November 24, 2012
Mitchell Kaplan
Books & Books
265 Aragon Avenue
Coral Gables, FL 33134

RE: Tom Wolfe, “eclectic indignation”, and why modern American Liberals need constant chiropractic care.

Mr. Kaplan,

Time really flies when I am enjoying myself.

December, 1996 was when you told me that as long as you owned the store Ezra Pound would not be found on its book shelves.

For years I marveled at your ability to celebrate speech in all its forms, be it written, sung, or performed.

For years I marveled at your ability to say with nary a hint of sardonicism that, while all speech is free, some speech isn’t as free as others.

For years I wrote to you saying that it was impossible to be a little bit pregnant.

Alas [for you] I have not been back in your store since.

This morning I watched you lead the televised Miami Book Fair paean to Tom Wolfe.

It is well to note that when the film version of “Bonfires of the Vanities” was in preproduction an attempt was made to rent parts of the Essex County Courthouse in Newark, New Jersey for courtroom scenes. It was stopped by New Jersey Chief Justice David Wilentz. His reasoning was simple: Cinematic depictions of stereotypical shibboleths – [Did I just repeat myself?] - concerning feral Black youth would not be permitted to be filmed in New Jersey courtrooms. [Do you think he liked “Ishtar”?] I suppose “Quis custodies custodiet” might label me as an elitist. I will settle for the majestic “Congress shall make no law….” A card carrying modern American Liberal jurist, one such as Chief Justice Wilentz, had no problem yelling “Fire” in a theatre that had not yet opened.

At least he didn’t lock Wolfe up like Ezra Pound was. You may remember that Pound spent 13 years in a Federal booby hatch. He was never arrested, he was never indicted, he was never arraigned, he was never tried, he was never convicted. The term “habeas corpus” was forgotten. At least Gitmo, America’s first adult sleep away camp, has better weather. Do you suppose that Pound’s release in 1958 marked the end of the McCarthy/HUAC Reign of Terror?

I have been addicted to Tom Wolfe since 1964.

You could have had a successful career as a “Flack Catcher”. You may have even been the head Flack Catcher. You would have not been good as the community organizers in San Francisco. They were the ones who were superbly skilled at “putting the boot in” as they did to the poor sap, the one who had the temerity to ask for “More”, when he realized that one bowl of Rainbow Soup would not get him through his busy, calorie consuming day.

All will be forgiven if you will allow me to burn an American flag in front of your store. I suppose I must tell you that a Koran, and doubtless it will be one of the perpetually “sacred” Korans as if there could be any other kind, will be wrapped in the flag. I will have a pot of pig pee nearby should the blaze get out of hand.

Join with me in striking a blow for freedom.

Who remembers “Nude Descending a Staircase” these days? Even “Piss Christ” and “Corpus Cristi” are fading from memory. I fear that Mapplethorpe’s more intense photographs will not soon be on American postage stamps.

It’s time, as Wolfe told us, to “stretch the envelope”.

Get back to me, OK?


Kevin Smith


PS – What would 20th century English Literature have been without Pound? His acolytes - Joyce, Eliot, Hemingway, Yeats – speak, still speak, of his genius. From August 22, 1939 to June 21, 1941 Dr. Seuss thought that Adolph Hitler was a really good guy. Do you stock “Green Eggs and Ham”? How about Wodehouse? Do you have any good bios on Walter Duranty?