From "Ringolevio" by Emmett Grogan, Copyright 1972 William Heinemann Limited

​

Ringolevio is a New York street game, a violent game, "a game to be fought rather than played". It was Emmett Grogan's preparation for life.

   Who is Emmett Grogan?

   He's a freckle-faced Irish-American from Brooklyn who got hooked on "junk" while still at school and had to support his habit by petty theft and robbery with violence...

   He's the founder and chief inspiration of the legendary Diggers of San Francisco, who were dedicated to creating a genuine alternative lifestyle and spent years "acquiring" and passing out free food, free clothes, free theatre and more to hundreds of poor and needy in the Haight-Ashbury and the city ghettoes.

   He's America's most famous invisible man, who, determined to keep his identity anonymous, has fed deceptions to the press and let others use his name to the point where some people even think he doesn't actually exist, assuming the name is a symbol for all who work outside the system...

   He's a brilliantly gifted natural writer whose Ringolevio is perhaps the single most exciting book ever to come out of the American underground, an autobiography that explodes with sheer adventure and a revolutionary social vision.