Background
In the early 1960s Bowart moved to New York City to pursue his interest in painting, and there he met his first wife Linda Dugmore, daughter of abstract expressionist Edward Dugmore, and had his first son Wolfe.
In the early 1960s Bowart moved to New York City to pursue his interest in painting, and there he met his first wife Linda Dugmore, daughter of abstract expressionist Edward Dugmore, and had his first son Wolfe.
University of Oklahoma.
Born Walter Howard Kirby in Omaha, Nebraska, Bowart was adopted as a newborn by Walter and Fenna Bowart. In 1965, Bowart, along with Ishmael Reed, who named the paper, Sherry Needham, Allen Katzman, and Dan Rattiner founded the East Village Other (EVO). EVO offered a newsprint medium for the rants, artwork, poetry and comics of such 1960s icons as Timothy Leary, Allen Ginsberg, Abbie Hoffman, Robert Crumb, Marshall McLuhan, Spain Rodriguez, and The Fugs.
In 1966, Bowart testified before the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency about banning LSD. He drew national attention with his recommendations.
They moved to Tucson, Arizona in 1968 where Bowart founded Omen Press, a publishing house for metaphysical books Bowart and Peggy Hitchcock had two daughters, Sophia and Nuria.
During this period Bowart wrote the book that was to become his seminal work, Operation Mind Control. Published by Dell in 1978 with a foreword by The Manchurian Candidate author Richard Condon, Operation Mind Control was a 317-page investigative report into government mind control through the use of drugs such as LSD, behavior modification, hypnosis, and other “psycho-weapons”.
In the late 1980s, Walter moved to Palm Springs, California to become the editor of Palm Springs Life Magazine where he published articles under the name Thomas Kirby, Tom Kirby, and Tom J. Kirby as well as West.H. Bowart.
In Bowart’s later years, he researched and wrote prolifically. He created The Freedom of Thought Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to the education of the public about mind control. He was a frequently invited guest speaker at forums and conferences around the country.
Bowart died of colon cancer at his sister"s home in Inchelium, Washington on December 18, 2007.
At the time of his death, Bowart was working on several screenplays and novels, including The Other Crusades, which was about New York City in the early 1960s.