letter from William J. Higginson, editor Haiku Handbook etc., Nov. 1982

 Typed letter from William J. Higginson, "haiku godfather" who edited seminal English language haiku books including The Haiku Handbook (McGraw-HIll) and Wind in the Long Grass (Simon & Schuster).

On From Here Press letterhead, Fanwood, New Jersey
4 November 82

Ah, Chris

Good to hear from you! And to have the books, and the info on yr
past", as they say. Sorry it's unlikely that we'll meet  in the States, but thoroughly understand.

I like to tell the p/r people
"The Air Force made me a poet." And in a way it's quite true. But
though I had a top-s clearance for most of the four years I worked
in USAF, I shortly had my pictures in FBI files for anti-war activi-
ties in the New Haven area, late sixties. I was a bloomin' campus radical,
and like many of the breed, a little older than most of the kids in
school then. Anyway, a friend of mine who had the audacity to declare
himself a C.O., - - with substantial corroboration from several ministers
of the cloth (he was really a classical religious C.O.) - - spent two
years in Ft. Leavenworth. Really a useful way to treat sane, talented
people.

Right now trying to dig in for the long haul, self-sufficiency in
suburbia, and all that. We've started gardening, Penny (Harter - - my
wife), and I. Organic. Just learning, and not enough time for all
that's to be done. But it's clear that we must stop the pillage of
mass farming, as big a threat to humankind and a lot of other kinds
as nuclear war, etc.  Ah, well, enough pontificating.

Listen, thanks so much for the books. Delighted to have them. I'm
enclosing a couple of things from this end for your perusal. I don't
think you have thistle brilliant morning, and sure few up there
have seen PATERSON PIECES, though Eric may have a copy.

Gonna get this off, as pressure's on for various projects and bed
too calls. But great to hear from you, and I do look forward to
a meeting, perhaps in the great north, north american homelike nation.

Be well!

Bill

p.s.(handwritten)
Do you get funding for readings at Libr? I'll  maybe have a book or so, with Canadian
distr. if that's a help. I can probably
put together something at U. Buffalo, on the way.