Well, to round out the portrait of Steve Ferguson, I'd have to say I came to know him in the last 3 years of his life, and found him difficult to deal with. He was very protective of his relationship with d.a.levy and distrusting of what he saw as outsiders from the group. He was very independent, and I can respect that, but he was complex too, and not a saint.
Larry Smith
4 comments:
To clarify, I admired Steve Ferguson for his devotion and good work. I just think we do a disservice in overpraising someone. Daniel Thompson too was a complex person, as we all are, and needs to be recognized as a full person. When I did the Kenneth Patchen biography, I had to fight my own desires to worship his life and work, and soon realized he would give the big Patchen laugh to all of that. That's my motive here. Larry
I've been meditating on ego and personhood and I have a kinda, "yeah, me too" sentiment.
I am wary, even weary when people are heralded as benevolent. Much more sympathetic to those who admit ego, admit imperfection, are truthful, people who explore their humanity.
Steve was a bit of an enigma, but it was my understanding that he had health problems over the years, and who knows what that does to your worldview and interpersonal relationships. What I remember most is at Jim Lowell's funeral, Steve and Tom Kryss were talking about the old ways of publishing, and how they would "commandeer" paper and printers ink from various places to produce those beautiful hand-made books they did. It was a wonderful education in how things were done pre-technology. And I vividly remember him at Daniel Thompson's wake, outside on the steps of the church, smoking a cigarette, just staring at the ground, perhaps all too well aware of his own mortality.
Well, even tho i think very highly of Steve, i didn't say anything good about him in my post, only that our relationship was special because it consisted of letters.
The Steve i know is surely a different one than most got--good, bad, ugly---because it was a Steve written.
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