THE REAL STORY ON 'TAKING WOODSTOCK'

L-R: Steve Porpora, Verde Press, Anthony Pomes, Square One, author ELLIOT TIBER, Square One publisher RUDY SHUR, unidentified guest, and, consultant DAVID SALIDOR.

A new book, TAKING WOODSTOCK (Square One Publishers), coming out in August will literally blow the lid off the Woodstock-generation with an in depth behind-the-scenes story of how author ELLIOT TIBER rescued the original Woodstock Festival cancellation. Elliot, who owned along with his parents an upstate New York motel, was working in Greenwich Village in the summer of 1969. He socialized with the likes of TRUMAN CAPOTE, TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, and photographer ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE, and yet somehow managed to keep his gay life a secret from his family and his community. Then on Friday, June 28, Elliot walked into the Stonewall Inn - and witnessed a riot that would galvanize the American gay movement and enable him to take stock of his own lifestyle. Then, on July 15, when Elliot learned that the Woodstock Concert promoters were unable to stage their proposed show in Wallkill -a town near the motel he ran- he offered them a new venue. Soon he was swept up in a vortex of social change that would change his life forever.TAKING WOODSTOCK is a vibrant and telling snapshot of America from not too long ago ... the story of a man who was living two separate and very different lives - one in the burgeoning gay movement in Manhattan, and one in a sleepy upstate town - until the Woodstock Concert altered forever his way of looking at the world and himself. Tiber exclusively appeared at this past weekend's BEA Book Expo in Manhattan.