Did I ever tell you, in one of these comments what my love of your books did for me?
I was very young, way too young actually, and about to be married. I was eighteen and at a pre-wedding party for my wedding weekend. I met my soon to be husband’s stepbrother. He was older than me, very gruff and very intimidating. I was trying to talk to him, I was actually scared of him.
Over the next few years, we would meet at family events and one time we discovered we both really enjoyed a certain writer’s books. We were so different and were both surprised we had this writer in common. After that it was a lot easier to talk to him. The writer of course, was you. So thank you!
Tough guy writer, with long hair. Creating distance between author and the crewcut West Pointers. I don’t think you look angry. It was the expression of New York cool, as if anyone would have missed that😎
They wouldn't let me write it, even before Gore signed on. His father was the WP football coach, by the way, and he was born in the WP hospital in the bed next to the one my grandmother gave birth to my mother on the same day. My maternal grandfather was professor of mathematics at that time. Small world, eh? You should have seen Gore's face when I told him of our shared history.
i still have my signed copy from 1977. i bought it because i recognized your family name. i was impressed. it is not only a good first novel. it is a good novel.
The characters alone would be enough to make it an excellent novel, and as someone just noted above, Dress Gray is not just a good FIRST novel, but a good novel period full stop.
Prepare for a rollicking ride with hilarity balanced by a panoply of counter-balancing emotions and some profound truths about many things. Any writer would be proud of it.
There's far more than just the memorable characters and emotional depth, too, and I am finally at the point here in October 2023 where my months long struggle (extending back to May, marked with crucial life events, incredibly unhealthy air alerts affecting my health and including my vision, i.e. "one damn thing after another" popping up, and TWO "miscorrected vision prescriptions" - apparently the only real course for me is cataract surgery more or less in the next few months - but still, finally, leaving me able to definitively block out the time and rely on a "more or less corrected vision solution as is," to finish the first novel and head full speed ahead damn the torpedoes into the next, it's a great feeling, let me tell ya!
Thanks Cristina! I'm obviously still motivated by reading and thinking in general - so much so that this, and the next newsletter discussion on Hamas and Israel, managed to completely distract me for about 45 minutes from a Monday Night Football game across the river, where the huge underdog Minnesota Vikings are beating the 5-1 favorite visitors (I saw SF fans all over downtown earlier walking around) San Francisco 49ers, and that's a good thing!
Thanks Elizabeth - I meant to ask you, I was at Macalester:
FT classes from September 1970, including on campus Interims (except for January '72 when the Drama Choros was in England January 1 - 12 for the National Student Drama Festival of the British Isles, then later a week or so in Kentucky and Tennessee for concerts at some small schools, and January 1973 Interim term in the Drama Choros, concerts within Minnesota)
(actually late August 1970 for freshman orientation) through Spring 1974, excepting Fall Semester 1973; lived in Turck Hall first two years 70-71, 71-72,, then off campus awhile, then in Dupre Hall, finally Interim & Spring Semester 1974 3rd Floor Dayton Hall, does any of that overlap with your time there?
In any case there must be literally several THOUSAND! fellow students in those
3 1/2 years I hardly saw or knew at all, one example being a mayor of Minneapolis some years ago, Sharon Sayles-Belton, she was there same time I was, don't remember ever seeing her then, so it's just out of curiosity in that sense.
Weren't we all Lucian, what a surprise it has been. We would have been friends back in the day if we had gotten to know each other, of that I have no doubt.
If you are happy where you are, having no idea what you were doing when you were young is likely the best case scenario for not getting in your own way.
Bureaucracies in general seem prone to degenerate into godawful "office politics" of the worst kind, the larger the worse the feuds get, the more powerful and important the more consequential the squabbling, and when there's a murder involved, look out! Plus the background of the seemingly endless carnage in Vietnam, the "bright shining lies," Senator J. William Fulbright's diagnosis of "the arrogance of power," unavoidable human fallibility and some over-the-top careerism, generational unrest of the late 1960s, and more - all in Dress Gray.
Did I ever tell you, in one of these comments what my love of your books did for me?
I was very young, way too young actually, and about to be married. I was eighteen and at a pre-wedding party for my wedding weekend. I met my soon to be husband’s stepbrother. He was older than me, very gruff and very intimidating. I was trying to talk to him, I was actually scared of him.
Over the next few years, we would meet at family events and one time we discovered we both really enjoyed a certain writer’s books. We were so different and were both surprised we had this writer in common. After that it was a lot easier to talk to him. The writer of course, was you. So thank you!
We’re still married. 49 years next month! Must be the books😁
Nice! Hey, this is the same hardback edition I own!
He's probably angry because he got a sudden time-flash from the world of 2023.
No, it's for 2016 in who won the Presidency and we must Vote Blue in 2024 to avoid a deja vu!
Tough guy writer, with long hair. Creating distance between author and the crewcut West Pointers. I don’t think you look angry. It was the expression of New York cool, as if anyone would have missed that😎
I begged to write the screenplay. They hired Gore Vidal. Well, they got what they paid for.
They wouldn't let me write it, even before Gore signed on. His father was the WP football coach, by the way, and he was born in the WP hospital in the bed next to the one my grandmother gave birth to my mother on the same day. My maternal grandfather was professor of mathematics at that time. Small world, eh? You should have seen Gore's face when I told him of our shared history.
Smolder, smolder...
If I didn’t have it already I’d buy it. I definitely recommend it.
I’d have used that picture for the next 40 years.
It's a cool photo, you can't fake that glowering rebellious attitude, either - and "we had reasons" for some righteous alienation, too!
Oh hell yes!
i still have my signed copy from 1977. i bought it because i recognized your family name. i was impressed. it is not only a good first novel. it is a good novel.
We have this hardback copy with your hard ass photo! May anger drain away from us all!
We do too! Such a good book.
I will have to order it. I'm sure it's a great read. And OMG, what a wildly handsome image of you at 31 :-)
The characters alone would be enough to make it an excellent novel, and as someone just noted above, Dress Gray is not just a good FIRST novel, but a good novel period full stop.
Prepare for a rollicking ride with hilarity balanced by a panoply of counter-balancing emotions and some profound truths about many things. Any writer would be proud of it.
There's far more than just the memorable characters and emotional depth, too, and I am finally at the point here in October 2023 where my months long struggle (extending back to May, marked with crucial life events, incredibly unhealthy air alerts affecting my health and including my vision, i.e. "one damn thing after another" popping up, and TWO "miscorrected vision prescriptions" - apparently the only real course for me is cataract surgery more or less in the next few months - but still, finally, leaving me able to definitively block out the time and rely on a "more or less corrected vision solution as is," to finish the first novel and head full speed ahead damn the torpedoes into the next, it's a great feeling, let me tell ya!
Hoping for positive results for you.
Thanks Cristina! I'm obviously still motivated by reading and thinking in general - so much so that this, and the next newsletter discussion on Hamas and Israel, managed to completely distract me for about 45 minutes from a Monday Night Football game across the river, where the huge underdog Minnesota Vikings are beating the 5-1 favorite visitors (I saw SF fans all over downtown earlier walking around) San Francisco 49ers, and that's a good thing!
And...those plucky Vikings won! Hooray for your home team!
Hooray, Richard, and I wish you full health and excellent vision!
Thanks Elizabeth - I meant to ask you, I was at Macalester:
FT classes from September 1970, including on campus Interims (except for January '72 when the Drama Choros was in England January 1 - 12 for the National Student Drama Festival of the British Isles, then later a week or so in Kentucky and Tennessee for concerts at some small schools, and January 1973 Interim term in the Drama Choros, concerts within Minnesota)
(actually late August 1970 for freshman orientation) through Spring 1974, excepting Fall Semester 1973; lived in Turck Hall first two years 70-71, 71-72,, then off campus awhile, then in Dupre Hall, finally Interim & Spring Semester 1974 3rd Floor Dayton Hall, does any of that overlap with your time there?
In any case there must be literally several THOUSAND! fellow students in those
3 1/2 years I hardly saw or knew at all, one example being a mayor of Minneapolis some years ago, Sharon Sayles-Belton, she was there same time I was, don't remember ever seeing her then, so it's just out of curiosity in that sense.
I have read them all!
Semper Fi
Weren't we all Lucian, what a surprise it has been. We would have been friends back in the day if we had gotten to know each other, of that I have no doubt.
I read it years ago. Loved it then. So why not have it in my Kindle. Purchasing it right now. Perhaps I’ll reread it. Thanks for the reminder.
Been with you since your first book - which was an education for us non-military types.
If you are happy where you are, having no idea what you were doing when you were young is likely the best case scenario for not getting in your own way.
What did your dad think of your "expose" of your family alma mater?
Loved it. He was no fan of WP.
Bureaucracies in general seem prone to degenerate into godawful "office politics" of the worst kind, the larger the worse the feuds get, the more powerful and important the more consequential the squabbling, and when there's a murder involved, look out! Plus the background of the seemingly endless carnage in Vietnam, the "bright shining lies," Senator J. William Fulbright's diagnosis of "the arrogance of power," unavoidable human fallibility and some over-the-top careerism, generational unrest of the late 1960s, and more - all in Dress Gray.
I'm looking forward to reading it.