Possum and Brer Rabbit, Part 3

IV. During World War I and the period immediately following it, Ezra Pound was contributing regularly to three literary journals, wrote music essays…


Possum and Brer Rabbit, Part 2

III. At about the time that T.S. Eliot appeared on the scene, Pound was beginning to show a wholly unexpected side of his character. This was most…


Possum and Brer Rabbit, Part 1

I. T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound introduced Modernism into verse and in the process became two of the most consequential poets of the twentieth century.…


Newspapers and Me on a Personal Trip Through Time

JAPS BOMB PEARL HARBOR…December 7, 1941. That was the headline splashed across the front page of the Fresno Bee lying on the floor nearby. I was…


A Eulogy for Gil

The Would-Be Boys of Summer It started in 1939 at Route1, Box 223, on rural Zediker Avenue outside of Parlier in the middle of California’s San…


Anaïs Nin Returns? Part 2

Return to New York War broke out in Europe in 1939, but one would hardly know that from reading Anaïs’ diary. In fact, it were as though the wars and…


Anaïs Nin Returns? Part 1

When I was a student at University of California, Berkeley in the early 1950’s, my circle of friends included several graduate students in the music…


Mr. Cagney, Himself

For many years now, I’ve lived atop a hillside with views of a chaparral-covered canyon and the ocean in the distance. I’ve treasured the serenity of…


Heist!

“Hey, Dean, are you ready to go?” “Yeah, Ed, I guess so.” Damn…is Dean chickening out? We’ve talked about this for weeks and he seemed all set over…


The Undergraduate and Professor Kerman

1951 Here he comes. This teacher looks like a real clown. Get a load of the haircut on that guy. I’ll bet his wife puts a bowl on his head and cuts…