John Muir (1918–1977) was a structural engineer who worked for National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), who "dropped out," 1960s-style, to become a writer and long-haired car mechanic with a garage in Taos, New Mexico, specializing in maintenance and repair of Volkswagens.
[2] In 1969, Muir collaborated with the artist Peter Aschwanden to create the definitive manual for Volkswagen owners, titled How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive; A Manual of Step-By-Step Procedures for the Compleat Idiot.
Its wry subtitle was possibly inspired by the Compleat Angler (1653) by Izaak Walton, and certainly preceded (and perhaps inspired) the "for Dummies" books from IDG Publishing and the Complete Idiot's Guides from Dorling Kindersley.
The most recent edition, the 19th (2001), with updated material by Tosh Gregg and Aschwanden remains widely available.
Muir's second book, published in 1973, The Velvet Monkeywrench, was an ambitious attempt to, as Muir put it, "lay out this structure, the bones of a completely new establishment," a proposal that included detailed plans for the replacement of the United States of America with the Republic of North America.