Intelligence for Dummies: Essays and Other Collected Writings includes a selection of Glenn O’Brien’s essays culled from his expansive archive of articles, commentaries and critiques written between 1963 and 2017. O’Brien began working for Interview Magazine as editor and art director in 1971. In 1978, he created the iconic public-access television show, TV Party, which regularly featured Jean-Michel Basquiat, Mick Jones, David Byrne, Klaus Nomi and Debbie Harry, among others. He was a columnist at Artforum, GQ and Paper; a founding editor of Bomb Magazine and Spin; and a contributing writer to countless other publications. O’Brien expressed his incisive and humorous point of view on art, politics, music, fame and media with the clarity and confidence of a true polymath. Intelligence for Dummies is a portrait of O’Brien as an enduring cultural authority and of the world as only he could describe it.

With an editor’s note by Michael Zilkha and introduction by Jonathan Lethem.

Hardcover, 336 pages
ZE Books, 2019
Dimensions: 9 x 6 inches