Wisdom's Maw

"I am thinking about those who think the mid-fifties to mid-sixties were such glorious days--'when things were happening, man.' I can see this being a cult book for such a crowd.

I was at Stanford in the late fifties, visited Perry Lane quite a few times, knew some of the people there, but still I was not part of that crowd. I was a complete outsider. I stood back and watched. And I got the hell out when I thought things were getting a little rough. Many of the people you mention in your book I saw from a distance. Some I met, got to know pretty well, but formed no close alliance. I was cut of a different cloth. Still am. I have been around a lot of drugs, but never once a user. I never had to inhale, because I never put the damned thing in my mouth, my nostrils, or my veins. I am sixty today, and still kicking. Many of those in your novel died much younger--or their talent most definitely did. I was aware of that effect on the body when I was at Stanford at age twenty-five. I knew I wanted to be around awhile, and by joining those crazies there was a good chance I would not be. There were others in Wally's [Stegner] class who felt the same way I did. To watch the show, then go home and work.

I don't know what to say about the CIA's involvement with all this drug stuff and with the killing of a president. This is all too much for me to comprehend. You have written a very controversial book here, and if it is published and read, you may have to answer some questions to some pretty big boys. I hope you have the backbone for it."

Letter to Todd Brendan Fahey from Ernest J. Gaines, 12/10/93