Category Archives: Mental Health
Interviewing Van Gogh
I step to the side of his gravestone, enlivened by ivy and red flowers, and say, “Vincent, may I please speak to you a moment?” “You may not,” says Theo, the man in the adjacent plot. “And why not?” “My brother’s tired of more than a century of adulation and wealth he’ll never experience. And […]
Also posted in Painters, Paul Gauguin, Suicide, Vincent Van Gogh
King of Comedy
After the show at a New York comedy club, I order another orange juice, scan a few dozen tables in a room where the lights just came on, and notice two old men in the furthest corner. One’s about ninety and the other in his seventies. My eyes must be haywire. Is that really them? […]
Also posted in Comedians, Jerry Lewis, Kidnapping, Martin Scorsese, Movies, Robert De Niro, The King of Comedy
Garage Sale
This is going to be the greatest garage sale ever. I’ve advertised in the newspaper and posted pictures on social media and taped flyers throughout the neighborhood and told some neighbors and friends to come over this beautiful Saturday spring morning starting at seven. I open the garage door a half hour early and several […]
Also posted in Divorce, Furniture, Garage Sales, Housing, Jewelry, Jose Abeto Zaide, Marriage, Romance, Tales of Romance
Therapy – A Short Story about a Basketball Player
The basketball bounced long into Jimmy Barton’s strong hands, and he dribbled straight at the player who’d shot and was now backpedaling, and as he passed half-court Jimmy planted his right foot and drove left but instantly cross-dribbled, twisting the defender onto the floor, and glided in for a lay-up. Haggin, the center, ran up […]
Also posted in Basketball and Football, Depression, George Thomas Clark, The Bold Investor, Therapy
Hemingway v. Fitzgerald
As a young screenwriter who helped but a little on the script of a recent movie featuring Frederic March, I’m stunned the star invites me to his lavish Beverly Hills home to watch a screening of the documentary The Spanish Earth written and narrated by Ernest Hemingway, who Frederic says will be there along with […]
Also posted in Alcohol, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Frederic March, Movies, Spain, Writers
Heath Ledger to Tiger Woods
Dear Tiger, I’m not going to preach, from a faraway place, but I’m damn well going to tell you about prescription drug abuse. You may know I’ve been gone more than nine years now, and like you mixed drugs that taken together dramatically increase their effects and stop many young, strong hearts. Choose any statistics […]
Also posted in Drugs, Elvis Presley, Golf, Heath Ledger, Movies, Tiger Woods
Vivien Leigh in the Hotel
I work at a great Manhattan hotel whose name I better not mention. I’m just a bellhop but only twenty-two and know I’m going to have a great job someday. Today, I’m rolling a cart with the luggage of a special guest: she’s Vivien Leigh, Scarlett O’Hara in the flesh, and almost as beautiful now […]
Also posted in Laurence Olivier, Movies, Vivien Leigh
Marvin Gaye to his Father
Dear Father, Why do you beat me so? I’m your son and love listening to your inspired sermons and beautiful singing and know someday you’ll be more than a lay preacher. Most of all I enjoy being with you and hoping someday you’ll be proud of me. I know you will. You’ll hug me, and […]
Also posted in Berry Gordy, Cocaine, Detroit, Divorce, Los Angeles, Marvin Gaye, Motown, Murder, Music
Simone Biles Opens Up
In an open-hearted but devious effort we have employed the regular media, mind readers, the National Security Agency, pharmacologists, and other intrusive individuals and entities to engage Simone Biles and determine what she’s really thinking. That’s none of our business, you might say. And to that I respond: why, then, are you reading this? I’ll […]
Also posted in Anoxeria Nervosa, Gymnastics, Oprah Winfrey, Simone Biles
Van Gogh In the Road
On an exotic summer Sunday I step into the Santa Barbara Museum of Art and head not toward a vision but a sound. “It’s the light or, rather, the lack of light in The Outskirts of Paris that makes this dirt road and the man in it faceless and gray and in need of southern […]
Also posted in Painters, Paris, Poverty, Vincent Van Gogh
Van Gogh on the Verge
Handing over my ticket, I’m excited to enter the Van Gogh Museum for another emotional exhibition. I’ve been to many and read about all the others. On the Verge of Insanity is a great title. By that I mean it’s appropriate. Look at Self-Portrait with a Bandaged Ear and Pipe: Vincent looms under a heavy […]
Also posted in Painters, Suicide, Vincent Van Gogh
Objective, Atherton
Don’t misunderstand, I love the plains of Atherton but even more the hills where I can gaze over the Silicon Valley and dream I’ll someday be part of this. I know I’m not now. I live in a Section 8 studio in Modesto and can only drive to the Bay Area once a month for […]
Also posted in Atherton, Baseball, Bay Area, Computers, Football, Joe Montana, Larry Ellison, Poverty, Ty Cobb, Willie Mays
Slab Man
My husband left me last night not for another woman but because he just found out I loved his best friend but that shouldn’t have mattered much since that guy’d dumped me a couple of weeks earlier. I sure was feeling bad this afternoon and told my boss I had a fever and needed to […]
Also posted in Infidelity, Marriage, Painters, Sculptors, Stanford University
Deli Delight
I was hungry and the manager of the gallery showing wild faces said the deli across the street’s world famous go on over and get something. Okay I said and pressed the steel arrow to red-light busy Melrose Ave. and allow me to cross. Inside the deli large glass cases featured food I began studying […]
Also posted in Food, Hollywood, Lawyers, Los Angeles, Painters
Parking Lot Painter
No one buys my oil paintings on canvas. No one buys my acrylics. No one buys my watercolors. No one hires me to paint murals. They’re all fools. I have great work crying to be seen, and I prove it every weekend at street painting festivals all over. We don’t actually paint. We draw, usually […]
Also posted in Art, Domestic Violence, Painters
Eruption of Enrique Guzman
You consider that a national-prize painting, ten feet of completely black resin and charcoal offering no message or creativity. I don’t care we’re in the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City and some might say I’m jealous I didn’t win. Nonsense. It’s necessary to be outraged and impossible to tolerate such a mockery of […]
Also posted in Aguascalientes, Beatriz Zamora, Depression, Enrique Guzman, Mexico, Mexico City, Painters, Palacio de Bellas Artes, Suicide
Van Gogh v. Gauguin
This story is part of the collection “Paint it Blue”
Also posted in Art, Painters, Paul Gauguin, Suicide, Vincent Van Gogh
Lupe Velez v. Dolores del Rio
I’m a lover and hate people who say in Mexico City my mother rented my teenage body. That’s a lie. I was always a good singer and comedienne and first appeared in Hollywood films before turning twenty. I’ve loved many leading men and others and still do and for a few years adored Gary Cooper […]
Also posted in Boxing, Depression, Dolores del Rio, Gary Cooper, Johnny Weismuller, Lupe Velez, Movies, Orson Welles, Suicide
End of Suffering
Frankly, I don’t often feel well and really should say I never do. I don’t know what the problem is but try to feel better by smoking bath salts, not the stuff you use in the tub but a combination of chemicals that’re way stronger than amphetamines. This morning the bath salts hit me much […]
Also posted in Bakersfield, Drugs, Families, Murder
Flight of Insanity
During my recent trip to Spain film director Pedro Almodóvar calls and invites me to join him on a short flight from Madrid to Marbella. Since I’ve never flown first class or met movie celebrities, I accept, figuring I’ll learn much about filmmaking. What a horrific misconception. First, I can’t find Pedro, and the flight […]
Also posted in Homosexuals, Movies, Pedro Almodovar, Planes
Our Son
He’s good son until bipolar disorder attacks in high school and makes crazy, and Dad and I are relieved he marries bipolar woman and moves away so we rarely see. Years later he calls and says she divorced him, and I overrule Dad and say, we’ve got to make room. In few days he’s scarier […]
Slots
Sarah didn’t enjoy husband, family, or friends and had no interests save gambling and was happy to live near casino she rushed to three, four, five times weekly and pushed credit card into slots she played hours, stopping only to curse rigged system. She said this was best part of life so didn’t mind burning […]
Also posted in Economics, Friendship, Gambling, Marriage
Brahms Meets Tchaikovsky
Brahms and Tchaikovsky once met. Don’t like your work, said former. Don’t like yours either, he replied.
Also posted in Johannes Brahms, Music, Peter Tchaikovsky, Poetry - GTC, Short Pieces - GTC
Wild Peanuts
Joe avoided peanut butter, banning from house and no thanking those who offered. Three years later he decided could handle by setting limits, one thin sandwich. Joe again delighted in peanut butter and reveled in moderation until eating second sandwich washed down with milk. Then he ate third fourth fifth. Next day he began using […]
Also posted in Food, Health, Short Pieces - GTC
Lawn Jobs II
This story is now in the collection “Tales of Romance”
Also posted in Cars & Driving, Dating, Romance, Short Pieces - GTC
Sunday School
Lady teaching Sunday school passes out coloring books and crayons and says draw pretty pictures. All kids comply but one scratches black lines over faces and bodies, forcing concerned lady to gently remove and wad.
Also posted in Children, Religion, Short Pieces - GTC
The Right Room
First time in Puerto Vallarta I was hungover standing at basin, looking into fright, when woman popped from stall behind and said sir are you aware this is women’s bathroom. Years later long sober I stood in Bakersfield theater as two women entered and one said what’s guy doing here. Leaving quickly I forgot to […]
Also posted in Alcohol, Bakersfield, Mexico, Puerto Vallarta, Short Pieces - GTC
Gun Lover
Firepower’s important and guaranteed by Second Amendment because Founding Fathers wanted us free and would be proud how well we protect personal liberty. So don’t blame gun lovers for slaughter of twenty children at school in Newtown. That wasn’t our fault. We’re law-abiding parents who want kids safe. Trust me, laws restricting guns are already […]
Also posted in Guns, Murder, NRA, Short Pieces - GTC
We Still Love Our Guns
Just off work early this gray Friday afternoon I sought escape and relaxation in sports talk radio but the hosts weren’t talking about sports. They were lamenting lost lives of children and the senselessness of random violence. Something pretty bad must’ve happened but I sensed these somber gentlemen weren’t going to reveal what so I […]
Also posted in Guns, Murder, NRA, Publications
Freudian Advice
Sigmund Freud occasionally injected small amounts of cocaine under skin and effused it magically cured depression and induced euphoria while giving strength and endurance of ox. Believing delights caused “absolutely no craving” he wanted to share with fiancée he warned would soon kiss quite “red” to prove “big man with cocaine in body” is stronger […]
Also posted in Cocaine, Drugs, PBS, Short Pieces - GTC, Sigmund Freud
Wired
On cold night drunk in another bar he met chunky woman who opened purse and showed white powder they snorted in car. At apartment she called neighbor who walked over, sold more, asked for hit, and took three, firing thousand words before leaving. They burned noses and strained hearts two hours before moving upstairs and […]
Also posted in Alcohol, Drugs, Methamphetamine, Sex, Short Pieces - GTC
Deadbolt Rules
During helluva hot day fishing in thin mountain air, sun scorched Harold and he drank too many beers but didn’t worry he caught no fish. He was thinking about rat hole he’d return to behind house in area few lived voluntarily. Harold shoved key into rusty deadbolt lock which seized key he jerked and twisted […]
Also posted in Alcohol, Housing, Neighborhoods, Short Pieces - GTC
When Mind Closed In
I lived in a box attached in back of the landlord’s house and often talked to her visiting son, Jim, a disciplined college student who usually brought his cute girlfriend. Afterward, his mother would proudly say they were going to get married when Jim graduates which he did after a fifth year, much faster than […]
Also posted in Families, Schizophrenia, Short Pieces - GTC
Elementary Fly
In fifth grade there was boy with bad reputation. On hot spring afternoon fly landed on lip, and instantly he bit and killed fly, which tumbled onto chin. Asinine fool, shouted teacher, get into bathroom and clean yourself up. Neither teacher nor students complimented boy for having fast reflexes. How many could’ve bitten fly?
Also posted in Education, Insects, Short Pieces - GTC
The Human Brain
This story is in the collection “Basketball and Football”
Also posted in Brain, Depression, Football, John Mackey, Junior Seau, San Diego, Suicide
Big Sneeze
After hosting amorous boyfriend Sunday night and pounding treadmill half hour early Monday morning, popular high school math teacher Martha H drove to school, parked car, and walked toward class, confident she’d have another great week. She sneezed after shutting car door, and nose and sinuses had tickly, cleaned out feeling that became more pleasurable […]
Garden Party for William H. Johnson
(A major feature about painter William H. Johnson, 1901-1970, will be posted later this spring.) I wish William H. Johnson, gifted painter of a unique world, were at this party honoring young African American artists, staged by the foundation bearing his name, at an elegant old two-story home near the Wilshire district in Los Angeles. […]
Also posted in Art, Food, Housing, Los Angeles, Painters, William H. Johnson
Retirement Express
Harold was usually nervous at work and home, worrying he couldn’t survive ten more years arrogant supervisors, indifferent coworkers, and rude customers, so started naps after work and earlier bedtimes and weekends in bed sleeping away years thankful to miss.
Also posted in Aging, Employment, Short Pieces - GTC, Sleep
Norwegian Fascist Salute
norwegian anti muslim anders breivik sieg heils in court to commemorate blowing up eight and shooting several dozen kids next time anders breivik sieg heils court orders fascist arm amputated and used as club
Also posted in Conservatives, Crime, Murder, Nazis, Norway, Poetry - GTC, Religion
Newspaper Alert
Harold was usually nervous at work and home, worrying he couldn’t survive ten more years arrogant supervisors, indifferent coworkers, and rude customers, so started naps after work and earlier bedtimes and weekends in bed sleeping away years thankful to miss.
Also posted in Loneliness, Neighborhoods, Short Pieces - GTC
Iron Women
iron curtain lifted and shoved into bones of women looking west
Also posted in Communism, Economics, Europe, Immigration, Marriage, Poetry - GTC
Female Beverage
she kept drinking and the phone stopped ringing
Also posted in Alcohol, Poetry - GTC
Pruning
Alice liked to save money. She scoured newspapers and tabloids to find coupons. She drove across town to pay few cents less per gallon of gas. She never dined in restaurants or went to movies. She hadn’t taken vacation since husband died twenty years ago. She mowed lawn until arthritis forced to have dug out […]
Also posted in Expenses, Housing, Short Pieces - GTC, Trees
Work and Retirement
Bill liked job until Thursdays when mind and body tired. Then he craved weekends but got bored by Sunday afternoons. He fantasized about learning to enjoy free time, and made lists of activities, but had been profligate in youth and could not retire.
Also posted in Employment, Short Pieces - GTC
Animals in Office
swine snorts at talent wish i’d wonder if too late reptile darts and hisses insinuating problems exist wish i’d wonder if too late hyena snarls at herself through others wish i’d wonder if too late
Also posted in Animals, Employment, Pigs, Poetry - GTC, Reptiles, Snakes
Oral Alarm Clock
deep voice grinds my name too early every morning
Also posted in Families, Poetry - GTC
Just One More
said have drink come on let’s party least one more now no one listens so exhorts himself
Also posted in Alcohol, Poetry - GTC
Hot Rock
hot rock lungs tattoo brain To read other poems and features about cocaine, please click here
Also posted in Cocaine, Drugs, Pigs - Oscar
Whitney Houston, 1963-2012
remember one beautiful as whitney houston who made star spangled banner soar and moved heaven singing i’ll always love you may harbor soul broken as man in gutter and seek relief same way To watch Whitney Houston sing the National Anthem before the 1991 Super Bowl, please click here
Also posted in Alcohol, Bobby Brown, Cocaine, Drugs, Music, Whitney Houston
The Right Room
first time on puerto vallarto tour quite hungover stand at basin looking into fright woman pops up behind and says sir are you aware this is women’s years later long sober at bakersfield movie women enter one says what’s guy doing in here leaving rapidly forget to say heat intoxication
Also posted in Alcohol, Bakersfield, Mexico, Poetry - GTC, Puerto Vallarta
Baby Food
mother grabs baby food jar on counter empties food rinses inside top back on knifes two holes then puts torn match book cover around hollow pen shaft shoving in smaller hole burns and cuts copper scrubber into other hole ready for rock soon ablaze
Also posted in Cocaine, Drugs, Poetry - GTC
Drink Vacation
had too much last night or wouldn’t have left underwear stacked in motel rushing to early mexico city flight * * * proud had attracted beautiful senorita in loud bar but regretted smile disappeared shortly before she did
Also posted in Alcohol, Mexico, Mexico City, Poetry - GTC, Travel
Strange Custom
strange custom tolerates crude women squatting behind gender
Also posted in Poetry - GTC
Nightmare Returns
many years vowed never would again but defiled mouth and head convinced really had awakened
Also posted in Alcohol, Dreams, Drugs, Poetry - GTC, Sleep
Teddy Bear
mommy and daddy had rooms full of smelly chemicals rotting teeth and making act crazy and now at night i don’t even have my teddy bear cuz police said it’s contaminated Source – Performing Arts Christmas Extravaganza in Tehachapi, December 17, 2011. To read “Wired in Bed,” please click here
Also posted in Crime, Drugs, Methamphetamine, Poetry - GTC
Love Machine
love machine in hallway gives more candy cookies than pay for twice change deserve pump machine every day getting fatter sad when stops bonuses then halts everything no matter how many coins justified to slap kick curse damn machine and ignore staring fools
Also posted in Machines, Poetry - GTC
Tijuana Taxi Ride
american drunk in tijuana night lumbers into taxi and in spanish asks for senoritas and marijuana fine says cabbie few minutes later american admits really wants cocaine cabbie reminds not what said then silently drives way out and says here’s best place for you american enters and thinks goddamn that guy dropping me where there’s […]
Alarm Radio
another tardy you’re fired boss told fred sir i’ve been creative as well as diligent in this matter alarm radio was problem but stopped listening to wakeup news which interested me too much to get right up until fell back asleep rock and classical music soothed into slumber then tried country which had hated but […]
Also posted in Employment, Poetry - GTC, Radio, Sleep
Deadbolt Rules
(This vertical prose was rewritten horizontally and posted September 22, 2012.) hell of hot day fishing in thin mountain air sun scorched harold and he drank too many beers didn’t matter he caught no fish he had to return to rat hole room at rear of house in bad area rusty deadbolt jammed and impatient […]
Also posted in Alcohol, Housing, Neighborhoods, Poetry - GTC
Wired in Bed
cold night drunk in ‘eighties bar met chunky woman who showed some white powder we snorted in car at apartment she called woman who came sold more asked for hit and took three firing thousand words before leaving we burned noses and strained hearts couple hours before moving upstairs about two and were nonstop at […]
Also posted in Drugs, Methamphetamine, Poetry - GTC, Sex
Sunday School
lady in sunday school passes out color books and crayons saying draw some pretty pictures all kids comply but one who scratches black lines over faces and bodies forcing concerned lady to gently remove and wad
Also posted in Children, Poetry - GTC, Religion
Road Warrior
suv dusted right door frantic to tailgate sped to catch and gore wanting a missile
Also posted in Cars & Driving, Poetry - GTC
Mr. Johnson
mr johnson never seemed stable especially when he argued with mr jones and chained him to a streetlight
Also posted in Poetry - GTC
Rocks Afire
smoldering rocks burning white smoke me till you can’t
Also posted in Cocaine, Depression, Drugs, Poetry - GTC
No Room
the bedroom is the kitchen is the living room is the only room is the pit
Also posted in Depression, Housing, Poetry - GTC
Material Handler on the Road
I still wonder if my adult working career for many years progressed like a tortoise in sand because of apathy or a reflexive hatred of manual labor that began too soon, at age nine, when my mother remarried and her new husband, a drill sergeant masquerading as an electrical engineer and contractor, drafted my stepbrother […]
Also posted in Abraham Lincoln, Alcohol, Auburn, Babe Ruth, Billie Holiday, Bob Dylan, Burbank, California, California Youth Authority, Carmel, Cars & Driving, Chico, Clint Eastwood, Coast Ranges, Construction, Drugs, Electricians, Errol Flynn, Families, Frank Lloyd Wright, Fresno, George S. Patton, George Thomas Clark, Grass Valley, Hollywood, Interstate 5, Los Angeles, Manual Labor, Marijuana, Media, Monterey, Newspapers, Pacific Ocean, Rocklin, Rolling Stones, Sacramento, San Francisco, Seattle, Sierra Nevada, Stephen Stills, Stockton, Television, Unions
High on Hallucinogens
I must begin by warning you not to try hallucinogens because they’ll transport you to very strange places there’s no good reason to be but where curiosity and the devil may compel you to venture again. I remember my first trip, in the summer of 1970. I’d just graduated from high school and was already […]
Also posted in Alcohol, Drugs, George Thomas Clark, Hallucinogens, LSD, Mexico, Mexico City, Mushrooms, Oaxaca
Shooting Baskets in Dreams
Generation after Hal moved from two small dingy rooms connected to old house in battery-stealing part of town, he thought dreams had disappeared so was saddened to see himself there shooting baskets. Old friend sat behind and watched errant shots. Damn ceiling’s too low to shoot right. Friend should’ve agreed but only stared as Hal […]
Also posted in Alcohol, Basketball, Dreams, Drugs, George Thomas Clark, Housing, Sacramento, Short Pieces - GTC, Sleep
Subject of A Clockwork Orange Refutes Stanley Kubrick
Don’t call me Alex DeLarge. I long ago changed my notorious name, and for that I cannot blame Stanley Kubrick since I would’ve hidden my identity even if he hadn’t directed A Clockwork Orange, the film purportedly about my life. What I do forever excoriate Kubrick for is misrepresenting and exaggerating my deeds, which had […]
Also posted in Crime, England, Ludwig van Beethoven, Movies, Murder, Music, Prisons, Stanley Kubrick
Benito Mussolini Reviews Vincere
They wouldn’t have made the movie Vincere in Italy when I was the Duce. If they tried, you know what I’d have done. The Duce did not permit unflattering articles, photos, speeches, or thoughts, and no one save a deranged and masochistic individual would have even contemplated thrashing me in a feature film. Ironicially, in […]
Also posted in Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Italy, Movies
Psychiatrist Assesses Nidal Hasan
Prominent psychiatrist Dr. Joseph McClellan comments below about Dr. Nidal Hasan, the army psychiatrist who, during a rampage early Thursday afternoon November fifth, reloaded two automatic pistols to sustain fire on unarmed soldiers in a medical facility at Fort Hood, Texas, killing at least thirteen and wounding more than thirty. As I addressed the media […]
Also posted in Depression, Middle East, Murder, Nidal Hasan, Terrorism
Michael Jackson This Is It
A movie of rehearsals in a big empty room can’t excite like concerts alive with screaming fans, but I still hope you enjoy This Is It because that’s what it is. My dancers show why when we first gather in March. Hundreds have come from all over the world to compete in rigorous auditions from […]
Also posted in Documentaries, Drugs, Michael Jackson, Movies, Music, Plastic Surgery
Michael Jackson: 1958-2009
In the beginning the boy was wholesome and cute and sang like an angel and dazzled as a dancer. His early musical success transcended that of most adult stars, and as a young man he generated the light of a supernova. None of that, we must periodically remind ourselves, is helpful in shaping a tranquil […]
Also posted in Drugs, Michael Jackson, Music, Plastic Surgery
Poe at the Gentleman’s Magazine – Part 11
Edgar Allan Poe, despite working for Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine, seemed not to understand the implication of my being William E. Burton: I paid ten dollars a week, more than sufficient compensation starting in June 1839, and expected him to be a dutiful and deferential editorial assistant. I realized many readers considered Poe brilliant, particularly after […]
Also posted in Alcohol, Depression, Edgar Allan Poe, Writers
Heath Ledger and the Joker
I am weary of, though not entirely unamused by, the preferred psychoanalytic question about my posthumously-released role as the Joker in The Dark Knight. Fans gathered at my cinematic altar continue to ask: “Did playing that deranged criminal, and other cutting roles, drive you too far?” No, I explain, it was rather the opposite: my […]
Also posted in Alcohol, Depression, Drugs, Heath Ledger, Movies
Roderick Usher Assails Edgar Allen Poe – Part 10
My family and I are profoundly distressed by Edgar Allen Poe’s recent short story “The Fall of the House of Usher”. We, who so often said yes when this forlorn orphan begged to visit, now learn he considers our home “melancholy” and one which pervades his spirit “with a sense of insufferable gloom.” Had Poe […]
Also posted in Alcohol, Depression, Edgar Allan Poe, Writers
Virginia Clemm and Edgar Allan Poe – Part 9
I hated gossip about Eddy living with his “child cousin.” I wasn’t a child but a young lady only three months short of fourteen. Eddy still made sure our marriage bond said I was twenty-one. That afternoon in May 1836 a smiling minister married us in our boarding house. My mother and our landlord and […]
Also posted in Alcohol, Depression, Edgar Allan Poe, Writers
Poe the Editor and Family Man – Part 8
When Aunt Maria’s mother died her pension was also buried and that night Edgar Allan Poe raged to dig it up. Aunty and Virginia guided him into bed from which he two days later arose dazed but determined to be responsible. Aunty had become his real mother and Virginia, though only age thirteen, was already […]
Also posted in Alcohol, Depression, Edgar Allan Poe, Writers
Aunt Maria Clemm Nurtures Poe – Part 7
Eddie was a sweet boy who loved me and my young daughter Virginia. He tried to help but except selling a young slave I’d inherited he couldn’t make any money for us despite writing hours a day. Our best prospect was John Allan, and sometimes I wrote him Eddie deserved to do well and would […]
Also posted in Alcohol, Depression, Edgar Allan Poe, Writers
Henry Poe – Part 6
Not critically but with pride I suggest that for his third book, Poems, Edgar had copied some of my stanzas. I also concede I might have borrowed some of his. I couldn’t guarantee much in the spring of 1831. Once, I had appeared an impressive big brother, donning the uniform of a merchant marine and […]
Also posted in Alcohol, Depression, Edgar Allan Poe, Writers
Poe the Scholar and Soldier – Part 5
In person I may have addressed my foster father John Allan as Pa but in my heart and with others I called him a tyrant who, despite his wealth, denied sufficient funds for dignified survival at the University of Virginia, sentencing me to dress inelegantly and use my own hands to tidy my room. Fellow […]
Also posted in Alcohol, Depression, Edgar Allan Poe, Writers
Poe the Athlete – Part 4
I’m head track coach at a major university and have trained some of the finest young athletes in the world. I don’t recruit anyone lacking potential to place high and score points in important meets. That I explained to members of a literary society when they presented physical data about Edgar Allan Poe. He was […]
Also posted in Alcohol, Depression, Edgar Allan Poe, Writers
Foster Father of Poe – Part 3
Convinced of my correctness I sailed from Scotland to America at age sixteen and immediately began as a clerk in the Richmond tobacco company of my Uncle William Galt. The old bachelor was the wealthiest man in Virginia but kept me tight to business and doted on his four adopted children and four more he […]
Also posted in Alcohol, Depression, Edgar Allan Poe, Writers
Keeping Hemingway Alive
Never had I craved anything so much as this strange and alluring task. Thousands of other doctors clamored for the opportunity but most lacked the necessary vigor. Only a man obsessed would be fit to lead this scientific revolution, and I was thus chosen to sacrifice all in the quest to keep Ernest Hemingway alive […]
Also posted in Alcohol, Depression, Ernest Hemingway, Suicide, Writers
Eliza Poe – Part 2
In more than thirty years representing actresses I had never received such an astonishing application. At first, naturally, I considered it a hoax. Eliza Poe, claiming to have been born more than two centuries ago in England, wrote that she most urgently needed to meet me. Ordinarily it is difficult approaching impossible to get through […]
Also posted in Alcohol, Depression, Edgar Allan Poe, Theater, Writers
Heath Ledger in Pain
Last November I said I feel good about dying now, at age twenty-eight, because I feel alive through my two-year old daughter Matilda. I quickly explained that didn’t mean I wanted to die; I wanted to be around for the rest of her life, and noted this was an interesting kind of little set up. […]
Also posted in Alcohol, Depression, Drugs, Heath Ledger, Movies
Letter to Talented and Troubled Lindsay Lohan
Dear Ms. Lohan, After grading about 400 English tests during the week and feeling increasingly tired and tense and lethargic, I didn’t want to write or exercise Saturday morning, as I usually do; I just wanted to shower and get out and relax at the movies. Frequently, there aren’t many good ones in Bakersfield, primarily […]
Also posted in Alcohol, Bill Cosby, Depression, Drugs, Lindsay Lohan, Movies
Hunter Thompson and Mental Health
Since Hunter Thompson put a gun in his mouth and shot himself last week, I’ve been digging deep into the Internet and reading lots of articles about him. The first wave of stories commended his hard-punching, eye-gouging, “gonzo” style of insightful political writing in such books as “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” and “Kingdom […]
Also posted in Alcohol, Drugs, Hunter Thompson, Suicide, Writers
