
Host Cyrus Webb welcomes author Margaret Grundstein to #ConversationsLIVE to discuss her book NAKED IN THE WOODS.
OREGON LIVE - JUNE 2, 2015
REVIEW BY KRISTEN RAIN
The 1960s and early '70s was an era of extremes in ideology and its exploration and enactment. Opinions about the Vietnam War permeated the culture and split the country, neighbors, families. Peace was a resounding counterbalanced response by many of the nation's youth coming of age at this time of flower power;
OSU BLOG POST - MAY 7, 2015
CHASING UTOPIA
Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness: words that promise the potential of personal agency and bliss. It’s human nature to search for the fulfillment of such a promise, yet individuals chase after it in a multitude of ways. Author Margaret Grundstein visits us today to talk about her own search for happiness, chronicled in recently-released Naked in the Woods.
LA TIMES FESTIVAL OF BOOKS - APRIL 19, 2015
LOS ANGELES TIMES FESTIVAL OF BOOKS
Memoir: How Did I Get Here? April 19, 2015
Conversation 2124 Moderated by Amy Alkon Panelists: Margaret Grundstein, Jillian Lauren, Michelle Tea, Sarah Tomlinson
USC Campus - Taper Hall - 101 - Book Signing Area 5