Supporters of the late Minneapolis author Robert Pirsig will kick off a motorcycle ride from Minneapolis to San Francisco on Monday to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Pirsig’s best-selling book “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values.” Registration to join the ride has closed, but the public is invited to join a free kick-off event from 2 to 5 p.m.
Sunday at the Minnesota Zen Meditation Center in Minneapolis, where Pirsig was vice-president and served on the board of directors from 1973 to 1975. Sponsored by the nonprofit Robert Pirsig Association, it will feature speakers Mark Richardson, author of “Zen and Now: On the Trail of Robert Pirsig and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance,” and the association’s co-chair Ian Glendinning. Advance registration is available online at robertpirsig.
org . Pirsig, who graduated high school at 14, went on to study biochemistry at the University of Minnesota. He enlisted in the Army in 1946 and spent two years stationed in South Korea.
After he was discharged, he moved to Seattle before returning to the University of Minnesota, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in 1950. He went on to study philosophy at Banaras Hindu University in India and the Committee on the Analysis of Ideas and Study of Methods at the University of Chicago. In 1958, he earned a master’s degree in journalism and taught at Montana State University and the University of Illinois.
In 1968, Pirsig and his son Chris took a 17-d.