Apocalypse Culture

Noted for his foresight as both a writer and publisher, Adam Parfrey’s Apocalypse Culture (1987) was hailed by J.G. Ballard as “the terminal documents of the Twentieth Century.” Cult Rapture (1995), subject of a notorious art exhibition at Seattle’s Center on Contemporary Art, included among its dozen pop culture investigations, Parfrey’s Village Voice cover story which was the first published article on militias and domestic terrorism.

Apocalypse Culture II (2000), Parfrey’s lauded sequel, anticipated anthrax terror with a disturbing article on Biological Warfare. Extreme Islam: Anti-American Propaganda of Muslim Fundamentalism (2001), “a frightening primer on radical Muslim thought” (New York Press), reveals the ways in which East Jerusalem has become Ground Zero for a coming World War.

In 2012, with co-author Craig Heimbichner, Adam wrote the seminal book on American secret societies, Ritual America:  Secret Brotherhoods and Their Influence on American Society. 

But writing is not Parfrey’s sole forte. According to the Disinfo.com website, “Adam Parfrey is probably the most influential ‘underground’ publisher in post-millennial America.” In an L.A. Weekly feature, writer Doug Harvey celebrated “Adam Parfrey’s notorious, perpetually ahead-of-the-curve company, Feral House, whose encyclopedic interest in taboo (and conveniently forgotten) cultural phenomena helped define independent media through the ’90s.”

Tim Burton's bio-pic on the B-movie director Ed Wood was based upon the Feral House book, Nightmare of Ecstasy.  The 2018 Jonas Akerlund film Lords of Chaos was based on the Feral House title of the same name. Feral House’s collections of bizarre conspiracy theories, such as Secret and Suppressed: Banned Ideas and Hidden History, were noted influences on Chris Carter’s X-Files. Parfrey himself appeared in and co-wrote Crispin Glover’s controversial What Is It? a 2005 Sundance Film Festival selection.

Adam passed away in May 2018. The impact he made, friends empowered, enemies enraged, is at the very heart of Feral House, and we will embrace that for as long as we are able.