pathetic self-destruction in minuterndetail, which gradually becomes sornrevolting as to make reading arnpainful act.rnWell, maybe . .. and maybe not.rnI do think, though, that you would bernpleased by what Hart has accomplished.rnHe has interviewed large numbers ofrnpeople who knew you from childhood tornthe end. He has followed the intricaternpaper trails, pursued every conceivablernlead. The biggest problem facing himrnwas that you almost never told the factualrntruth about anything. Hart had to sweeprnaside an enormous amount of misinformationrnand disinformation, mostly plantedrnby you. Like a veritable minefield. Allrnwriters create, to a greater or lesser extreme,rna dream autobiography, based onrnexaggeration, deepest wishes, or pure fantasy.rnIt comes with the age and the territory,rnJim, this great American con gamernof inventing or reinventing ourselves. Afterrnreading Hart’s biograph}’, I have to sa’rnthat nobody in the literary world couldrnever match you in this liar’s craft. Yournunderstood this from your brief (andrnincompetent) days in the advertisingrnbusiness, how easy it is for image to overwhelmrnand replace realib,-. How imagemakersrn(poets in the art world, media inrn”real life”) are the high and low priests ofrnthis secular religion. You turned yourrnlife, as Hart proves, into a good, if highlyrnimprobable story. The jock stuff, therncombat stories, the hunting with bow andrnblowgun, the guitar playing, all of itrnproves to be either outright fabrication orrnat least radically different from what ‘ournclaimed. And nobody cared. You wererninter’iewed innumerable times and eachrntime with a different story. It would haverntaken 15 minutes, a phone call or hvo, torncheck. No literary journalist did so. Nobodyrncared. It was a good story. Morernfun than most. Even Hart may havernbeen reluctant to present the mundanernfacts lest he, and the reader, lose sight ofrnthe poetr)’. But in all this, poetry as wellrnas factual accounting. Hart has done arnfine job and a daring one.rnDaring? In order to set the recordrnstraight and to balance against diis his obviousrnadmiration for your poetr}’, he hadrnto write a long and detailed story, forrnwhich he will probably be faulted byrnmany reviewers. His problem was notrnunlike that of Joseph Blotner and his initialrnbiography of William Faulkner. Hernhad to start from scratch and establish allrnthe facts. He has done so. Hart is accurate,rnjudicious, and thorough. Later versionsrnof your life (and the’ will comernalong soon enough) will have to dependrnon this one. The great curses of biograph}’rnin our age—psychobabble and judgmentalismrn— are amazingly absent. Disillusionedrnor not. Hart is fair, and hisrngood judgment is not clouded. He maintainsrna clear, unobtrusive, and appropriaternshlc; and he has managed sonre significantrncriticism, skillfully dealing withrn}’our work in its complex relationshiprnwith both your fictive and factual lives.rnHe writes well about the jDoetr}’, especiallyrnthe often ignored, intensely difficult,rnself-indulgent later poems. He followsrnthe conception and gestation of the novels,rnwhich vou thought about and toedrnwith most of your adult life. He placesrnvour literar’ criticism firmly in the contextrnof the times. And, most surprising tornme, he is able to sav some interestingrnthings about the coffee-table books ournmade mone}’ on during the last }ears ofrn}’our life. He treats them serious!}’ andrndemonstrates the validih’ of the propositionrnthat everything by a major writer,rnlarge or small, slight or deadlv serious, finalh”rnmatters.rnAre there any flaws? Of course. Therernare tales I heard (and told) differentlv.rnThere are things I v’ould interpret differentlv.rnAnd there are minor quibbles. Forrninstance, I wish Hart, who is jusd}’ interestedrnin sales and money, had distinguishedrnbetween hardcover and paperbackrnsales or had related your advancesrnand earnings to those of your peers. Yournmade a good deal of money, Jim, but notrnas much as some other writers I know.rnYou blew most of it awav. We could userna more comprehensive examination ofrnyour finances.rnA final test. Even though I knew }’ournpretty well for a while, I learned a lotrnabout vou that I didn’t know then or later.rnSome things genuinely surprised me.rnSome things have given me a lot to thinkrnabout. On the whole, Jim, m’ guess isrnthat }’ou would be pleased with a job wellrndone and with the prospect that, in partrnbecause of this, ‘ou and }’our work will bernthe subjects of serious iirterest this }earrnand, likely, for many years to come.rnBest wishes from the first davs of thernnew millennium.rnSincerelv,rnGernNorthern Voice BookstorernWe have hundreds ofrn”politically incorrect” books on:rnPoliticsrnImmigrationrnNWOrnConspiracyrnPrivacyrnFreedomrnSelf-DefensernAlternative SciencernTry us, you’ll like us. Send $2 for price list to:rnNorthern Voice, P.O. Box 281, Wildwood, PArn15091.rn26/CHRONICLESrnrnrn