by Lee Hill
TS’s pets, “A Creative Capacity to Astonish,” by Jane Howard, Life, August 21, 1964, p. 40.
Background on TS’s deerhunting, father’s drinking, and legacy of, GG to LH, April 1997.
TS’s Grade 3 report card. Terry Southern archives.
“[Poe] an extraordinary turn-on…” Vox Interview with TS, September 1990, p. 16.
“They never seemed to me…” Profile of Terry Southern by Francis Wyndham, London Life, 1965, p. 27.
TS and Tijuana Bibles, Interview with TS by Lee Server, Puritan, Issue 11, 1986, p. 25.
Information on Central Tracks area of Dallas, Texas Handbook, Texas State Historical Association, 1999.
Origins of CK in “Red Dirt Marijuana,” “Beyond the Beat, Beneath the Haze,” Dallas Observer, April 2, 1992, p. 17.
Information on Ku Klux Klan in Texas, Texas Handbook, Texas Historical Association, 1999.
“He got very embarrassed…” TS speaking on “Don’t Look Back,” WFMV, 1973 radio interview with George Cook.
TS’s high school background, “Beyond the Beat, Beneath the Haze,” Dallas Observer, April 2, 1992, p. 13.
TS hitchhikes to L.A. and Chicago, “Ten Minutes with Terry Southern: On Elvis, Strangelove, Barbecue, and Barbarella,” by Richard Blackburn, The Catalog of Cool, edited by Gene Sculatti (New York: Warner Books, 1983), p. 82.
Accidental death mystery, CS to LH, April 2000.
Death of A. B. Ord, Dallas Observer, April 2, 1993, p. 15–16. Near-drowning incident, GG to LH, April 1997.
Information on Southern Methodist University and Lon Tinkle, Texas Handbook, Texas Historical Association. “It was very inhuman…” “No Limits,” Newsweek, June 22, 1964 pp. 80-81. TS’s military service from discharge papers. Terry Southern archives. “I want to save it for my fiction…” TS to LH, March 1993.
“The main effect of war…” TS to LH, Vox, September 1990, p. 16.
TS in Battle of the Bulge, GG to LH, April 1997.
German Lüger in drawer, Arthur Kopit to LH, April 15, 1997.
TS on meeting Jews, Ellen Adler to LH, April 22, 1999.
Hanging out with Big Herb, Dallas Observer, April 2, 1993.
“…anybody with any sensitivity…” CS to LH, May 4, 2000.
TS at University of Chicago, TS to LH, Vox, September 1990, p. 16.
and TS to LH, March 1993.
Larry Rivers on GI Bill, What Did I Do?: The Unauthorized Biography of Larry Rivers by Larry Rivers and Arnold Weinstein, (New York: HarperCollins, 1992) p. 75.
2 You’re Too Hip, Baby
General background on expatriates in Paris during the late forties and early fifties: Paris Interzone by James Campbell; the Paris Review Reader edited by George Plimpton (New York: Viking, 1990); the Continual Pilgrimage by Christopher Sawyer-Laucanno; “Looking for Hemingway,” by Gay Talese, Esquire, July 1962; various back issues of the Paris Review (est. 1953), especially no. 79, 1981, Paris Review Sketchbook, 25th Anniversary Double Issue, pp. 308–420 and no. 150, 45th Anniversary Issue.
“Those were halcyon days…” TS to LH, Vox, September 1990, p. 15.
“From ‘48 to ‘52, the cafes…” “Now Dig This,” by Mike Golden, Reflex, No. 27, August 1992, p. 49.
TS’s Sorbonne program, TS to LH, Vox, September 1990, p. 15.
John Marquand Jr. on TS, Paris Review Sketchbook, 20th Anniversary issue, The Paris Review, 1980 p. 348.
Southern student ID cards show registration at the Sorbonne for 1948 through 1952.
“I had to depend…” Profile of Terry Southern by Francis Wyndham, London Life, October 30/November 11, 1965, p. 27.
TS’s exposure to jazz and foreign films, TS to LH, Vox, September 1990, p. 16.
“I’m of the existentialist persuasion…” TS to Nona Cleland, “The Drinking Writer,” Publishers Weekly, September 1978, p.
“On a trip…” “Weill and Brecht: The Original Glimmer Twins,” by TS, liner notes to Lost in the Stars (A&M Records, 1985).
TS discarded three novels, Francis Wyndham’s London Life profile, 1965, p. 27.
According to a Deposition of May 3, 1969, Southern says he met Hoffenberg in ’49–’50. Further Hoffenberg b.g. from Patti Dryden to LH, October 29, 1993, correspondence with Juliette Hoffenberg, Literary Outlaw by Ted Morgan (New York: Avon, 1988) and The Olympia Reader edited by Maurice Girodias (New York: Grove Press, 1965).
“Mason was a poet…” TS to LH, October 1993.
“I thought Terry was very witty…” Mordecai Richler to LH, December 1998.
Background on James Baldwin in Artist on Fire by W. J. Wetherby (New York: Donald I. Fine), 1989.
New-Story and Janus background from The Continual Pilgrimage by Christopher Sawyer-Laucanno. According to Sawyer-Laucanno, Janus published dreadful poetry.
“Those who know…” TS’s reply to a questionnaire from the editors of Contemporary Authors, c. 1964. This motto also appears in Alexander Trocchi’s Cain’s Book and Candy.
“It was sort of an embarrassment…” TS to LH, March 1993.
TS’s Dexamyl use verified by Carol and Nile Southern.
“It would be nice…” “A Sense of the Ridiculous,” Shoveling Trouble by Mordecai Richler (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1972), p. 28.
“Mason always tried to…” Patti Dryden to LH, October 29, 1993.
Meeting Aram Avakian, TS to LH, March 1993.
“I don’t know how to…” TS to Robert Wilonsky, Dallas Observer, April 2, 1992.
TS and Allen Eager in Amsterdam, TS to Victor Bockris, November 1989.
TS’s embellishment of brothel visits in his story “Trib to Von,” Evergreen Review no. 98, 1984.
Various rejection slips found in Terry Southern archives.
“Doc” Humes’s background, “Alen Cheuse on Doc Humes,” Rediscoveries II, edited by David Madden and Peggy Bach (New York: Carroll and Graf, 1988), pp. 53–59 and Gay Talese’s “Looking for Hemingway.”
Peter Matthiessen on TS, letter to LH, March 12, 1997.
“I didn’t have a lot to do…” Mordecai Richler to LH, December 2, 1998.
TS “a silent inscrutable presence…” John Marquand Jr., Paris Review, 20th Anniversary issue, 1981.
“There’s this policeman…” George Plimpton to LH, October 1993.
“Terry from the start…” Richard Seaver to LH, January 14, 1999.
Background on Pud Gadiot taken from interviews with CS and GG.
3 Flash and Filigree
Special thanks to Jeremy Treglown for sharing information from his forthcoming biography of Henry Green.
“Greenwich Village…” Fred and Gloria McDarrah. Beat Generation: Glory Days in Greenwich Village (New York: Schirmer Books/Simon and Schuster, 1996), p. II.
TS and Gadiot in the Village, CS to LH, May 4, 2000.
Background on Aram Avakian, Movie People edited by Fred Baker and Ross Firestone (New York: A Lancer Contempera Book, 1973).
“to con his soul…” John Marquand Jr., Paris Review, 20th Anniversary issue, 1981.
“Terry fancied himself…” David Amram to LH, June 16, 1998.
George Avakian to LH, April 16, 1997.
TS and company’s McCarthy protest, TS to LH March 1993.
“[Toynbee’s] piece about Henry Green…” TS to LH, March 1993. “The Novels of Henry Green” by Philip Toynbee, Partisan Review, XVI (May 1949), pp. 487-97.
Additional Green b.g. from “Trapped: The Story of Henry Green” produced by Roger Thompson and aired on BBC in 1992.
“The Double Life of Henry Green,” Life, XXXIII (August 4, 1952), pp. 83–94.
Terry writes to Green, according to Jeremy Treglown, from New York.
“Since college days…” TS to LH, March 1993.
TS on As I Lay Dying in the Nation, April 23, 1960, p. 348.
Joseph Blotner’s biography says William Faulkner was in and out of NY between September 1953 and February 1954.
“Everybody was dazzled…” Ellen Adler to LH,
April 22, 1999.
“[Terry] was one of the few people…” Jean Stein to LH, October 24, 1993.
Art of Fiction Interview with William Faulkner, Paris Review no. 12, Spring 1956.
“David and I…” TS to LH, October 1993.
“At one point, he described [Gadiot]…” CS to LH, May 4, 2000.
“I actually went at one point…” TS to Victor Bockris, November 1989.
Amram and TS in Paris, David Amram to LH, June 16, 1998, and his memoir, Vibrations, p. 205.
Nelson Algren’s Art of Fiction interview, Writers at Work, vol. 1, edited by George Plimpton (New York: Viking, New York, 1958).
Various rejection slips, Terry Southern archives.
Meeting Carol Southern, CS to LH, March 1993.
TS on Charlie Parker, “Terry Southern: The Last of the Catdaddy Hipsters” by Darius James, New York Press Books and Publishing, February 12–18, 1987, p. 11.
“We were barge captains,” Mike Golden, “Now Dig This,” Reflex no. 27, August 1992, pp. 22–23, p. 49, p. 80. Life on barge, CS to LH, March 1993.
4 Candy Christian Meets Guy Grand
Transatlantic crossing to Europe, CS to LH, May 4, 2000.
“…not unlike a situation in a Kafka novel…” TS to LH, Vox, September 1990, p. 16.
Swiss garbage disposal incident, TS to Paul Krassner, Realist, 1965.
Candy outline, Olympia Reader edited by Maurice Girodias (New York: Ballantine Press edition, 1967) p. 361.
“Terry just adored him…” CS to LH, May 9, 1999.
Meetings with London literati, TS to LH, Vox, September 1990, p. 16.
“[Green] was a very urbane amusing…” CS to LH, May 9, 1999.
Correspondence re: Southern Sr.’s death including coroner’s report. Terry Southern archives.
In various letters to TS through January and February 1957, Richler kept Southern posted of opportunities in London and progress of Southern’s Flash and Filigree manscript as Andre Deustch considered publishing the book. Plans were also made for a reunion in France with Hoffenberg for spring or summer. January 17, 1957.
Andre Deutsch background, Guardian obituary, April 12, 2000, and Andre Deustch to LH, November 1993.
Letter from Mordecai Richer to TS, January 1957: keeping TS posted on Andre Deutsch decision about Flash. Richler was then living at 5 Winchester Road “no visitors after 2 pm.”). Mentions work he and Stanley Mann recently did for TV for £100 each. In letters to TS dated February 15 and February 24, 1957, Richler wrote that Deutsch thought the book was excellent. Plans were discussed about a possible reunion in Tourettes Sur Loup. Correspondence in Terry Southern archives.
According to Jeremy Treglown, Green’s biographer, Green arrived in Geneva, April 2, 1957 for a seven-day visit.
“I wired back…” TS to LH, March 1993.
Letter to TS from Green, April 21, 1957: Note at top: “Saw [Terrence?] Kilmartin, literary editor of the Sunday paper, Observer. Didn’t half say your praises!” Correspondence from Terry Southern archives.
May 13, 1957, letter from Mordecai Richler to TS re: two TV scripts TS had forwarded to Richler, suggests plays were called Grave and Panthers.
Planning vacation in Spain, Henry Green to TS, April 29, 1957. Letter from Green to TS, June 4, 1957. Looking forward to TS coming to visit at the villa in July which Carol has encouraged. Twenty kilometers north of Barcelona. Mentions he has been offered a commission to write about the Blitz: “I got an idea that this will suit me very well as I can’t seem to do novels any more. Also there is a lot of money in it, or appears to be sending a draft of a play to Terry under separate cover.”
More observations on Spanish holiday found in Girlitude by Emma Tennant (London: Jonathan Cape, 1999).
Green on Art of Fiction interview, Henry Green to TS, September 23, 1957.
Art of Fiction Interview with Henry Green, Paris Review no. 19, Summer, pp. 60-77.
“I think the idea amused him…” CS to LH, May 4, 2000.
Rejection slips from Harper’s Bazaar and other journals in Terry Southern archives.
Comments on “The Road out of Axotle,” letter from Rust Hills to TS, November 21, 1957: “The ending of [‘Axotle’], I think, the sort of postscript or epilogue, is what threw us off the most.” Terry Southern archives.
“My idea of pure sloth…” November 57, letter from TS to Hoffenberg. Also talks about work on The Magic Christian.
“I already knew Kotcheff…” TS to LH, October 1993.
Background on Armchair Theatre and broadcast of The Emperor Jones: Ted Kotcheff to LH, December 17, 1998, correspondence from Kotcheff in Southern archives, The Armchair Theatre: How to Write, Write, Direct, Design, Act and Enjoy Plays (London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1959), published to celebrate the first three seasons, and a pristine viewing copy of the broadcast in the British Film Institute archives.
Canadian Sidney Newman, who is credited for much of The Armchair Theatre’s success, actually didn’t come on board until March 1958, when he took over from Vance, who wished to return to TV directing. Newman went on to green-light such shows as The Avengers at ABC and Dr. Who at the BBC.
Review of Emperor Jones broadcast, Variety, April 23, 1958.
On publishing Southern’s first two novels, letters to LH from Diana Athill, July 5 and July 19, 1999.
Review of Flash and Filigree by Anthony Quinton in London Magazine, September 1958, vol. 5, no. 9, p. 65.
New Yorker’s rejection of “Janus,” Ben Yagoda’s About Town by Ben Yagoda, (New York: Scribner, 2000) p. 275.
“We were staying in fourth-class hotels…” CS to LH, May 4, 2000.
“…I consider it an honor…” letter from Hoffenberg to TS, May 1, 1958. Hoffenberg signed off as “David Selznick.”
“Titles it seems to me…” TS to LH, Vox, September 1990, p. 16.
Reservations about On the Road, letter from TS to Allen Ginsberg, September 20, 1958.
Problems with Flash and Filigree, Letter to TS from Allen Ginsberg, October 1, 1958.
“I think it’s a first novel…” Recent Novels radio broadcast, BBC’s Third Programme, June 20, 1958.
“Although I feel it is too short…” undated 1959 letter by Green to TS not long after Magic Christian publication
The other novels mentioned in Anthony Quinton’s review of The Magic Christian were Memento Mori by Muriel Spark, A Guest and His Going by P. H. Newby, Broadstrop Season by Robert Kee, and A Net for Venus by David Garnett.
Correspondence from Coward-McCann and other publishers re: Christian in Terry Southern archives November 24, 1959 letter from J. Stewart Johnson, Coward-McCann Inc., via Andre Deutsch complaining that Magic Christian is too short for U.S. publication. Joseph Fox at Random House acquired the book for U.S. publication. December 28, 1959—TS receives a rejection letter from a U.S. publisher regarding Christian: “Maybe America isn’t up to satire and Mad-type humor in $3.50 form yet.” “While we were in Geneva…” CS to LH, May 4, 2000.
5 The Quality Lit Game
“She said’ when you come back…” CS to LH, May 4, 2000.
“[Shaw] was looking for a house…” CS to LH, May 9, 1999.
“There was CIA and anti-CIA…” Barney Rosset to LH, January 14, 1999.
“The Quality Lit Game…” John Marquand Jr. to LH, March 1993.
“I always felt…” “Everybody was so young…” and “Boris had two friends…” all CS to LH, May 4, 2000.
Southerns at Edgewater, letter from Gore Vidal to LH, May 1993.
Possible Tom Ewell biography, letter to TS, March 18, 1959, from Peter Israel. Possible TV work, Letter to TS from Harold Franklin, June 18, 1959. Both from Terry Southern archives.
“[The Tynans] were marvelous…” CS to LH, May 4, 2000.
Review of Flash and Filigree, “Danse Macabre in Los Angeles,” by Martin Levin, New York Times Book Review, September 28, 1958, p. 44.
Meeting Jack Gelber and Si Litvinoff, Jack Gelber to LH, January 1
999 and Si Litvinoff to LH, January 28, 1998.
“Dark Laughter in the Towers,” Nation, April 23, 1960, pp. 348–350.
“After the Bomb, Dad Came Up with Ice,” Southern’s review of Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., New York Times Book Review, June 2, 1963.
“Trocchi got a job…” Richard Seaver to LH, January 14, 1999.
Applying for Guggenheim grant, reference letter by Richard Seaver, December 5, 1961. Terry Southern archives.
“Parts of the story…” letter from Rust Hills to TS, March 14, 1962. Terry Southern archives.
“I thought I could get this guy…” and “He was wearing a dark blue suit…” David Newman to LH, December 16, 1995.
Background on “Road out of Axotle,” CS to LH, May 4, 2000.
On TS’s awareness of Kubrick, Jack Gelber to LH, January 1999.
TS’s unpublished interview with Kubrick for Esquire. Terry Southern archives. TS “an Ariel-like figure,” Jonathan Miller to LH, December 1993.
Kubrick telegram to TS, November 2, 1962. Terry Southern archives.
6 Dr. Strangelove (or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Hollywood)
“Dark London winter mornings…” “Memories of Dr. Strangelove,” Movies, July 1983, pp. 29–30.
“When Film Gets Good,” the Nation, November 17, 1962, p. 330.
Idea for Red Alert, Peter George to Olga Franklin, the Daily Mail, February 1964.
“He was like many such people…” Christiane Kubrick to LH, July 7, 2000.
“After we finished Lolita…” and “Stanley told me he…” James Harris to LH, July 1, 1999.
Meeting and interviewing Stanley Kubrick, TS to LH, March 1993.
“Since we had absolutely no money…” CS to LH, March 1993.
“too weird to treat in an ordinary way…” TS to LH, March 1993.
Official period of production according to liner notes on Columbia’s laser-disc release of Dr. Strangelove. A February 11, 1962, shooting script that includes revisions made January 25, indicating Terry was on the set longer than the official period. Terry Southern archives.