A GOOD WAY to describe John Wilcock is to say that he is a talented bohemian counter-culture journalist who once played a major role in the emergence of America’s underground press. Born 1927 in Sheffield, England, he left school aged 16 to work on various newspapers in England, and on Toronto periodicals before moving to New York City. There, in 1955, he became one of the five founders of the Village Voice in which he and co-founder Norman Mailer wrote weekly columns. Wilcock called his column “The Village Square”, an intended pun.

After ten years with the Voice, Wilcock broke with the paper to edit a rival publication, the East Village Other, and then to publish his own tabloid, Other Scenes. They were the city’s first underground papers, covering all the topics The New York Times would consider unfit to print. Later he worked with similar papers popping up in London, Los Angeles, and Tokyo.

For three years Wilcock was a travel editor at the New York Times and his subsequent journeys here and there produced a raft of popular travel guides. His association with Andy Warhol resulted in The Autobiography and Sex Life of Andy Warhol.
—excerpts from the preface of Manhattan Memories by Martin Gardner

This website is dedicated to preserving and sharing the work of John Wilcock. It is a work in progress with the goal of providing a complete catalog of his work.

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