"Rochdale College" is a partially completed book about the controversial neo-hippie subculture in Rochdale College located in Toronto. It was the last bastion of the 1960's hippie movement which died in 1970, although Rochdale continued on until 1975. The entries here are left-overs from the research of two of my other books, and they must be rewritten as chapters. Currently they are written as internet entries, sometimes deliberately meant to shock, outrage and amuse. There is some profanity occasionally, and this will be dealt with during the rewrite. That does not necessarily mean there will be less shocking content and profanity, but it will be much more effective. No attempt will be made to make the book conventional, bourgeois and polite, because Rochdale College was not. I'm working on another book before this one, so the book will not be published until the end of 2012.
THERE WILL BE NO MORE ADDITIONS TO THIS WEBSITE. It's too late now, but I never should have created this website meant for educational purposes as well as to promote my book. I did not know that Stuart Henderson, an academic who was born years after Rochdale closed, is writing a book on Rochdale College funded by a Canadian government grant. Although he never lived there, Henderson's premise is Rochdale was "hip separatism". Since Henderson is writing about a time before he was born, he must rely on other people's writings for ideas. His "hip separatism" was stolen from paragraph 9 of my "An Idiot's Guide to the History of Rochdale College". The stealing of ideas is copyright infringement, a felony.
The fundamental rule is to write what you know, but Henderson knows nothing. There is virtually no Rochdalian he can contact to effectively verify his idiocy so he must research. He will search through my documents and writings on this website for evidence to support his "hip separatism" premise. I contacted him and told him he was an ignorant "idiot", his basic premise is "foolish bullshit", and not to steal my research. Academics cannot write properly. After all the school shit they endure, their writing is stilted, pretentious and unreadable for most people.
I am nauseated because a motherfucking academic suck with a sucky government grant is going to use my research to write a defamatory bullshit book about Rochdale. Hopefully Stuart Henderson will drop dead soon and I can celebrate.
The other obstacle is the small cyber cult of former Rochdalians on the internet. None of them live in Toronto and most are Americans living thousands of miles away from Toronto. They are elderly senile phonies living in the past who reminisce about all the fun they had destroying Rochdale before returning to the motherfucking USA. Their memories are shot, they are useless to me for research, and they actively interfere with my work on this Rochdale book. These "ugly American" tourists are an obstacle for me. Get the fuck out of my way! Drop dead if necessary, but fuck off because Rochdale closed 40 years ago and you are back in Amerika.
It's no secret that I hate the sleazy obnoxious phonies called Rochdalians. They have not helped me research my book. When I wrote "Great Vegetarians", dozens of vegetarians around the world, including the Dalai Lama, helped me. Collaborating with Kamill Apt on "The Life and Art of Edward Apt" was a joy, and many of Ed's friends helped us. But Rochdalians have interfered with my work and insulted me profusely on the internet. This book is not for Rochdalians and I don't want them to read it. I want them to fuck off and drop dead. They have pushed me so far over the edge that I can never write a positive book about shitty Rochdale College. If they fuck with this wolf any more, they are in for a very big suprise! I have already "outed" Don Holyoak and Reg Hartt as closet gays. That's just a little warning of what I can do, so don't fuck with me.
For the time being I will be working on the chapter "Yorkville Village". It will be available on this website because Stewart Henderson wrote his first bullshit book about Yorkville, so it's too late for him to steal my work. I am fully capable of writing a complete book on Yorkville Village, but it doesn't interest me because I have a chapter about it here, plus it figures prominently in my non fiction historical novel "A Wolf Among Sheep" which will be published before this book.
For my "Rochdale College" book I can tell you:
1) My goal is to write the definitive book on the subject
2) Some of the residents in Rochdale were bad people
3) Some of the residents in Rochdale did not belong there
4) I will shit on the bourgeois Rochdale elite
5) The book is for posterity, not for Rochdalians
6) I always write the truth
7) My name is Wolf, not Pollyanna
It is impossible to post any more Rochdale College information here, but I will make it available for sale in book form at the end of 2012. The completed book will have much more content than this free internet version. For example, it will include the complete coronation speech of King James I of Rochdale and several photos of the cast of the "Unknown Student" sculpture.
If you lived in Rochdale and want your quote about the place in this book, just email me your name and quote to lonewolfsullivan@yahoo.com You can also send me any information, newsletters and documents if you wish.
Four people I would like to contact for names I cannot remember are:
Candy Gillespie and Donna Gillespie from Yorkville Village
Peter Young from Rochdale College
Doug Hutchings from Rochdale College
A former member of a Rochdale commune was concerned about "privacy" and wrote to me that "I can't or won't tell you much about the goings on behind the doors of the Ashram...overall, it's generally a respect for the 'family' we were." No. The commune in question was extremely invasive of the privacy of others in Rochdale, including me. They deserve to be exposed, not given privacy, and I know all about their sex lives "behind the doors of the Ashram". I will not write a sanitized Disney version of anything. For this book I sometimes feel like a Judge at the Gates to Heaven and Hell. It's not a job I enjoy or want, but it's a necessary part of writing this book.
My intent is to present an accurate account of Rochdale College. It was a great mistake for me to ever get involved with that Americanized pathological anachronism, but I can write a better book than anyone else because I grew up in the Rochdale neighbourhood and lived in Rochdale. Furthermore, I was the last editor of the Rochdale College newsletter, and I probably own the largest collection of Rochdale documents. Some are one of a kind, the only ones in existence.
© 2012 Wolf Sullivan
Rochdale College location (345 Bloor St. W) in 1909. The house was owned by Dr. A. R. Gordon and the architect was F. S. Baker. Eventually this building was replaced by a pharmacy, and a photo of it is in the book version of "Rochdale College".