Peter G. Stafford was born in Oakland, California, the son of a Nevada cattle rancher father and Russian immigrant mother. He attended Reed College and was known for his work in mathematics, most notably the Stafford’s Theorem in Algorithms. In 1961, while he was at Reed College, he experimented with the Native American sacred cactus Peyote. In 1964 he moved to the East Village in New York City, where he became involved in the War Resister’s League. His first book, L.S.D. in Action, co-written with Bonnie Golightly, was published in 1967. He was the editor of Crawdaddy!, America's first magazine of rock and roll music criticism, from 1969-1970. In 1974, he moved to Santa Cruz, California and worked as a typesetter for the Good Times and other alternative newspapers.