If you hold any regard for Marin in your soul, then you owe it to yourself to dive into David Perlis’s new book, “Morning in Marin: Zen, Drugs, and Ewoks on the California Coast.”

For many of us, the 1960s were gone before we discovered Marin. But there is still an undeniable vibe, one that comes partly from the intense natural beauty and partly from the cultural hub that Marin is today—an echo of what was here some 40 years ago.

Perlis sensed this uniqueness while growing up in Marin, and it led to a remarkable book. An expert storyteller, he reels in the reader with history, toponymy (many addresses where history was made are included), and factoids. Where was the music recorded? What amazing denizens sprang up in this time? And just when did houseboat rules forever change Waldo Point?

The book is organized by topic rather than chronology, drawing us into a more experiential sense of the details, which, at times, are considerable. One way to characterize his approach is to see the chapters as movements, trends, and communities all knitted together.

Marin has many exceptional places where a person might sit and wonder what happened there before, and Perlis answers many of those questions. This book provides an overview of a number of cultural movements that began or were at least carried to the next level here.

From the poetry of the Beats to the music of the Grateful Dead, from the outer reaches of West Marin to the Rainbow Tunnel, Perlis has found the tales to tell. Nowhere is this truer than in Olema and its environs, where Peter Coyote and the Diggers put down roots, and where a mother and her daughters who went on to become known as the Judds—Naomi, Wynonna, and Ashley—once lived. Janis Joplin spent a summer not far away. 

And how about that writer Philip K. Dick, the one who liked to stay holed up at home in Point Reyes Station, writing science fiction classics like “The Man in the High Castle” (1962) and, later, “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”(1968), the basis for “Blade Runner”? Another character, Frank Herbert, came around from Potrero Hill, where he wrote “Dune” in the early ’60s. He moved to Marin after it was published in 1965.

Picture this, too: Van Morrison’s parents, newly arrived from Ireland, selling records at his record shop in Fairfax during the ’70s. The sheer number of creative works that came from and through Marin is itself a worthy study. One might wonder whether the saying is true: As goes Marin, so goes California; as goes California, so goes the country. 

Whether you are looking to learn more about a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, an Academy Award-winning director or writer, a bestselling novelist, or one of many Grammy-winning artists, they are all here, passing through this adventurous, definitely bohemian, and possibly elite outpost a stone’s throw from San Francisco.

It would be remiss not to mention the powerful influence of Buddhism and exploratory, contemplative religious thought, with Alan Watts, Gary Snyder, Green Gulch, and more. For that matter, there’s Elsa Gidlow, the first woman in North America to publish a book of openly lesbian love poetry under her own name. She found Marin, then Mount Tam, and she co-created Druid Heights, the whimsical, permaculture-style retreat where Watts later lived. Its remnants now lie within Muir Woods National Monument.

Perlis coined the term “Marinaissance” to describe the cultural creativity that found a home here, before the crush of rising costs and the loss, or at least diminishment, of affordable lifestyles. Such a time is worth remembering, and it certainly makes a great read.

Still, one wonders: What about all the magical characters, artists, writers, and wanderers Perlis didn’t mention? Perhaps he will consider another book devoted to West Marin, a magnet for discoverers and for those less bound by the rigors of social expectation.

Perlis will speak with host Chris Jennings, another writer who has made a home in West Marin, from 4 to 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 21, at the Fairfax Pavilion. The event is hosted by Point Reyes Books; learn more at ptreyesbooks.com.

Pamela Biery is a communication professional and freelance writer who divides her time between the Sierra foothills and West Marin.