Poets, Aliens, Friends

by Leslie Fiedler

Al Cook believed that people should be teaching courses in literature who made literature. So he hired lots of poets. Not only were they people who ended up full-time teachers here like Irving Feldman, Robert Creeley, Carl Dennis, Charles Olson and so forth, but visitors came and went all the time like Gregory Corso and Allen Ginsberg. Allen came over and over again, and each time he came, he managed to attract an audience much larger than any of the rest of us could in the English Department. He could fill a gymnasium.

A person with whom I ended up very closely related at UB, exchanging ideas - and actually, we lived almost across the street from each other - was John Barth. At first sight John Barth almost looked to me like an alien. I always suspected he had sneaked in from Mars or someplace. But on closer acquaintance he turned out to be as human as anybody could possibly want to be. He had a tiny head on which no hair was ever allowed to grow. I think it was forbidden by law. I think he probably came from a planet where you're not allowed to grow hair.

On the night I was arrested and spent a night in the Erie County jail, I came home to discover that John had washed up all the dishes and stocked the refrigerator with beer. My last communication with him came recently at a fire that destroyed most of my house and burned up 3000 books, including his. But he sent me back every one of his books, and I'm beginning to refill the library again.