Nudetopian Nightmares is now available!

My new non-fiction project, NUDETOPIAN NIGHTMARES: Seeking a new Garden of Eden 1933-1955. Is now available for sale from me for $20 plus $7 shipping (plus a $1 paypal or credit card convenience fee). email me storolaf@yahoo.com or call 605-949-0982, you can also send me a check, but email me for details.

This is a 268-page soft bound book on mostly the history of American Naturism (not Nudism). There are some photos and this is a 6x9 inch book. Except for two of the stories I have included, and then only if you read some more obscure non-faction or watched a recent Ron Howard movie, these are stories you won’t ever hear about. This is mostly because this side of the origins of naturism in America’s history was never discussed in the older nudist press although most of these stories were well covered and usually derided in the regular press. No one wants to really uncover some of these unsavory takes today and I only ended down this rabbit hole by accident, researching the history of nudism in New Jersey. The proponents I write about also used their own journals, like “Natural Living” or “Natural Herald” where few of them survive and a variety of naturopathic and psuedo-scientific “journals” where issues of which have disappeared over the years.

Even a few of you have driven through a neighborhood, the Arcadian Community in Elk Grove, California on your way to Laguna del Sol east of Galt and never realized that this housing development was built on the site of a naturist planned community that went bust in the early 50s. There is the story of the first Gay men’s naturist community in Florida (Sun Lake Camp for Men) now totally forgotten, as well as one place in America built as a pretext to be a Soviet spy operation. People moved into jungles, isolated islands, swamps, and deserted islands looking for a new way of living. Over the two decades that going back to nature and living like the first man and woman were all the rage, colonies (and yes these were the “colonies” that plague people’s perceptions of nudism to this day) were started or planned in Cuba, US Virgin Islands, Panama, Ecuador, Brazil, Galapagos, numerous South Seas Island Groups, Florida, as well as a Rosicrucian naturist community built near Brisbane, Australia with the backing of a Rosicrucian sect in California .

This book describes the projects as best as history remembers them. There was everything from murder to starvation, fraud and other crimes, US Senate hearings, UFOism to odd scientific theories, espionage to other illegal and unsavory activities, and lots of pestilence and disease, all of which everyone seems to have conveniently forgotten about. In as few of these the stories resemble a HBO version (since the participants were largely naked) of a voyage where “Gilligan’s Island” meets the “Poseidon Adventure.”

I think these stories are interesting but, I wrote the book……

“OFFICIAL” SYNOPSIS on cover

Organized nudism started in America in December 1929. Shortly thereafter some people tried to merge naturopathy, nutrition, living in nature, and nudism together and it took on the term “naturism.” Others even tried to add religion and social theory into the ever expanding tent. Many called it the “nature cure” since it became a popular therapy at sanitariums but others called it the “nature cult.” At various times starting around 1933, “visionaries” decided that for men and women to thrive they needed to establish naturist colonies in exotic locations to recreate the Garden of Eden.

These Nudetopian dreams eventually became Nudetopian nightmares as unfortunately, almost all of these projects from 1933-1955 failed. People died, and many lost the meager resources that they had left after the Great Depression and World War II.

Give me a call if you want one, or email me, and I can also answer questions, storolaf@yahoo.com or call 605-949-0982, I also still have NUDE COUNTY USA, the history of naturism in Pasco County, Florida available, $40 plus 8 shiping and 1.50 convenience fee