Jazz Musician’s Daughter Chronicles Colorful Childhood in New Memoir

A memoir that reads like a novel, The Hipster’s Legacy includes 15 illustrations (by Cohen herself) and 35 family photos to help bring to vivid life the coming-of-age story of a late bloomer and quiet dreamer.

Lorraine Gibson Cohen is the daughter of Harry the Hipster Gibson — a zany, 1940s jazz pianist who claimed to have coined the term “hipster.”

Like a reality show on paper, The Hipster’s Legacy pulls readers into a quirky, unpredictable world with an eccentric family of artists and music-makers.

NEW YORK, NY, UNITED STATES, May 2, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- By age 22, Lorraine Gibson Cohen had finished college, had her heart broken by her first true love, and had failed in her first attempt to leave home. With seemingly no other options, she returned to the family home — a funky, red-shingled cottage next to a landfill in Southern California — and tried her hand at writing. The public, she pondered, would expect to hear stories about her famous father, jazz musician and entertainer Harry the Hipster Gibson. But what about the family he left behind? That story should be told too.

A gifted artist, Cohen used words to paint pictures in a gray, loose-leaf notebook. And the result, some 60 years later, is her captivating memoir, The Hipster’s Legacy: A Memoir of Dreams, Jazz and Family in 1960s California.

“I wrote down things as they happened,” Cohen recalled. “All the funny things and the not-so-funny. There were short stories, character studies of people and things, even a song or two. Sixty years later, I found the notebook and started writing again. Before I knew it, I was writing a book.”

A memoir that reads like a novel, The Hipster’s Legacy includes 15 illustrations (by Cohen herself) and 35 family photos 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 and glory, 22-year-old Cohen finds it tough going on her own when she moves to Hollywood. Accepting defeat, 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 car salesman 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 a different turn as she learns to fit in with her newly re-arranged family and their quirky friends, exotic oddballs, hapless misfits, and the flotsam and jetsam of strange and talented people who pass through the little red cottage by the sea.

The Hipster’s Legacy is an intriguing and often humorous memoir of a unique family influenced by a hard-working mother who just missed being a saint and a father, the wild jazz pianist and entertainer known as Harry the Hipster, whose amazing abilities and crazy style influenced the evolution of Rock and Roll.

The US Review of Books calls The Hipster’s Legacy “A vibrant, decadent work ... whimsical ... a delight and a pleasure ... a resounding masterpiece.”

About the Author
Lorraine Gibson Cohen was born into a musical family and is an artist turned writer. She was raised in Southern California a stone's throw from Hollywood, and after studying art at El Camino College, returned to her birthplace in New York City, eventually becoming a package designer for JCPenney. She lives in New York City with her husband on the Upper West Side, with a view of Central Park if she leans far out the window and looks east.

For more information, please visit https://www.plumtreetales.com/, or connect with the author on Facebook (Lorraine Gibson Cohen).

The Hipster’s Legacy: A Memoir of Dreams, Jazz and Family in 1960s California
Release Date: March 18, 2025
ISBN-13: ‎979-8990845602
Available from https://www.amazon.com/Hipsters-Legacy-Memoir-Dreams-California/dp/B0DR3DS2RX

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