Lorraine Cohen - The Hipster’s Legacy

Book: “The Hipster’s Legacy” Website(s): www.plumtreetales.com Facebook: Lorraine Gibson Cohen Facebook LorraineGibson Cohen, daughter of Harry the Hipster Gibson — a zany, 1940s jazz pianist who claimed to have coinedthe term “hipster” — welcomes audiences into her eccentric family of offbeatartists and musicians in her nostalgic, humor-filled memoir, The Hipster’s Legacy: A Memoir of Dreams, Jazz and Family in1960s California. Please refer to the pressrelease below for additional information, and let me know if you would like toreceive a copy of The Hipster’sLegacy for inteview and/or reviewpurposes. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE The Hipster’s Legacy aColorful Memoir Characterized by 1960s Nostalgia, Humor and Eccentricity NEW YORK, March 17, 2025 — Immersing oneself in the pages of LorraineGibson Cohen’s captivating memoir, TheHipster’s Legacy: A Memoir of Dreams, Jazz and Family in 1960s California, would be akin to reading Betty Smith’s coming-of-age A Tree Grows in Brooklyn andGerald Durrell’s endearing My Familyand Other Animals at the same time. Cohen is the daughter of1940s jazz pianist Harry the Hipster Gibson, who claims to have coined the term“hipster,” and in her book, she recalls her years in a funky, red-shingledcottage next to a landfill in Southern Californiawhere her life was rife with eccentric characters and aburdly humoroussituations. “When I was 22 years old, I started writing in an old grayloose-leaf notebook while I was living temporarily with my older sister, herthree little children and my younger brother in a small beach town in Southern California,” Cohen recalled. “I wrote downthings as they happened. All the funny things and the not-so-funny. There wereshort stories, character studies of people and things, even a song or two.Sixty years later, I found the notebook and started writing again. Before Iknew it, I was writing a book.” A memoir that reads like anovel, The Hipster’s Legacy includes 15 illustrations (by Cohen herself) and 35 familyphotos to help bring to vivid life the coming-of-age story of a late bloomer and quiet dreamer. Born into a musical family and raised on dreams of fame andglory, 22-year-old Cohen finds it tough going on her own when she moves to Hollywood. Acceptingdefeat, she takes the 20-mile ride back home. But home isn’t quite the same at 230 Culper Court.In her absence, her mother has moved out to live “in sin” with a used carsalesman named Bob. Replacing her at the cottage is Cohen’s older sister,Arlene, her three kids, and Cohen’s younger brother, Jeff. Cohen’s life takes adifferent turn as she learns to fit in with her newly re-arranged family andtheir quirky friends, exotic oddballs, hapless misfits, and the flotsam andjetsam of strange and talented people who pass through the little red cottageby the sea. The Hipster’s Legacy isan intriguing and often humorous memoir of a unique family influenced by ahard-working mother who just missed being a saint and a father, the wild jazzpianist and entertainer known as Harry the Hipster, whose amazing abilities andcrazy style influenced the evolution of Rock and Roll.