Growing Up Underground : A Memoir of Counterculture New York

Award-winning designer and writer Steven Heller comes of age at the center of New York’s youth culture in the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s. Steven Heller has written a memoir. This is no chronological trek through the hills and valleys of his comparatively “normal” life, but instead, a coming of age tale whereby with luck and circumstance, he found himself in certain curious places at critical times during the early to late 1960s and later throughout the 80s in New York City. This story is both entertaining and enlightening and follows Heller between the ages of 16 and 23 as he solidified his work as art director, graphic designer, cartoonist and writer, through stints at the New York Review of Books, Sex, Screw, and The New York Free Press, until becoming the youngest art director (and occasional illustrator) for The New York Times OpEd page at age 23.

An entertaining coming-of-age memoir from Steven Heller, award-winning designer, writer, and former senior art director at the New York Times. Featuring 100 color photographs, Growing Up Underground takes readers on a visually inspired look back on being at the center of New York's youth culture in the 1960s and 1970s.
 
Steven Heller's memoir is no chronological trek through the hills and valleys of his comparatively "normal" life, but instead, a coming-of-age tale whereby, with luck and circumstance, he found himself in curious and remarkable places at critical times during the 1960s and ‘70s in New York City.
 
Heller's delightful account of his life between the ages of 16 and 26 shows his ambitious journey from the start of his illustrious career as a graphic designer, cartoonist, and writer. Follow his journey through stints at the New York Review of Sex, Screw, and the New York Free Press, until he became the youngest art director (and occasional illustrator) for the New York Times Op-Ed page at age twenty-three.