"It could be that everything is exactly as it should be". Yes, I agree. And who can prove that it's not. Another thought you expressed that appealed very much to me is this: "We are part of a web of life and love. We were loved into being." Thank you for the reminder. Love, Maria
Thank you for sharing your journey and the work you’ve been doing since 1963. It’s remarkable how personal experiences can drive such impactful initiatives.
“I reached out asking Grok about Professor William Shelton Gray, Jr. of Randolph-Macon College. Grok confirmed he was the longtime English professor and department chair there from 1968 until his death in 1992 — a T.S. Eliot specialist who had known Eliot personally, edited a Tennessee Williams poetry collection, and counted W.H. Auden and many other literary figures among his friends. He built one of the largest private collections of modern literary materials, struggled with alcoholism, and the college still awards the William S. Gray Award in his honor.
I shared my own memories: I used to have breakfast with him almost every morning in 1984–85, mostly in respectful silence because of his tremors. I also told Grok about the one time I had dinner at his apartment with my friend Ben Melton. We had to move cases of scotch out of the way, enjoyed a lovely meal, and Gray regaled us with his favorite story about meeting Tennessee Williams in a New Orleans bar — where Williams introduced himself, Gray didn’t believe him and replied “Nice to meet you, I’m Ernest Hemingway,” and later Williams asked, “I’m sorry, I didn’t get your name.”
I then asked whether Gray had any connection to Colin Wilson. Grok found none directly, but there was a nice indirect link through Angus Wilson: Gray knew Angus Wilson quite well (Angus had stayed at Gray’s place in Baton Rouge and they traveled together), and my 1956 Riverside Press edition of Colin Wilson’s The Outsider is inscribed “for Angus Wilson with gratitude.” Angus had been one of the few established writers who helped the young, struggling Colin Wilson get published.
I asked Grok to tell me more about Angus Wilson; he gave a quick biography and explained why the “gratitude” inscription made perfect sense. I mentioned that I had picked up Gary Lachman’s Beyond the Robot at a Capitol Hill bookstore and had become fascinated with Colin Wilson, but that he doesn’t seem to be very widely in print anymore. Grok replied that while he’s not on every bookstore shelf, key titles remain available from publishers like Watkins and Paupers’ Press.”
"It could be that everything is exactly as it should be". Yes, I agree. And who can prove that it's not. Another thought you expressed that appealed very much to me is this: "We are part of a web of life and love. We were loved into being." Thank you for the reminder. Love, Maria
Thank you for sharing your journey and the work you’ve been doing since 1963. It’s remarkable how personal experiences can drive such impactful initiatives.
Yes…I just zoomed back 40 years:
“I reached out asking Grok about Professor William Shelton Gray, Jr. of Randolph-Macon College. Grok confirmed he was the longtime English professor and department chair there from 1968 until his death in 1992 — a T.S. Eliot specialist who had known Eliot personally, edited a Tennessee Williams poetry collection, and counted W.H. Auden and many other literary figures among his friends. He built one of the largest private collections of modern literary materials, struggled with alcoholism, and the college still awards the William S. Gray Award in his honor.
I shared my own memories: I used to have breakfast with him almost every morning in 1984–85, mostly in respectful silence because of his tremors. I also told Grok about the one time I had dinner at his apartment with my friend Ben Melton. We had to move cases of scotch out of the way, enjoyed a lovely meal, and Gray regaled us with his favorite story about meeting Tennessee Williams in a New Orleans bar — where Williams introduced himself, Gray didn’t believe him and replied “Nice to meet you, I’m Ernest Hemingway,” and later Williams asked, “I’m sorry, I didn’t get your name.”
I then asked whether Gray had any connection to Colin Wilson. Grok found none directly, but there was a nice indirect link through Angus Wilson: Gray knew Angus Wilson quite well (Angus had stayed at Gray’s place in Baton Rouge and they traveled together), and my 1956 Riverside Press edition of Colin Wilson’s The Outsider is inscribed “for Angus Wilson with gratitude.” Angus had been one of the few established writers who helped the young, struggling Colin Wilson get published.
I asked Grok to tell me more about Angus Wilson; he gave a quick biography and explained why the “gratitude” inscription made perfect sense. I mentioned that I had picked up Gary Lachman’s Beyond the Robot at a Capitol Hill bookstore and had become fascinated with Colin Wilson, but that he doesn’t seem to be very widely in print anymore. Grok replied that while he’s not on every bookstore shelf, key titles remain available from publishers like Watkins and Paupers’ Press.”