Hippie Woman Wild by Carol Schlanger

Hippie Woman Wild by Carol Schlanger

2020 IPY GOLD AWARD WINER Memoir

A not-so-nice Jewish girl, expelled from Yale Drama during the Vietnam protests, abandons her acting dream to follow the man she loves to an off-the-grid commune in Oregon.

At 23, Carol Schlanger was an insecure upper middle class radical. Her parents spoiled her and she expected the universe to follow. It didn't. After being expelled from Yale, losing a coveted Broadway lead, and seeing a suicide splatter at her feet, she left NYC for the Great Northwest, to live in nature with a man who made everything beautiful with his hands. At that time she chose love and nature, over art and career . until she didn't. Carol Schlanger put hidden cash down on an abandoned homestead--160 acres. The commune followed--all 13 jammed tight into a broken-down cabin with no phone, no electricity, and no running water. They were dependent on each other for every human need and survival. But then freeloading and free love threatened the hard-won utopia. After struggling through infidelity, rape, and childbirth, all except the father of her child left when Carol refused to share land ownership. When, as a lone wilderness wife, she accidentally set their house on fire, she realized she couldn't survive in isolation. Strapping her toddler into a battered old Chevy, she headed to Los Angeles to reclaim her life as a mother, her power as an artist, and her responsibility as an adult. This time her Texan followed her. This is both their love story, and a love story for an explosive, mind-altering era.

Carol Schlanger, with her mix of wit and pathos, is a quintessential writer and actress. Returning from the Oregon wilderness to professional life in Los Angeles, she was part of KCET's Emmy-nominated Airwoman and won character roles in major motion pictures and on network television. While raising a family, she became a comedy writer for Imagine Entertainment and scribed two sitcom pilots for CBS. Her one-woman play, Mouth to Mouth, won LA Dramalogue Awards for performance and writing. An essayist for internet and hard copy journals, she has been described as a Baby Boomer's answer to Lena Dunham.