Basic Information
Name: Karl Hess III
Nickname: A 20th-century Thoreau
Born: May 25, 1923
Died: April 22, 1994
Nationality: American
Hometown: Washington, DC
WORK & EDUCATION
Occupation: speechwriter and author… mostly
Education: officially dropped out of school at age 15 after attending random schools sporadically at best; eventually learned welding at Bell Vocational School
FAMILY & FRIENDS
Parents: Josef Karl Hess & Thelma Snyder Hess
Spouse: Yvonne (divorced); Therese (survived him as his widow)
Children: Two sons, one is named Karl, Jr.
Friends: Barry Goldwater
Foes: The IRS mainly, but lots of people and groups moved on and off his hate list depending on which phase of his life he was in.
Analysis
Hess was raised by a single mother who encouraged him to read and think and explore much more than she encouraged him to attend classes. Nevertheless, despite not even having a high school diploma, Karl was smart enough, nice enough, and gosh darn it people liked him enough, to become a news writer, a news editor, and, by 1948, a political writer for the Grand Old Party.
Karl co-wrote Goldwater's acceptance speech with political historian Harry Jaffa. Karl admired the heck out of Barry, and they got to be pretty good buddies for a while.
But Karl was a man of varied interests, and his interest in Republican politics took a big dive after Goldwater got creamed in the election and his once-beloved party started giving him angry eyes all the time.
So he moved on.
He became a big motorcycle guy, which led to him becoming a welder.
Random?
Yes, and we're just getting started.
Owning and riding a motorcycle caused Hess to have an epiphany, and this epiphany resulted in (in no particular order) him giving up his earthly possessions, divorcing his wife, moving onto a boat, remarrying, becoming a sculptor, forsaking money to take up bartering, accepting the Libertarian Party's nomination for Governor of West Virginia, and becoming an anarchist and semi-famous tax avoider.
Man, if we had a dime for every time we heard that life story.