I'm looking for a book, preferably an ebook, about the summer of love and the San Francisco hippie scene. Anyone have any recommendations?
It's not specifically about the SoL or even the city you want, but for anyone interested in '60s music I heartily recommend this book: It's a lively, often funny account of the L.A. music scene, including the rise and fall of the hippie culture as well as the Monterrey Pop Festival (which was conceived by L.A. scenesters Lou Adler and John Philips). https://www.amazon.com/Everybody-Had-Ocean-Mayhem-Angeles/dp/1613734913
I Want To Take You Higher covers this in its coverage of psychedelic music. Good format and good photos. Prob. Not ebook though..
I've been reading Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion and it talks about what was going on at that time in the bay area and southern California.
It isn’t available yet but I think you may like this one. She was one of the “founders” of the scene, arrived before the hippies came to San Francisco. Met Grateful Dead, Airplane, Janis, etc. A wild ride, for sure. https://www.amazon.com/I-Ran-Into-Some-Trouble/dp/1942545827
Why not just go with the title?! It's been many years since I read this, but IIRC it was pretty good. https://www.amazon.com/Summer-Love-...19&sr=1-1&keywords=joel+selvin+summer+of+love
Bill Graham Presents is a pretty good source for that era. It's marketed as a bio, but it has quite a few of the principals of that era speaking in their own words. It covers the rest of his life and times, but there was some good info on the hippie scene and the summer of love.
I love the music and the images but it's pretty clear in reality Haight-Ashbury was close to a disaster area even before the Summer of 67 finished. Disaffected naive kids, a lot of predatory behaviour, just too many lost people for the area. The idealistic period didn't really make it more than a few months, certainly didn't last until Altamont. Peter Cayote was pretty scathing in a documentary I saw.
Not quite what the OP is after, but anyone interested in the SF '67 scene would probably be interested in checking out The Haight, a photobook by Jim Marshall with text by Joel Selvin that covers the scene and its key players pretty well. The unfolded book jacket:
The White Album also has some essays regarding the 60's and California, including a very memorable one about a Doors recording session.
"Garcia" is a good read to understand what started the "Summer Of Love". By 1967 the real fun was over actually, and with the term "hippy" taken by the media, it was all downhill from there...
For a different take on the Haight than most of the books that have already been mentioned, Emmett Grogan’s Ringolevio is pretty essential. Grogan was a founder of the Diggers and he did not hesitate to skewer many ideas that became firmly entrenched as sacred cows.