Born in Newark, New Jersey on 26 March 1941,[REF] Edell's father was a vitamin manufacturer in the 1940s and 50s.
He spent the next several years experimenting with lifestyles that included buying and selling antiques, acting as a silversmith and goldsmith,[REF] organic farming, painting, living in a 1950s-vintage bus and engaging in a self-described hand-to-mouth existence that included scavenging for food thrown out by grocery stores.