Lars Eighner's US Bookstore Presents The Texas Institute of Letters Authors

Richard F. Friedman was born October 31, 1944 in Chicago, Illinois, to S. Thomas (1918-2002) and Min (d. 1985). After the war the family moved to Houston and then to Central Texas. In the '50s the family ran a summer camp for children at Echo Hills Ranch near Kerrville. Tom taught at the University of Texas (Austin). Kinky graduated with a degree in psychology in 1966 and served two years with the Peace Corps in Borneo and elsewhere in the South Pacific.

Kinky's first band King Arthur & the Carrots (parody surf music) recorded a single in 1966. In 1974 Vanguard release the first album of his second band Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jew boys. Although identifying intentional parody in country music is sometimes difficult and some of Kinky's tracks were bitterly ironic, he was taken seriously enough in country music to be invited to the Grand Old Opry.

Friedman's career as a novelist began in the mid-80s. His mystery novel's feature someone very like himself as a detective in New York's Greenwich Village who is a former country singer. Friedman has contributed to the Rolling Stone and is a frequent contributor and columnist for Texas Monthly.

In 2004 Friedman began a run as an independent for Governor of Texas in 2006, and this is the principal subject of the official web site http://www.kinkyfriedman.com/.

Albums (mostly re-released on CD) include: Sold American, Kinky Friedman, Lasso From El Paso, Mayhem Afterthought - August 19, 1973 - You Are There, Under the Double Ego, Old Testaments and New Revelations, From One Good American To Another, Classic Snatches from Europe, Pearls in the Snow (tribute album with covers by various artists), and They Ain't Making Jews Like Jesus Anymore.

The novels include Greenwich Killing Time, A Case Of Lone Star, When The Cat's Away, Frequent Flyer, Musical Chairs, Elvis, Jesus and Coca-Cola, Armadillos and Old Lace, God Bless John Wayne, The Love Song of J. Edgar Hoover, Roadkill, Blast From The Past, Spanking Watson, The Mile High Club, Stepping On A Rainbow, Meanwhile, Back At The Ranch, Kill Two Birds and Get Stoned, Curse of the Missing Puppethead, Prisoner of Vandam Street, 'Scuse Me While I Whip This Out, and Ten Little New Yorkers.

Other books include: 'Scuse Me While I Whip this Out, Texas Hold 'Em, and Kinky Friedman's Guide to Texas Etiquette.

Texas Hold 'Em

Texas Hold 'Em

by Kinky Friedman (Author)

Texas Hold 'Em is fighting the wussification of Texas.

"…the Mother Teresa of literature."—Willie Nelson.

Ten Little New Yorkersl

Ten Little New Yorkersl

by Kinky Friedman (Author)

The Kinkster returns to Texas where he has a date with Destiny.

More Kinkster

by Kinky Friedman (Author)

Armadillos and Old Lace is the seventh Kinkster novel (if I count correctly) and the first in which the Kinkster revisits Texas, where he lives in a trailer on a ranch near Kerrville. Really, the concidental resemblances to the author are overwhelming. Old ladies are having fatal birthdays. Everyone is puzzled.

Every Sherlock needs a Watson, and in Spanking Watson the Kinkster looks for his.