When I was a boy, my dad waved his hand across his tall book case & said, Son, any book of mine feel free to read. In the Army Now was easy to see on a middle shelf, one he’d written. Also on the shelf were the Harvard Classics & haiku, transcripts of talks of Krishnamurti at Ojai, donated by his brother Joe, a mystery written by a friend of his, two Damon Runyon collections, a de luxe edition of Walt Whitman, and one of Arthur Waley’s translations of Chinese poetry. So a seed was planted, & I became a man of letters. Thank you, Dad.

My mom subscribed to The New Yorker. I liked reading J D Salinger’s stories about the Glass family, & also the little fillers, at the ends of articles, with quotes from items in the news, followed their wry, acerbic comments. That’s where I learned a certain sense of literary discernment. Thank you, Mom.

Over my ±70 years on this rock around the sun, books have played a key role in my life. I’ve designed & typeset books for authors, was literary agent for another, & sold foreign rights to a brand. I’ve bought & sold books at a 2nd-hand shop, reviewed books for magazines, & written & edited & translated a couple of my own.

I hope some of my books might give you a bit of as much pleasure & nourishment as they still do for me.