H. B. Koplowitz grew up in Carbondale and watched the Strip on Illinois Avenue evolve in the 1960s. He wandered around the country for a while, venturing out to the Pacific Northwest, cutting himself off from everything familiar in the hope that this would develop his character. Perhaps it did. He returned to Carbondale. “I crash landed in my parents’ driveway,” he wrote later.
In 1982 he published a book, Carbondale After Dark. They were sold in a couple of places around town and I snagged a couple of copies. The writing spans a long period in Koplowitz’s life. He wrote some of it as a teenager, but he wrote the history of the Strip much later in life, pounding it out on a manual typewriter while living in a geodesic dome once owned and occupied by R. Buckminster Fuller.
Koplowitz’s book captures some seminal events in Carbondale’s history, such as the campus riots over the Vietnam War and the shootings at Kent State, and there are compelling photographs of the national guard occupying Carbondale and a massive throng of students marching down the strip, led by a guy named “Anteater” on a Harley. That one was taken on May 6, 1970. I was just finishing the first grade.
The books disappeared somewhere, but I often thought about them. Apparently I wasn’t the only one. Copies of the book began appearing on eBay for much more than their original sale price. Intrigued by this, Koplowitz decided to print some more copies and held a contest to determine who would write a new foreword. SIU alumnus Dennis Franz won.
First editions are still selling on eBay for $120.
I had intended to embed a Youtube video promoting the book here, but embedding was disabled. So I’ll just provide a link and invite you to click on through.
