Haight Ashbury Maverick [vol. 2, #1, August 1968?] Hard Core

San Francisco: The Haight Publishing Co, 1968. Newspaper. 16p., folded tabloid underground newspaper, horizontal fold crease, centerfold psychedelic poster, lightly toned, a bit of foxing along the spine, else very good on newsprint. Scarce S.F. underground paper edited by Guy Strait, in the mold of the better-known Oracle. News about events in the Haight, including advice for tourists on absorbing the atmosphere.

From all appearances, this was a pseudo-underground paper knocked out to sell to tourists during the Summer of Love. It started as "Maverick" then became "Haight Ashbury Maverick and finally Haight Ashbury Tribune.

No publication information and no mention of Strait. Dated according to the Los Angeles Free Press report on the August 1968 Peace & Freedom Party presidential nomination in Ann Arbor.

Cover sports a softcore porn photo of a young couple and headline "Hard Core?", a question best answered "No". News from SF and nationwide, poetry (full page by Steve Levine, looking like a reprint from the Oracle or an outtake from same), centerspread is color psychedelic art of a Buddha riding a dragon, and a full-page ad for Leon Russell and Mark Benno's Asylum Choir.

Strait also published Cruise News and Citizens News, and organized a gay rights group, The League for Civil Education (LCE). He later became involved in a child pornography scandal and litigation in Illinois.