Libraries, musicologists, and Deadheads alike will want a copy of this comprehensive annotated bibliography that contains most of what has been written over the past 30 years about this legendary American musical institution and its fans, the Deadheads. The approximately 4,000 annotations serve as a chronolgical history, an aid to researchers, and a guide for fans and collectors. The Grateful Dead appeared on the San Francisco music scene in 1965, and over the course of their career inspired a wide array of writing. This work includes the entire spectrum.

The work includes every book published about the band, every article that appeared in a major magazine or journal, chapters and entries in books, and articles from The San Francisco Chronicle and The San Francisco Examiner newspapers. Several magazines in their entirety were devoted (and remain devoted) to following the band, and this bibliography chronicles the material that appeared in those fan magazines. In addition to author, subject, and title indexes, an index to artists and photographers is included, since the Grateful Dead inspired a large body of artistic and photographic work.