Abbie Hoffman

Abbot Howard Hoffman was born November 30, 1936, in Worcester, Massachusetts, to Florence (née Schanberg) and John Hoffman. Hoffman was raised in a middle-class Jewish household and had two younger siblings.

During his school days, he became known as a troublemaker who started fights, played pranks, vandalized school property, and referred to teachers by their first names. In his second year, Hoffman was expelled from Classical High School, a now-closed public high school in Worcester.{{cite news | url= https://www.nytimes.com/1989/04/14/obituaries/abbie-hoffman-60-s-icon-dies-yippie-movement-founder-was-52.html|title= Abbie Hoffman, 60's Icon, Dies; Yippie Movement Founder Was 52|newspaper=The New York Times|date= April 14, 1989|access-date= December 10, 2013|last1= McQuiston|first1= John T.}} As an atheist,{{cite book | title=Abbie Hoffman: American Rebel|year=1993|publisher=Rutgers University Press| isbn=978-0-8135-2017-9| first=Marty|last=Jezer|page=16|quote=According to Abbie, the teacher took issue with his defense of atheism.

}} Hoffman wrote a paper declaring that, "God could not possibly exist, for if he did, there wouldn't be any suffering in the world." The irate teacher ripped up the paper and called him "a Communist punk." Hoffman jumped on the teacher and started fighting him until he was restrained and removed from the school.{{cite book|url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/first/r/raskin-hell.html |first=Jonah|last=Raskin |title=For the Hell of It: The Life and Times of Abbie Hoffman |isbn=0-520-20575-8 |publisher=University of California Press |year=1996 |access-date=December 4, 2013}} On June 3, 1954, 17-year-old Hoffman was arrested for the first time, for driving without a license. After his expulsion, he attended Worcester Academy, graduating in 1955. Hoffman engaged in many behaviors typical of rebellious teenagers in the 1950s, such as riding motorcycles, wearing leather jackets, and sporting a ducktail haircut.

Upon graduating, he enrolled at nearby Brandeis University, where he studied under professors such as noted psychologist Abraham Maslow, often considered the father of humanistic psychology.{{cite book | last=Jezer | first=Marty | year=1993 | title=Abbie Hoffman: American Rebel | publisher=Rutgers University Press | location=New Jersey | isbn=0-8135-2017-7 | pages= 20–23 }} He was also a student of Marxist theorist Herbert Marcuse, who Hoffman said had a profound effect on his political outlook. Hoffman would later cite Marcuse's influence during his activism and his theories on revolution. He was on the Brandeis tennis team, which was coached by journalist Bud Collins.{{cite news|last1=Goldstein|first1=Richard|title=Bud Collins, Who Covered Tennis With Authority and Flash, Dies at 86|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/05/sports/tennis/bud-collins-who-covered-tennis-with-authority-and-flash-dies-at-86.html |newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=March 4, 2016|date=March 4, 2016}} Hoffman graduated with a B.A. in psychology in 1959. That fall, he enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley, where he completed coursework toward a master's degree in psychology. Soon after, he married his girlfriend Sheila Karklin in May 1960.

{{See also|March on the Pentagon}}

Before his days as a leading member of the Yippie movement, Hoffman was involved with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and organized Liberty House, which sold items to support the civil rights movement in the southern United States. During the Vietnam War, Hoffman was an anti-war activist, using deliberately comical and theatrical tactics.

In late 1966, Hoffman met with a radical community-action group called the Diggers{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/sleepingwhereifa00pete |url-access=registration |page=[https://archive.org/details/sleepingwhereifa00pete/page/71 71] |title=Sleeping Where I Fall: A Chronicle|access-date=December 4, 2013|isbn=9781582430119 |last1=Coyote |first1=Peter |year=1999 |publisher=Counterpoint }} and studied their ideology. He later returned to New York and published a book with this knowledge. Doing so was considered a violation by the Diggers. Diggers co-founder Peter Coyote explained:

{{blockquote|Abbie, who was a friend of mine, was always a media junky. We explained everything to those guys, and they violated everything we taught them. Abbie went back, and the first thing he did was publish a book, with his picture on it, that blew the hustle of every poor person on the Lower East Side by describing every free scam then current in New York, which were then sucked dry by disaffected kids from Scarsdale.{{cite web|url=http://www.diggers.org/oralhistory/peter_interview.html |title=Interview by Etan Ben-Ami Mill Valley, California January 12, 1989 |publisher=Diggers.org |access-date=December 4, 2013}}}}

One of Hoffman's well-known stunts was on August 24, 1967, when he led members of the movement to the gallery of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The protesters threw fistfuls of real and fake dollar bills down to the traders below, some of whom booed, while others began to scramble frantically to grab the money as fast as they could.{{cite book|title=Soon To Be A Major Motion Picture: The Autobiography of Abbie Hoffman|first=Abbie| last=Hoffman|edition=First |publisher=Perigree Books|year= 1980|page=101|isbn=978-0399125614}} Accounts of the amount of money that Hoffman and the group tossed was said to be as little as $30 to $300.{{cite news|last=Ledbetter |first=James |title=The day the NYSE went Yippie |work=CNN Money |date=August 23, 2007 |url=https://money.cnn.com/2007/07/17/news/funny/abbie_hoffman/index.htm?postversion=2007082314 |access-date=December 23, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100105091727/https://money.cnn.com/2007/07/17/news/funny/abbie_hoffman/index.htm?postversion=2007082314 |archive-date=January 5, 2010 |url-status=live}} Hoffman claimed to be pointing out that, metaphorically, that's what NYSE traders "were already doing." "We didn't call the press," wrote Hoffman, "At that time we really had no notion of anything called a media event." Yet the press was quick to react and by evening the event was reported around the world. After that incident, the stock exchange spent $20,000 (approximately {{inflation|US|20000|1967|fmt=eq|r=-3}}) to enclose the gallery with bulletproof glass.{{cite web|first=Cynthia |last=Blair |url=http://www.newsday.com/about/ny-ihonyindex2004,0,6301617.htmlstory |title=1967: Hippies Toss Dollar Bills onto NYSE Floor |work=Newsday |access-date=April 1, 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090606185320/http://www.newsday.com/about/ny-ihonyindex2004%2C0%2C6301617.htmlstory |archive-date=June 6, 2009}} For Hoffman's account of the events of the day, see his 1968 book Revolution for the Hell of It: The Book That Earned Abbie Hoffman a 5-Year Prison Term at the Chicago Conspiracy Trial (reprint edition New York, Thunder's Mouth Press:2005) {{ISBN|1-56025-690-7}}

In October 1967, David Dellinger of the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam asked Jerry Rubin to help mobilize and direct a march on the Pentagon.{{cite web|url=http://www.uic.edu/orgs/cwluherstory/jofreeman/photos/Pentagon67.html |title=Levitate the Pentagon |publisher=Uic.edu |date=October 21, 1967 |access-date=December 4, 2013}} The protesters gathered at the Lincoln Memorial as Dellinger and Dr. Benjamin Spock gave speeches to the mass of people.{{cite web|url=http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/web/20051021-pentagon-vietnam-protest-washington-dc-lyndon-johnson-jerry-rubin-david-dellinger-allen-ginsberg-yippie-robert-mcnamara.shtml |title=The Day The Pentagon Was Supposed To Lift Off into Space |date=December 19, 2005 |work=American Heritage |access-date=April 10, 2017 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051219220648/http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/web/20051021-pentagon-vietnam-protest-washington-dc-lyndon-johnson-jerry-rubin-david-dellinger-allen-ginsberg-yippie-robert-mcnamara.shtml |archive-date=December 19, 2005 }} From there, the group marched towards the Pentagon. As the protesters neared the Pentagon, they were met by soldiers of the 82nd Airborne Division who formed a human barricade blocking the Pentagon steps. Not to be dissuaded, Hoffman vowed to levitate the Pentagon claiming he would attempt to use psychic energy to levitate the Pentagon until it would turn orange and begin to vibrate, at which time the war in Vietnam would end.{{cite web|year=1997 |url=http://www.teaching.com/earthday97/center/text/webstock19.htm |title=Abbie Hoffman |work=Teaching.com |access-date=April 1, 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060207094531/http://www.teaching.com/earthday97/center/text/webstock19.htm |archive-date=February 7, 2006 }} Allen Ginsberg led Tibetan chants to assist Hoffman.

{{Main|Chicago Seven}}

Hoffman was a member of a group of defendants that became known as the Chicago Seven (originally known as the Chicago Eight), which included fellow Yippie Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger, Rennie Davis, John Froines, Lee Weiner, Tom Hayden, and Bobby Seale (before his trial was severed from the others), who were charged by the United States federal government with conspiracy, crossing state lines with intent to incite a riot, and other charges related to anti-Vietnam War and countercultural protests in Chicago, Illinois during the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

Presided over by Judge Julius Hoffman (no relation to Hoffman, about which he joked throughout the trial{{cite web |first=Kirsten |last=Pauli |url=http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/chicago7/hoffmanj.html |title=Judge Julius Hoffman |publisher=University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Law |access-date=December 4, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101211131748/http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/Chicago7/hoffmanj.html |archive-date=December 11, 2010 }}), Abbie Hoffman's courtroom antics frequently grabbed the headlines; one day, defendants Hoffman and Rubin appeared in court dressed in judicial robes, while on another day, Hoffman was sworn in as a witness with his hand giving the finger. Judge Hoffman became the favorite courtroom target of the Chicago Seven defendants, who frequently would insult the judge to his face.{{cite news |title=Judge Hoffman Is Taunted at Trial of the Chicago 7 After Silencing Defense Counsel |first=J. Anthony |last=Lukas |date=February 6, 1970 |work=The New York Times (paid access) |url=https://select.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F60716F6355B157493C4A91789D85F448785F9 |access-date=October 7, 2008 |archive-date=May 12, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200512004832/https://select.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F60716F6355B157493C4A91789D85F448785F9 |url-status=dead }} Abbie Hoffman told Judge Hoffman "you are a shande fur de goyim [disgrace in front of the gentiles]. You would have served Hitler better." He later added that "your idea of justice is the only obscenity in the room." Both Davis and Rubin told the judge, "This court is bullshit." When Hoffman was asked in what state he resided, he replied the "state of mind of my brothers and sisters."

Other celebrities were called as "cultural witnesses" including Allen Ginsberg, Phil Ochs, Arlo Guthrie, Judy Collins, Norman Mailer and others. Hoffman closed the trial with a speech in which he quoted Abraham Lincoln, making the claim that the president himself, were he alive today, would also have been arrested in Chicago's Lincoln Park.

On February 18, 1970, Hoffman and four of the other defendants (Rubin, Dellinger, Davis, and Hayden) were found guilty of intent to incite a riot while crossing state lines. All seven defendants were found not guilty of conspiracy. At sentencing, Hoffman suggested the judge try LSD and offered to set him up with "a dealer he knew in Florida." (The judge was known to be headed to Florida for a post-trial vacation.) Each of the five was sentenced to five years in prison and given a $5,000 fine ({{Inflation|US|5000|1970|r=-3|fmt=eq}}).{{cite web|last=Linder|first= Douglas O. |url=http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/Chicago7/Account.html |title=The Chicago Seven Conspiracy Trial| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061205224938/http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/Chicago7/Account.html |archive-date=December 5, 2006 |publisher=UMKC School of Law|access-date=October 23, 2008}} This article gives a detailed description of the trial, the events leading up to it, the reversal on appeal and the aftermath.

However, all convictions were subsequently overturned by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.

At Woodstock in 1969, Hoffman interrupted the Who's performance to attempt to speak against the jailing of John Sinclair of the White Panther Party. He grabbed a microphone and yelled, "I think this is a pile of shit while John Sinclair rots in prison ..." Pete Townshend was adjusting his amplifier between songs and turned to look at Hoffman over his left shoulder. Townshend shouted "Fuck off! Fuck off my fucking stage!"{{cite web|url=http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/pacificaviet.html|title=UC Berkeley Library Social Activism Sound Recording Project: Anti-Vietnam War Protests – San Francisco Bay Area|work=berkeley.edu|access-date=April 10, 2017}}{{cite web|url=http://servlet1.lib.berkeley.edu:8080/audio/stream.play.logic?coll=mrc&filename=abbiewho.mp3|title=Who guitarist Pete Townshend yells "Fuck off! Get the fuck off my fucking stage!" and strikes Hoffman with his guitar, sending him tumbling offstage.|work=berkeley.edu|access-date=April 10, 2017|archive-date=October 23, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171023115813/http://servlet1.lib.berkeley.edu:8080/audio/stream.play.logic?coll=mrc&filename=abbiewho.mp3|url-status=dead}}{{cite book|first=Peter|last= Doggett|date=2007|title=There's A Riot Going On: Revolutionaries, Rock Stars, and the Rise and Fall of '60s Counter-Culture|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=emI9LXJ47KUC&pg=PT476|location=London|publisher=Canongate Books|pages=476|isbn=978-1847676450}} and reportedly ran at Hoffman with his guitar and hit Hoffman in the back, although Townshend later denied attacking Hoffman.{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0167zf4 |title=BBC 6 Music Documentary 'Before I Get Old' |publisher=BBC |date=November 9, 2012 |access-date=December 4, 2013}} Townshend later said that while he actually agreed with Hoffman on Sinclair's imprisonment, he would have knocked him offstage regardless of the content of his message, given that Hoffman had violated the "sanctity of the stage," i.e., the right of the band to perform uninterrupted by distractions not relevant to the show. The incident took place during a camera change and was not captured on film. The audio of this incident, however, can be heard on The Who's box set Thirty Years of Maximum R&B (Disc 2, Track 20, "Abbie Hoffman Incident").

In 1971, Hoffman published Steal This Book, which advised readers on how to live for free. (Many readers followed his advice and stole the book, leading many bookstores to refuse to carry it.) The book contained a section called "Free Communication," in which Hoffman encourages his readership to take to the stage at rock concerts to use the pre-assembled audience and PA system to get their message out. However, he mentions that "interrupting the concert is frowned upon since it is only spitting in the faces of people you are trying to reach."

In Woodstock Nation, Hoffman mentions the incident and says he was on a bad LSD trip at the time. Joe Shea, then a reporter for the Times Herald-Record, a local newspaper that covered the event on-site, said he saw the incident. He recalled that Hoffman was actually hit in the back of the head by Townshend's guitar and toppled directly into the pit in front of the stage. He does not recall any "shove" from Townshend, and discounts both men's accounts.{{citation needed|date=October 2012}}

Hoffman was also the author of several other books, including Vote! co-written with Rubin and Ed Sanders.{{cite book |last=Brate |first=Adam |title=Technomanifestos: Visions of the Information Revolutionaries |date=July 4, 2002 |publisher=Texere |isbn=978-1587991035 |chapter=Chapter Eight: Mediation for the Hell of It}}

Hoffman was arrested on August 28, 1973, for intent to sell and distribute cocaine. He always maintained that undercover police agents entrapped him into a drug deal and planted suitcases of cocaine in his office. In the spring of 1974, Hoffman skipped bail, underwent cosmetic surgery to alter his appearance, and hid from authorities for several years.{{Cite web | url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1989/04/13/Abbie-Hoffman-60s-activist-dead-at-52/3166608443200/ |title = Abbie Hoffman, '60s activist, dead at 52|publisher=United Press International|date=April 13, 1989}}

Some believed that Hoffman made himself a target. In 1998, Peter Coyote stated:

{{blockquote|The FBI couldn't infiltrate us. We did everything anonymously, and we did everything for nothing because we wanted our actions to be authentic. It's the mistake that Abbie Hoffman made. He came out, he studied with us, we taught him everything, and then he went back and wrote a book called Free, and he put his name on it! He set himself up to be a leader of the counterculture, and he was undone by that. Big mistake.{{cite news|url=http://www.petercoyote.com/latimes.html |title=The Call of the Wild|first=Louise|last=Steinman |work=Los Angeles Times|date=June 4, 1998|access-date=December 4, 2013}}}}

Hoffman lived under the name Barry Freed in Fineview, New York, near Thousand Island Park, a private resort on the St. Lawrence River. He helped coordinate an environmental campaign to preserve the St. Lawrence River.{{cite web|url=http://www.savetheriver.org/ |title=Save the River! |publisher=Savetheriver.org |access-date=October 23, 2008| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20081016010928/http://www.savetheriver.org/| archive-date= October 16, 2008 | url-status= live}} Hoffman also was the travel columnist for Crawdaddy! magazine. On September 4, 1980, he surrendered to authorities, and he appeared the same day on a pre-taped edition of ABC's 20/20 in an interview with Barbara Walters.

{{Cite web| last1 = Hoffman| first1 = Abbie| last2 = Walters| first2 = Barbara| title = Sept. 4, 1980: Abbie Hoffman Interview| website = ABC News| date = September 4, 1980| url = https://abcnews.go.com/Archives/video/sept-1980-abbie-hoffman-interview-12811519| access-date= August 22, 2012}} Hoffman received a one-year sentence but was released after four months.

In November 1986, Hoffman was arrested along with 14 others, including Amy Carter, the daughter of former President Jimmy Carter, for trespassing at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.{{cite news|first=John T. |last=McQuiston|date=April 14, 1989 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/04/14/obituaries/abbie-hoffman-60-s-icon-dies-yippie-movement-founder-was-52.html |title=Abbie Hoffman, 60's Icon, Dies; Yippie Movement Founder Was 52 |work=The New York Times |access-date=December 4, 2013}} The charges stemmed from a protest against the Central Intelligence Agency's recruitment on the UMass campus.{{cite magazine |last=Bernstein |first=Fred |url=http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20096192,00.html |title=Amy Carter and Abbie Hoffman Win Acquittal, but They Want to Keep the C.I.A. on Trial |magazine=People |access-date=December 4, 2013 |archive-date=November 20, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121120192636/http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20096192,00.html |url-status=dead }} Since the university's policy limited campus recruitment to law-abiding organizations, the defense argued that the CIA engaged in illegal activities. The federal district court judge permitted expert witnesses, including former Attorney General Ramsey Clark and a former CIA agent who testified that the CIA carried on an illegal Contra war against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua in violation of the Boland Amendment.{{cite web |url=http://www.cia-on-campus.org/umass.edu/trial.html |archive-url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20021113133733/http://www.cia%2Don%2Dcampus.org/umass.edu/trial.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=November 13, 2002 |title=University of Massachusetts |publisher=Cia-on-campus.org |access-date=October 23, 2008}}

In three days of testimony, more than a dozen defense witnesses, including Daniel Ellsberg, and former Contra leader Édgar Chamorro, described the CIA's role in more than two decades of covert, illegal, and often violent activities. In his closing argument, Hoffman, acting as his own attorney, placed his actions within the best tradition of American civil disobedience. He quoted from Thomas Paine, "the most outspoken and farsighted of the leaders of the American Revolution: 'Every age and generation must be as free to act for itself, in all cases, as the ages and generations which preceded it. Man has no property in man, neither has any generation a property in the generations which are to follow.'"

Hoffman concluded: "Thomas Paine was talking about this Spring day in this courtroom. A verdict of not guilty will say, 'When our country is right, keep it right; but when it is wrong, right those wrongs.'" On April 15, 1987, the jury found Hoffman and the other defendants not guilty.{{cite news |last1=Lumsden |first1=Carolyn |title=Amy Carter, Abbie Hoffman, 13 Others Acquitted In CIA Protest |url=https://apnews.com/article/24ada05c5aad060afb270e634760440c |access-date=January 17, 2021 |work=The Associated Press |date=April 16, 1987}}

File:Abbie Hoffman in 1989.jpg

After his acquittal, Hoffman acted in a cameo appearance in Oliver Stone's later-released anti-Vietnam War film, Born on the Fourth of July (1989).{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0388797/|title=Abbie Hoffman|publisher=IMDb|access-date=April 10, 2017}} He essentially played himself in the movie, waving a flag on the ramparts of an administration building during a campus protest that was being teargassed and crushed by state troopers.

Despite his return to activism, Hoffman also grew frustrated with the growing unwillingness of the younger generation to engage in protests.

In 1987 Hoffman summed up his views:

{{Blockquote|You are talking to a leftist. I believe in the redistribution of wealth and power in the world. I believe in universal hospital care for everyone. I believe that we should not have a single homeless person in the richest country in the world. And I believe that we should not have a CIA that goes around overwhelming governments and assassinating political leaders, working for tight oligarchies around the world to protect the tight oligarchy here at home.}}

Later that same year, Hoffman and Jonathan Silvers wrote Steal This Urine Test (published October 5, 1987), which exposed the internal contradictions of the War on Drugs and suggested ways to circumvent its most intrusive measures. Although Hoffman's satiric humor was on display throughout the book, Publishers Weekly wrote that "the extensive, in-depth research and a barrage of facts and figures{{nbsp}}... make this the definitive guide to the current drug-testing environment."{{Cite web |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-14-010400-4 |title=Steal This Urine Test: Fighting Drug Hysteria in America |year=1987 |website=Publishers Weekly|access-date=September 16, 2019 }}

Stone's Born on the Fourth of July was released on December 20, 1989, just eight months after Hoffman's suicide on April 12, 1989. At the time of his death, Hoffman was at the height of a renewed public visibility, one of the few 1960s radicals who still commanded the attention of the media. He regularly lectured about the CIA's covert activities, including assassinations disguised as suicides. His Playboy article (October 1988) outlining the connections that constitute the "October Surprise", brought that alleged conspiracy to the attention of a wide-ranging American readership for the first time.{{cite news|first1=Abbie|last1=Hoffman| first2=Jonathan|last2=Silvers|url=http://flag.blackened.net/ati/october88playboy.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080517032001/http://flag.blackened.net/ati/october88playboy.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=May 17, 2008 |title=An Election Held Hostage |work=Playboy|date= October 1988|access-date=December 4, 2013 }}

File:Anita Hoffman with son.jpg

File:Abbie Hoffman and Johanna Lawrenson, cropped.jpg

In 1960, Hoffman married Sheila Karklin (1938-2021), and had two children, Andrew (born 1960) and Amy (1962–2007), who later went by the name Ilya. Hoffman and Karklin divorced in 1966. In 1967, he married Anita Kushner (1942-1998) in Manhattan's Central Park.{{cite news |url=http://www.life.com/image/81003034 |title=Hoffman Wedding in Central Park |magazine=Life |date=February 1, 1963 |access-date=December 4, 2013 |archive-date=June 12, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110612091749/http://www.life.com/image/81003034 |url-status=dead }} They had one son whom they named {{sic|hide=y|america}} Hoffman, deliberately using a lowercase "a". He and Kushner were effectively separated when Hoffman became a fugitive in 1973, although they were not formally divorced until 1980. While underground, Hoffman's companion was Johanna Lawrenson.

His personal life drew a great deal of scrutiny from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), whose file on him was 13,262 pages long.{{cite web|url=http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/foiaindex_h.htm |title=FBI – FBI Records/FOIA |access-date=December 4, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110205001540/http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/foiaindex_h.htm |archive-date=February 5, 2011 }}

His brother Jack died of COVID-19 on June 2, 2020.{{cite news|url=https://www.telegram.com/story/news/coronavirus/2020/06/08/jack-hoffman-brother-of-abbie-hoffman-dies-of-covid-19/42400411/|title=Jack Hoffman, Yippie's less famous brother|first=Elaine|last=Thompson|publisher=Worcester Telegram and Gazette|date=June 8, 2020|accessdate=May 11, 2024}}

Hoffman was found dead in his apartment in Solebury Township, Pennsylvania, on April 12, 1989, age 52. The cause of death was suicide by overdose from 150 phenobarbital tablets and liquor. Two hundred pages of handwritten notes were nearby, many detailing his moods. He had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 1980. He had recently changed treatment medications and was reportedly depressed when his 83-year-old mother was diagnosed with cancer (she died in 1996 at age 90). Some who were close to him claimed that he was also unhappy about reaching middle age, combined with the fact that the liberal upheaval of the 1960s had produced a conservative backlash in the 1980s. In 1984, he had expressed dismay that the current generation of young people were not as interested in protesting and social activism as the youth had been during the 1960s.

His death was officially ruled a suicide. Hoffman's fellow Chicago Seven defendant David Dellinger disputed this; he said, "I don't believe for one moment the suicide thing" and said that Hoffman had "numerous plans for the future." However, the coroner stood by the ruling, saying, "There is no way to take that amount of phenobarbital without intent. It was intentional and self-inflicted."{{cite news|last=King|first= Wayne|date=April 19, 1989|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/04/19/us/abbie-hoffman-committed-suicide-using-barbiturates-autopsy-shows.html |title=Abbie Hoffman Committed Suicide Using Barbiturates, Autopsy Shows|work=The New York Times}}

His memorial service was held a week later in Worcester, Massachusetts, at Temple Emanuel, the synagogue that he attended as a child, with 1,000 friends and family members in attendance.{{cite news|first=Wayne|last=King|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/04/20/us/mourning-and-celebrating-a-radical.html |title=Mourning, and Celebrating, a Radical |work=The New York Times |date=April 20, 1989 |access-date=December 4, 2013}}

• [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Fuck_the_System Fuck the System] (pamphlet, 1967) printed under the pseudonym George Metesky
• [https://archive.org/details/revolutionforhel00hoff Revolution for the Hell of It] (1968, Dial Press){{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/revolutionforhel00hoff|url-access=registration|title=Revolution for the hell of it|first=Abbie|last=Hoffman|date=January 1, 1968|publisher=Dial Press|access-date=April 10, 2017|via=Internet Archive}}{{cite book|title=Revolution for the Hell of it: By Free|first=Abbie|last=Hoffman|date=January 1, 1968|publisher=Dial Press|via=Google Books}}{{cite book|title=Revolution for the Hell of It, ....|first=Free|last=(Pseud.)|date=January 1, 1968|publisher=Dial Press|via=Google Books}}{{cite book|title=Revolution for the Hell of It: The Book That Earned Abbie Hoffman a Five-Year Prison Term at the Chicago Conspiracy Trial|first1=Abbie|last1=Hoffman|first2=Reverend|last2=Billy|first3=Harvey|last3=Wasserman|date=April 27, 2005|publisher=Da Capo Press}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CR4fRd8j5IkC|title=Revolution for the Hell of It: The Book That Earned Abbie Hoffman a Five-Year Prison Term at the Chicago Conspiracy Trial|first=Abbie|last=Hoffman|date=April 28, 2009|publisher=Da Capo Press, Incorporated|access-date=April 10, 2017|via=Google Books|isbn=9780786738984}} published under the pseudonym "Free"
• Revolution for the Hell of It: The Book That Earned Abbie Hoffman a 5 Year Prison Term at the Chicago Conspiracy Trial. Including Abbie Hoffman's Special Introduction to this edition "Chicago: Two Years After" (1970 reprint, Pocket Books, {{SBN|671-78032-8}})
• Revolution for the Hell of It: The Book That Earned Abbie Hoffman a 5 Year Prison Term at the Chicago Conspiracy Trial (2005 reprint, {{ISBN|1-56025-690-7}}){{cite web|url=http://www.apfn.org/pdf/hoffsum2.pdf|title=FBI Book Report|website=apfn.org|access-date=June 12, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190221052703/http://www.apfn.org/pdf/hoffsum2.pdf|archive-date=February 21, 2019|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|url=http://www.ep.tc/realist/76/15.html|title=REVOLUTION FOR THE HELL OF IT by Abbie Hoffman and Paul Krassner (two pieces, The Realist No. 76, 1967–68)|website=ep.tc|access-date=June 12, 2017}}
• Woodstock Nation: A Talk-Rock Album (1969, Random House)
• Steal This Book (1971, Pirate Editions)
• Steal This Book (1996 reprint, {{ISBN|1-56858-217-X}})
• [http://tenant.net/Community/steal/steal.html Authorized online location]
• Vote! A Record, A Dialogue, A Manifesto – Miami Beach, 1972 and Beyond (1972, Warner Books) by Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, and Ed Sanders
• To America with Love: Letters from the Underground (1976, Stonehill Publishing) by Hoffman and Anita Hoffman
• To America with Love: Letters from the Underground (2000 second edition, {{ISBN|1-888996-28-5}})
• Soon to Be a Major Motion Picture (1980, Perigee, {{ISBN|0-399-50503-2}})
• The Autobiography of Abbie Hoffman (2000 second edition, {{ISBN|1-56858-197-1}})
• [https://archive.org/details/squaredancingini00hoff_0 Square Dancing in the Ice Age: Underground Writings] (1982, Putnam, {{ISBN|0-399-12701-1}})
• [https://archive.org/details/stealthisurinete00hoff Steal This Urine Test: Fighting Drug Hysteria in America] (1987, Penguin, {{ISBN|0-14-010400-3}}) by Hoffman and Jonathan Silvers
• The Best of Abbie Hoffman (1990, Four Walls Eight Windows, {{ISBN|0-941423-42-5}})
• Preserving Disorder: The Faking of the President 1988 (1999, Viking, {{ISBN|0-670-82349-X}}) by Hoffman and Jonathan Silvers

• Abbie Hoffman and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Wake Up, America! Big Toe Records (1971){{cite web|url=http://zbsmedia.com/abbie-hoffman-and-the-joint-chiefs-of-staff/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170409045643/http://zbsmedia.com/abbie-hoffman-and-the-joint-chiefs-of-staff/|archive-date=April 9, 2017|url-status=dead|title=Abbie Hoffman and the Joint Chiefs of Staff|publisher=ZBS Media}}{{cite web| url = http://www.ubu.com/sound/hoffman.html| title = UbuWeb Sound – Abbie Hoffman}}

• Ken Jordan interview from January 1989, published in Reality Sandwich, May 2007

Hoffman is featured in interviews and archival news footage in the following documentaries:

• Last Summer Won't Happen (1968), film by Peter Gessner & Tom Hurwitz; "a sympathetic but not uncritical document of the East Village in New York during that year (1968), capturing the movement's internal conflicts and contradictions".{{cite web|url=http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b737b57e5|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170410220248/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b737b57e5|url-status=dead|archive-date=April 10, 2017|title=Last Summer Won't Happen Again (1968)|work=British Film Institute|access-date=April 10, 2017}}{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2221727/|title=Last Summer Won't Happen|date=January 1, 2000|access-date=April 10, 2017|publisher=IMDb}}{{cite web|url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/576873/last-summer-wont-happen|title=Last Summer Won't Happen (1969) - Overview |work=Turner Classic Movies|access-date=April 10, 2017}}
• Hoffman's speech during the 1968 Democratic National Convention is featured in the 1970 Canadian fiction/documentary hybrid film, Prologue.{{cite web|title=Prologue|url=http://www.nfb.ca/film/prologue_en/|website=NFB.ca|publisher=National Film Board of Canada|access-date=May 18, 2017}}
• Breathing Together: Revolution of the Electric Family (1971){{cite news| url = https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9E02E4DC1639E43BBC4E52DFB266838A669EDE| title = Film Focuses on Trial of Chicago 7 By VINCENT CANBY The New York Times April 16, 1971| newspaper = The New York Times| date = February 4, 2022}}{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0252959/|title=Breathing Together: Revolution of the Electric Family (1971)|publisher=IMDb|access-date=June 12, 2017}}
• Lord of the Universe (1974), satirical documentary, winner of the DuPont-Columbia Award in broadcast journalism, {{ISBN|0-89774-102-1}}{{cite web | url = https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1087602/ | title = Lord of the Universe | access-date = January 24, 2011 | publisher = IMDb}}{{cite web | url = https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1087602/trivia | title = The Lord of the Universe: Trivia | access-date = January 24, 2011 | publisher = IMDb}}
• It Was 20 Years Ago Today (1987) Documentary about the year in which the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was released.{{IMDb title|0093285}}
• Growing Up in America (1988), documentary on radical politics in the 1960s, First Run Features{{cite web | url = https://www.allmovie.com/work/growing-up-in-america-173949 | title = Growing Up in America | access-date = January 24, 2011 | last = Pavlides | first = Dan | website = Allmovie}}
• My Dinner with Abbie (1990).{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giQ_g__C8uw| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211031/giQ_g__C8uw| archive-date=October 31, 2021 | url-status=live|title=My Dinner with Abbie (Preview) Part 1|first=Nancy|last=Cohen|date=September 1, 2008|access-date=June 12, 2017|via=YouTube}}{{cbignore}}{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OtO88tF_Go| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211031/9OtO88tF_Go| archive-date=October 31, 2021 | url-status=live|title=My Dinner with Abbie (Preview) Part 2|first=Nancy| last=Cohen|date=September 1, 2008|access-date=June 12, 2017|via=YouTube}}{{cbignore}}{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0258825/|title=My Dinner with Abbie (1990)|publisher=IMDb|access-date=June 12, 2017}}
• My Name Is Abbie (1998), Hoffman's first interview after seven years in hiding, Mystic Fire Video, {{ISBN|1-56176-381-0}}{{cite web | url = https://www.allmovie.com/work/my-name-is-abbie-178802 | title = My Name Is Abbie | access-date = January 24, 2011 | last = Tamms | first = Kathryn | website = Allmovie}}
• Phil Ochs: There but for Fortune (2010), biographical documentary on the life and times of the singer-songwriter, First Run Features{{cite web | url = https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1597089/plotsummary | title = Phil Ochs: There but for Fortune | access-date = January 24, 2011 | publisher = IMDb}}{{cite news | title = Aspiring to Musical Power and Glory | work = The New York Times | date = January 4, 2011 | first = Stephen | last = Holden | author-link = Stephen Holden | page = C6| url = https://movies.nytimes.com/2011/01/05/movies/05phil.html | access-date = January 8, 2011| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110106114807/http://movies.nytimes.com/2011/01/05/movies/05phil.html| archive-date= January 6, 2011 | url-status= live}}

• Born on the Fourth of July (1989); Hoffman appears as an organizer of the Syracuse University student strike which was triggered by the Kent State shooting. He died before the film was released, and a dedication to him is included in the credits.

• The Merv Griffin Show, March 27, 1970. Merv's guests were Abbie Hoffman, Daria Halprin, Mark Frechette, Virginia Graham, and Tony Dolan. CBS blurred the video of Hoffman so viewers at home would not see his American flag pattern shirt, even though other guests had worn the same shirt in the past, uncensored, and Pat Boone appeared in an automobile commercial on that very broadcast wearing a similar flag-motif shirt.{{cite book |last1=LoBrutto |first1=Vincent |title=TV in the USA: A History of Icons, Idols, and Ideas |date=2018 |publisher=Greenwood |location=Santa Barbara |isbn=9781440829727 |page=112 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6RfOEAAAQBAJ&dq=%22merv%20griffin%22%20%22abbie%20hoffman%22%20March%201970&pg=RA1-PA112 |access-date=April 17, 2024}}
• Vanguard Press's 10th Anniversary Media Bash, February 17, 1988, Moderated by Peter Freyne. With Abbie Hoffman, Dave Dellinger, and Bernie Sanders.Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211205/2aXF-b9gKs4 Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20151118152620/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aXF-b9gKs4&gl=US&hl=en Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite web| url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aXF-b9gKs4| title = Bernie Sanders and Abbie Hoffman discuss the media | website=YouTube| date = November 18, 2015 }}{{cbignore}}{{Cite web |url=https://media2.cctv.org/cctv/library/1988/02/BernieSpeaks30_F_02171988/BernieSpeaks30_F_02171988.broadband.mp4 |title=Bernie Speaks with the Community |access-date=June 12, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160324005651/https://media2.cctv.org/cctv/library/1988/02/BernieSpeaks30_F_02171988/BernieSpeaks30_F_02171988.broadband.mp4 |archive-date=March 24, 2016 |url-status=dead }}
• The Coca Crystal Show: If I Can't Dance, You Can Keep Your Revolution, Manhattan Cable Television (Channel J), Public Access Cable TV, New York City.{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/user/Cocacrystal82/videos|title = Coca Crystal - YouTube|website = YouTube}}Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211205/zapttwBQmZQ Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20170830001553/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zapttwBQmZQ Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite web| url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zapttwBQmZQ| title = Coca Crystal If I Can't Dance ... Keep Your Revolution Promo | website=YouTube| date = May 18, 2008 }}{{cbignore}}

• Abbie Hoffman on WMCA radio, 1971
• Abbie Hoffman on WBAI radio

:* August 27, 1968 telephone recording of speeches during the Chicago DNC protests broadcast by Bob Fass

• Abbie Hoffman – 1988 – Howard Stern Show

• Michael Lembeck portrayed Hoffman in the 1987 HBO television film Conspiracy: The Trial of the Chicago 8.
• Hoffman was portrayed by Richard D'Alessandro in the 1994 film Forrest Gump, speaking against "the war in Viet-fucking-nam" at a protest rally at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool facing the Washington Monument.
• Hoffman's life was dramatized in the 2000 film Steal This Movie!, in which he was portrayed by Vincent D'Onofrio.{{cite web | url = https://www.allmovie.com/work/steal-this-movie-186885 | title = Steal This Movie | access-date = January 24, 2011 | last = Deming | first = Mark | website = Allmovie| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20101210020144/http://allmovie.com/work/steal-this-movie-186885| archive-date= December 10, 2010 | url-status= live}}{{cite web|url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/steal-this-movie-2000|title=Steal This Movie |first= Roger |last=Ebert|author-link=Roger Ebert|date= August 25, 2000|publisher=RogerEbert.com}}
• Hank Azaria's voice is heard as the animated Hoffman in the film Chicago 10 (2007).
• Thomas Ian Nicholas portrays Hoffman in the 2010 film titled The Chicago 8.{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1511476/|title=The Chicago 8|date=September 14, 2012|access-date=April 10, 2017|publisher=IMDb}}
• Bern Cohen played the lead role in the 2011 Off Broadway play Abbie.{{cite web | url = https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1788789 | title = Ben Cohen: Biography | access-date = January 24, 2011|publisher = IMDb}}{{cite news | first = Andy | last = Webster | title = The Life and Passions of an American Activist | date = January 12, 2011 | url = http://theater.nytimes.com/2011/01/13/theater/reviews/13abbie.html|work = The New York Times | access-date = January 24, 2011}}
• Hoffman is portrayed by Sacha Baron Cohen in The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020). Cohen was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in the 93rd Academy Awards.
• Hoffman is mentioned in the song "Stuck in the 90's" on the 1993 album Bargainville by Canadian vocal group Moxy Früvous.
• A doll in Hoffman's likeness is used in a Raggedy Ann parody in the animated series Histeria!.
• In Wings 1993 season 4 episode 13 "Labor Pains" Faye describes an encounter with Hoffman at a protest in 1966.

• List of peace activists
• 1980 October Surprise theory

{{Reflist|30em}}

• [https://archive.org/download/a-troubled-rebel-chooses-a-silent-death.-people-weekly-vol.-31-no.-17-may-1-1989-pp.-100-104-108-110/A%20Troubled%20Rebel%20Chooses%20a%20Silent%20Death.%20People%20Weekly%2C%20Vol.%2031%2C%20No.%2017%2C%20May%201%2C%201989%2C%20pp.%20100-104%2C%20108%2C%20110.pdf "A Troubled Rebel Chooses A Silent Death."] People Weekly, vol. 31, no. 17, May 1, 1989, pp. 100–104, 108, 110.
• Jezer, Marty (1992). Abbie Hoffman: American Rebel. Rutgers University Press. {{ISBN|0813518504}}.
• Raskin, Jonah (1996). For the Hell of It: The Life and Times of Abbie Hoffman. University of California Press. {{ISBN|0520205758}}.
• Bruce Eric France Jr. (2004). [https://web.archive.org/web/20100717082432/http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-12202003-145735/unrestricted/France_Jr_thesis.pdf From Guerrilla Theater to Media Warfare Abbie Hoffman's Riotous Revolution in America: A Myth.] Louisiana State University.
• Edited with an introduction by Jon Wiener. Conspiracy in the Streets: The Extraordinary Trial of the Chicago Seven. Afterword by Tom Hayden and drawings by Jules Feiffer. New York: The New Press, 2006. {{ISBN|978-1565848337}}.

{{Commons}}

{{Wikiquote}}

{{Wikisource-author}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20081025012911/http://www.abbiehoffman.org/ Abbie Hoffman's Spirit Is Alive]
• [http://www.ep.tc/realist/abbiehoffman.html Scans of Abbie Hoffman's writing in The Realist during formation of the Yippie movement]
• [http://vault.fbi.gov/abbie-hoffman FBI file on Abbie Hoffman]
• [http://users.wpi.edu/~cityofwords/hoffman.html Biography and Photos at the Worcester Writers' Project] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200201055911/http://users.wpi.edu/~cityofwords/hoffman.html |date=February 1, 2020 }}
• {{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1970/10/11/archives/is-abbie-hoffman-the-will-shakespeare-of-the-1970s-the-shakespeare.html|title=Is Abbie Hoffman the Will Shakespeare of the 1970s?|first=Elenore|last=Lester|date=October 11, 1970|access-date=June 12, 2017|work=The New York Times}}

{{American New Left}}

{{Anarchism}}

{{Chicago Seven}}

{{Critique of work}}

{{Culture jamming}}

{{Guerrilla theatre}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoffman, Abbie}}

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