Stephen Tudor, taught me to sail and write poetry, lost on Lake Huron in 1994, I dedicated Of Song and Water to Steve
Steve Tudor, heading out on the Great Lakes
Steve Tudor, hanging out with Shelley and Keats
In dry-dock, with Steve Tudor and Mike Tudor (left)
Richard came to Buffalo and patiently read some of my earliest poems
6. Allen Ginsberg & Robert Creeley, two legends comparing notes
7. Bob Creeley at Naropa in 1984, photo by Ginsberg
Bob Creeley, as I remember him in Buffalo days
John Logan, his masterful elegy, “Poem, Slow to Come, on the Death of Cummings,” changed me
John Logan, maker of word music, creator of beauty
Mac Hammond, grand professor and poet, “Atlantis III” (Mac’s Valentine) is a brilliant gem
With Al Young, California Poet Laureate and bluesman, in Literary Festival days
Book Stuff
The cover of The Vanishing Moon in hardback features Gustav Klimt’s “Birch Forest” (1903)
Sabine Wespieser’s signature elegance…
3. The Vanishing Moon in paperback, published by Harcourt/Harvest, features a hand-tinted image by Horace Bristol, the photographer who traveled with John Steinbeck to chronicle the Dust Bowl for Life Magazine.
4. An appearance at Book Passage near the Golden Gate…
With Johanna…
The America Festival in Paris, incredible gig, thanks to Sabine Wespieser, my French publisher (Click to open)
Incredible gig in a time far away…
When poetry readings were major productions…
9. Edward Hopper’s haunting “Rooms by the Sea” (1951), the cover for Of Song and Water
With Jill Schoolman, the genius behind Archipelago Books, at the Brooklyn Book Festival
With Eric Banks at McNally Jackson Bookstore, New York City
As close as I’ll ever get to John Kerry…
The handiwork of David Bullen, book designer extraordinaire… (click to see full size)
Humbug Marina exists, in Gibraltar, Michigan
With Sean Forester, artist and scholar, at Great Books Chicago
A Saloon at the Edge of the World
Gigi Guizado as Carmen Sternwood and James Patrick Kennedy playing Humphrey Bogart as “Philip Marlowe”
(From right) Michael Ray Wisely as William Faulkner, Gigi Guizado as Carmen Sternwood, Fred Barson as Raymond Chandler, and James Patrick Kennedy playing Bogart as “Philip Marlowe”
Fred Barson as Raymond Chandler & Gigi Guizado as Carmen Sternwood
Cast & Crew
After-performance Q&A, with co-author William Relling Jr. (second from right)
Leigh Brackett with Howard Hawks
LEIGH BRACKETT ON HER ‘COLLABORATION’ WITH WILLIAM FAULKNER ON THE BIG SLEEP:
I went to the studio the first day absolutely appalled. I had been writing pulp stories for about three years, and here is William Faulkner, who was one of the great literary lights of the day, and how am I going to work with him? What have I got to offer, as it were? This was quickly resolved, because when I walked into the office, Faulkner came out of his office with the book The Big Sleep and he put it down and said: “I have worked out what we’re going to do. We will do alternate sections. I will do these chapters and you will do those chapters.” And that was the way it was done. He went back into his office and I didn’t see him again, so the collaboration was quite simple. I never saw what he did and he never saw what I did. We just turned our stuff in to Hawks.
I think everybody got very confused. It’s a confusing book if you sit down and tear it apart. When you read it from page to page, it moves so beautifully that you don’t care, but if you start tearing it apart to see what makes it tick, it comes unglued. Owen Taylor, I believe, was the name of the chauffeur. I was down on the set one day and Bogart came up and said, “Who killed Owen Taylor?” I said, “I don’t know.” We got hold of Faulkner and he said he didn’t know, so they sent a wire to Chandler. He sent another wire back and said: “I don’t know.” In the book it is never explained who killed Owen Taylor, so there we were.
Raymond Chandler
William Faulkner
William Relling Jr.
Bill Relling, my co-author on two plays, short fiction, and other unfinished business, died on January 22, 2004. We worked together on and off for 19 years. His infinite imagination astounded me. He was a dear friend, a man of absolute passions.
William Relling Jr. (left), with William F. Nolan and Peter Straub at the World Fantasy Convention
Wedding gig: (from left) me, Phil (my brother), Greg Smith, and William Relling Jr.
Bill’s masterful short fiction
Bill’s detective, Jack Donne
Bill’s point, June 12, 2005
Old Days
Philip Coulson, my father, after his B-17 missions in WWII. It’s his shadow in most corners of The Vanishing Moon.
Before Of Song and Water, always the first-mate, rarely the captain…
Profile of a high-school teacher, reading student essays…
