(taken from http://aplawrence.com/Basics/gpg.html, hosted on gist for safety)
Recently someone asked me for a GPG or PGP public key so that they could send some sensitive material to me by email. I understood what they meant, but inwardly I groaned because I've just never had any reason to use public key encryption, and had no idea how to create the key or decrypt what would be sent back to me. Looking at "man bgp" on my Linux box didn't make me feel any better, and a Google search for gpg docs didn't immediately turn up anything that wasn't techno gobbledy-dee-geek. Eventually (after I had figured out the basics by trial and error), I did find GNU Privacy Guard HandBook, which probably would have gotten me up to speed a little faster, but which still was more than I needed to know at the moment. This, therefore, is a quick introduction so that you don't have to get a headache from the man page as I did. After learning what is presented here, you can visit the GNU page for more in depth coverage. Public key,