The book has become something of a cult classic among those who study 1960s or counterculture literature, and has been cited as a source of inspiration for many artists ranging from Hunter S. Thompson to Earl Sweatshirt to the Doors' album L.A.

Gnossos is a gleeful anarchist, heaving creche statuary off a bridge into one of Ithaca's famed gorges, smoking dope at fraternity parties, poking fun at the pompous, self-righteous and well-to-do, swilling Red Cap ale, retsina and martinis, while pursuing the coed in the green knee-socks and seeking karma.

After a detour to Cuba during the anti-Batista revolt, Gnossos returns to "Athene" to become the inadvertent leader of the student rebellion against a university edict that would have banned women from men's apartments.

The title appears to come from a line in the 1928 blues song "I Will Turn Your Money Green", by Furry Lewis,[4] which was included on records issued in 1953, 1959 and 1961.

[7] The film was directed by Jeffrey Young and featured Barry Primus (as Gnossos), Linda De Coff and David Downing.