AFTERWORD: THE PROVENANCE
OF THE SIX NOTEBOOKS
The story behind the book that you have just read (one hesitates to call it a memoir, but then one also hesitates to call it a novel) is as interesting as the one it tells.
In its original form, as six identical marbled composition notebooks bundled together, it was first presented to me by Thelma Dolin, head of Special Collections at the Robert Wilson Library at Central State University, where at the time I was a professor specializing in contemporary American literature, with an emphasis on regional authors. This was during the first days of the Spring semester — which, as I had tendered my resignation the preceding May, would be my last. I was looking forward to my retirement, and the chance to devote myself more fully to what, for the p
