Pirsig’s publishing house, William Morrow, announced that he died Monday April 24 at his home in South Benwick, Maine at the age of 88. ‘Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance’ was published in 1974 and was based on a motorcycle trip Pirsig took in the late 1960s with his son, Chris, from Minneapolis. Minnesota to San Francisco.
It went on to sell more than 5 million copies worldwide and was praised as a unique and masterful blend of narrative and philosophy. It was compared by a New Yorker critic to ‘Moby Dick.
It took Robert Pirsig 4 years to write it. Before it became a million-selling classic book, it was rejected by more than 100 publishers. (
photo 1974 courtesy Pirsig’s Publishing)
