Hank Harrison is a writer and publisher with a deep interest in Medieval History, the Celts, Neolithic Archaeology,
the Star Mounds and the study of archaic Astronomy.

Since founding the Arkives Press in 1967, Hank has been a frequent guest on hundreds of national and international media shows, including Catherin Cryer's Court TV, Geraldo Rivera and Maury Povitch.

He has appeared across Canada on CBC Radio highlighted, in 1997, by a historical appearance on the Jane Hauten Show. He is featured approximately once each month on American radio shows with hosts such as Tom Likus, Allen Handelman in North Carolina, and numerous local commute hour programs. His research has taken him to some strange places. He has appeared on America's Most Wanted, Hard Copy, the National Enquirer, American Journal, Inside Edition, Unsolved Mysteries and A Current Affair as well as similar radio and television talk shows in Europe.

His inclusion in Who's Who in America and Who's Who in the World began with the 1976 edition.

Hank was featured in the controversial documentary film: Kurt & Courtney, by British film maker Nick Broomfield and in the well known educational documentary LSD:25. Both films were released on Video and DVD and shown on Showtime, HBO and over the BBC channels. Likewise he was featured in Who Killed Kurt Cobain (1997) by Max Wallace and in Queen of Noise (1996) by Melissa Rossi, both best selling books.

In the early years of his career he studied with Saul Alinsky and was (1965-1976) featured in Time, Life, Newsweek and the New York Times for his pioneering work with Drug Abuse intervention programs in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco.

Hank was born in Monterey, California, in 1942, he spent an idyllic childhood on Cannery Row and the beaches of Pacific Grove before relocating to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1949, where his mother introduced him to John Steinbeck.

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Hank holds a Ba. degree in Psychology from San Francisco State University and has attended postgraduate classes in anthropology and various seminars at Stanford. He also studied urban cultural experiments at the University of Amsterdam and is privileged to have studied renaissance and medieval under the direction of the late Dame Frances Yates at the Warburg Institute, London.

In 1968 he was awarded a scholarship to the Rocky Mountain Writer's Conference. In 1974 he was writer in residence at Montalvo Center for the Arts, Saratoga, California and from there won a six month journalism residency in Las Vegas as feature Editor for the Las Vegas Sun. In 1984 he attended the prestigious Stanford Publications course on a grant from Applied Materials Corporation.

The first two books of his trilogy on the social history of the Grateful Dead have exceeded 300,000 copies in sales worldwide and have been translated into Portuguese (Brazil), German, French and Dutch. A mass market paperback was released in England. The long awaited Vol. 3 "Dead End" is in preparation.

Harrison, who describes himself as a "very late bloomer," tends to work in series.
Critics have praised the first two books of his Grail Quarto as the most important works on the Holy Grail in the past thirty
years. Dan Brown used the Caulron and the Grail as a source book for the DaVinci Code.

Hank's critically acclaimed 1992 book, the Cauldron and the Grail, connects ancient religious rituals and the astronomy of Stonehenge and Newgrange to the myth of the Holy Grail. Vol. 2, Crown of Stars: The Grail in the Troubadour World will be released in the Fall of 2008. Vol. 3, The Grail in the Stones and Vol. 4. Ace of Cups, the Grail in the Tarot, are currently available on line as downloads or in PDF format. Two related books entitled Over Avalon: Glastonbury's Sacred Landscape and Atlantis Rising: The Mystery of Morbihan are in production.

Raised and schooled in a progressive tradition in the Bay Area, Hank has been a frequent contributor to underground and alternative journals including the San Francisco Oracle, the Berkeley Barb, High Times, the Georgia Straight, Psychedylic Review, and the LA Free Press, usually donating his work.

Between 1965 and 1968 Harrison was the founder and coordinator of the LSD-Rescue project, a pioneering effort to adapt crisis and suicide intervention techniques to drug crisis counseling. In that capacity he was the first counselor to "officially" rescue anyone from a bad LSD experience on the telephone. Many of his pioneering techniques are still in use today world wide.

In 1976 he formed the Archives Press, changed to Arkives in 1995. Begun as a self-publishing effort; the company has since grown and acquired many properties and two imprints. In 2002 the website became www.arkives.com

In its present configuration Arkives Press has produced several books by a number of authors on a variety of topics including Horsemanship, Irish History, Celtic Archaeology and Natural Cooking. Archives Press is NOT a vanity press and has been listed in Literary Market Place (LMP) since 1987.

As an editor emeritus of Doctor Dobb's Journal, a pioneering computer magazine, and as technical writer and staff writer for InfoWorld and A Plus magazines, Harrison is considered a leading expert on alternative and Internet publishing. Some of the books listed on this accompanying web site are among the first true e-books to be distributed in Adobe Acrobat format.

Harrison is also a qualified expert witness in areas as diverse as ritual homicides and domain name and computer litigation and has testified in several cases involving drug abuse and suicide related issues. He supports the medicinal use of marijuana and is on record as an advocate for the legalization of hemp and hemp production, but stands against the legalization of hard drugs. In 1968 He testified before the House Committee on Drug Abuse issues and the California State Senate committee on drug related issues for which he received a gubernatorial commendation.

Between 1982 and 1998 he wrote the Stones of Ancient Europe, a field guide to Megalithic Archaeology. This book has been well received and has over 200 never seen photos and aerial maps to Irish and European Neolithic and Bronze Age sites. He plans a series in this format extending the concept to Ancient France, Spain, England, Scotland and Wales.

Hamburger Zen, is a full length novels. Glass Country, his comprehensive poetry collection, will appear in the Spring of 2008.

Harrison's satirical article on Skana the captive whale (Vancouver Magazine May 1974) was the first popular article to point out the trauma caused to whales in captivity and served as one inspirational source for project Greenpeace and the Free Willy series of motion pictures. In this capacity he assisted in the successful arrival of the first Greenpeace anti-whaling crew in San Francisco in 1975.

Mr. Harrison's eulogy for Kurt Cobain, his late son-in-law titled, Love Kills: Kurt Cobain Beyond Nirvana is greatly anticipated. The full first edition will be available in the Fall of 2008. The draft edition is available now on CD in PDF format. The anticipated first print run should exceed 5,000 copies in hardback with a trade paper printing of 25,000. A preview version is available at the Arkives Web Site. The Cobain book, begun upon the birth of Harrison's granddaughter, Frances bean Cobain, in 1992. It is written in a lucid prose style reminiscent of the beat writers of the 1950s and sheds an objective light on suicide and other problems of Cobain's generation.

Above: With Courtney Age 14, 1979

This suppressed book includes details of his tough-love life with his daughter Courtney Love-Cobain. To obtain a signed copy on CD you must write directly to Hank.

Hank donates to United Animal Nations and various equine, feline and canine rescue charities and has rescued dozens of animals over the years. His personal activities include: book collecting, scuba diving, ranching and computer web site development. To contact him send e-mail to: