Whose book "Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me" was hyped as a cult classic novel of the 1960s?

Richard George Fariña (March 8, 1937 – April 30, 1966) was an American folksinger, songwriter, poet and novelist.

Fariña is known for his novel "Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me", originally published by Random House in 1966. The title comes from the Furry Lewis song "I Will Turn Your Money Green" ("I been down so long/It seem like up to me").

The novel, based largely on his college experiences and travels, is a picaresque novel, set in 1958 in the American West, in Cuba during the Cuban Revolution, and mostly at Cornell University (called Mentor University in the novel).

The protagonist is Gnossos Pappadopoulis, who enjoys dope, feta cheese, Red Cap ale and retsina; attacks authority figures with anarchic glee; and lusts after the girl in the green knee-socks while searching for the right karma. The book has become a cult classic among fans of the 1960s and counterculture literature.