Adam Parfrey - Biography

Adam Parfrey (born 1957) is an American journalist, editor, and the publisher of Feral House books, whose work in all three capacities frequently centers on unusual, extreme, or "forbidden" areas of knowledge.

1 Life
2 Controversy
3 Works
4 Amok Press
5 Process Media
6 Apocalypse Culture
7 Recordings
8 Film
9 Writings
10 External links

Life

He was born in New York the son of actor Woodrow Parfrey (his mother, Rosa Ellovich, was Jewish, his father was not). He moved to Los Angeles, California in 1962. Upon graduating from Santa Monica High School, the young Parfrey enrolled at UCLA before transferring to UC, Santa Cruz where he studied theater and history without graduating. While at UCLA, he wrote for the student newspaper, the Daily Bruin, and later became co-editor.

He collaborated on George Petros' Exit magazine.

Following a stint at the tabloid newspaper Idea Magazine, Parfrey returned to New York. In 1989 he started Feral House with $5,000.

He now lives in Port Townsend, Washington. Parfrey also publishes through Process Media, an imprint he established in 2005.

Controversy

Parfrey has been targeted on several occasions by fundamentalist Christian activists and by "concerned" individuals, who dislike the published material coming from Feral House. However, one of his goals is not merely to educate or entertain, but to unsettle and perhaps upset certain segments of the population. Parfrey has said that "upsetting people is a beautiful thing. Because it gets people to think beyond their last visit to 7-Eleven. There's a lot about this world to be upset about."

Parfrey's penchant for upsetting people extends to prevarication in promoting Feral House books. He promoted the second edition of Dark Mission with the following sentence:

Authors Richard C. Hoagland and Mike Bara include a new chapter about the discoveries made by ex-Nazi scientist and NASA stalwart Wernher von Braun regarding what he termed "alternate gravitational solutions," or the rewriting of Newtonian physics into hyperdimensional spheres.

The chapter was not in fact in the book, and the false promo went uncorrected for 18 months.

Works

Apocalypse Culture edited by Adam Parfrey (Amok Press, 1988, ISBN 0-941693-02-3)
Rants and Incendiary Tracts edited by Bob Black and Adam Parfrey (Amok Press, 1988, ISBN 0-941693-03-1)
The Manson File compiled by Parfrey, credited to Nikolas Schreck (Amok Press, 1988, ISBN 0-941693-04-X)
Apocalypse Culture: Revised and Expanded edited by Adam Parfrey (Amok Press, 1990, ISBN 0-922915-05-9)
Nightmare of Ecstasy: The Life and Art of Edward D. Wood, Jr. by Rudolph Grey, edited by Parfrey (Feral House, 1994, ISBN 0-922915-24-5)
Cult Rapture: Revelations of the Apocalyptic Mind by Adam Parfrey (Feral House, 1995, ISBN 0-922915-22-9)
End Is Near!: Visions of Apocalypse, Millennium and Utopia by Stephen Jay Gould, Roger Manley, Adam Parfrey, Dalai Lama, foreword by Rebecca Hoffberger (Dilettante Press, 1998, paperback ISBN 0-9664272-7-0, 1999, hardcover ISBN 0-9664272-6-2)
Muerte!: Death in Mexican Popular Culture by Harvey Stafford, edited by Adam Parfrey, illustrated by J. G. Posada, photographs by the ¡Alarma! Staff (Feral House, 2000, ISBN 0-922915-59-8)
Apocalypse Culture II edited by Adam Parfrey (Feral House, 2000, ISBN 0-922915-57-1)
Extreme Islam: Anti-American Propaganda of Muslim Fundamentalism edited by Adam Parfrey, introduction by Tamim Ansary (Feral House, 2002, ISBN 0-922915-78-4)
Lexicon Devil: The Fast Times and Short Life of Darby Crash and the Germs by Brendan Mullen, Adam Parfrey, and Don Bolles (Feral House, 2002, ISBN 0-922915-70-9)
It's a Man's World: Men's Adventure Magazines - the Postwar Pulps edited by Adam Parfrey, material by Josh Alan Friedman, Mort Kunstler, David Saunders, Bill Devine (Feral House, 2003, ISBN 0-922915-81-4)
War Is a Racket: The Anti-War Classic by America's Most Decorated General by Smedley D. Butler, with introduction by Adam Parfrey (reprinted in 2003 by Feral House, ISBN 0-922915-86-5)
Two Thousand Formulas, Recipes, and Trade Secrets: The Classic Do-It-Yourself Book of Practical Everyday Chemistry by Harry Bennett, Adam Parfrey (Feral House, 2003, ISBN 0-922915-95-4)
SIN-A-RAMA: Sleaze Sex Paperbacks of the Sixties by Britany A. Daley, Adam Parfrey and Lydia Lunch (Feral House, 2004, ISBN 1-932595-05-8)
Ritual America: Secret Brotherhoods and Their Influence on American Society, A Visual Guide by Adam Parfrey, Craig Heinbichner (Feral House, 2012)
Secret Source by Maja D'Aoust, Adam Parfrey, Jodi Wille (Feral House, 2007, ISBN 978-1-934170-07-6)
Propaganda and Holy Writ of the Process Church of the Final Judgement (Feral House, 2011)

Amok Press

Parfrey co-founded Amok Press with Kenneth Swezey in 1986 which released the cult classic "Apocalypse Culture".

Process Media

Adam Parfrey co-founded the independent publishing company Process Media with Jodi Wille of Dilettante Press in 2005.

Apocalypse Culture

Apocalypse Culture is a collection of articles, interviews and documents that explore the various marginal aspects of culture edited by Adam Parfrey. It explores aesthetic nihilism, destructive cults, extreme violence, sexual deviancy, conspiracy theory, extreme forms of nationalism, etc. First published in 1987, reprinted twice (1990, 2001), and in 2000 the sequel Apocalypse Culture II was released. The book has been widely campaigned against and has been banned in many countries.

Recordings

S.W.A.T. - Deep Inside a Cop's Mind: The Soundtrack For The Next Police State (Audio CD, 1994, Label: Amphetamine Reptile Records)
A Sordid Evening of Sonic Sorrows (Audio CD, 1997, Man's Ruin Records MR-066)
He has also collaborated with Boyd Rice on his album Hatesville.
Plays the voice of Lord Jehova in the reading of "The Gods on War" with Genesis Breyer P-Orridge (The Lord Lucifer), Lydia Lunch (The Lord Satan) and Timothy Wyllie (Transcendence). (available for download at www.feralhouse.com)

Film

Parfrey had a part in Crispin Glover's What Is It?.
He published and edited Nightmare of Ecstasy: The Life and Art of Edward D. Wood, Jr., which was the credited source for the Tim Burton film, Ed Wood.
He also published American Hardcore, the credited source for the feature length documentary of the same name.
He published Lords of Chaos, credited source for the narrative feature directed by Sion Sono. He also co-wrote the film's screenplay.

Writings

Parfrey wrote cover stories and feature articles for the Village Voice, San Diego Reader, Penthouse and Hustler magazines.
Between 1990 and 1994 Parfrey wrote the weekly column "HelL.A." for the San Diego Reader.
He co-wrote The Secret Source (with Maja D'Aoust) in 2004.
He also co-wrote Ritual America (with Craig Heimbicher) to be published in 2012.