Short Synopsis
The definitive biography of the life and work of the legendary comedian, provocateur, and social critic George Carlin.

Full Synopsis
In Seven Dirty Words, journalist and cultural critic James Sullivan tells the story of Alternative America from the 1950s to the present, from the singular vantage point of George Carlin, the Catholic boy for whom nothing was sacred. A critical biography, Seven Dirty Words is an insightful (and, of course, hilarious) examination of Carlin's body of work as it pertained to its cultural times and the man who created it, from his early days as a more-or-less conventional comedian to his stunning transformation into the subversive comedic voice of the emerging counterculture. Sullivan also chronicles Carlin's struggles with censorship and drugs, as well as the full-blown renaissance he experienced in the 1990s, both personally and professionally, when he became an elder statesman to a younger generation of comics who revered him. Seven Dirty Words is nothing less than the definitive biography of an American master who changed the world and also a work of cultural commentary that frames George Carlin's extraordinary legacy.

"An excellent account of the life and work of an important and greatly missed artist." ---Booklist

"Sullivan dissects the comedian's classic iconoclastic routines, probes his working methods and successfully captures his rocketlike ascent to fame." ---Publishers Weekly

"Sullivan has done an outstanding job…positioning the late comedian George Carlin as a counterculture icon whose loathing of hypocrisy and love of language changed comedy forever." ---The Boston Globe

"Sullivan convincingly makes the case that for 50 years Carlin 'may well have produced more laughs than any other human being.'" ---Dwight Garner, The New York Times