Lawyer and art collector John Quinn, recently turned 54, has to admit to himself that he is not well.
For the past few months he has been having terrible intestinal pains, and his doctors keep telling him that they haven’t found anything wrong.
Central Park West
All this year he’s only been able to leave his apartment here on Central Park West to go into his office down on Nassau Street for a few hours each day. Even when Welshman Augustus John, 46, whose paintings he has collected for years, was in town, Quinn was not able to see him.
John Quinn by Augustus John
He’s been selling off his collection of books and manuscripts—at a loss.
Quinn has given up his wine during dinner and his cigar after. He has switched from coffee to just milk. Nothing helps alleviate the pain.
An old friend has written to say that he is coming to New York City and would love them to go on an eight-mile hike, the way they used to. They would each bring two sandwiches—one rare roast beef and one hashed chicken—and coffee to make in a bucket over an open fire.
Today, Quinn writes back, hopeful that they will be able to hike together again. However, he adds,
I haven’t been up to the mark lately but I will tell you about it when I see you.”
“Such Friends”: 100 Years Ago… is the basis for the paperback series, “Such Friends”: The Literary 1920s. Volumes I through IV, covering 1920 through 1923 are available at Thoor Ballylee in Co. Galway, and as signed copies at Pan Yan Bookstore in Tiffin, OH, City Books on the North Side and Riverstone Books in Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh, PA. They are also on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk in print and e-book formats. For more information, email me at kaydee@gypsyteacher.com.
Mark your calendar! The Greater Pittsburgh Festival of Books returns to the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in Highland Park on Saturday, May 11. Stop by the “Such Friends” booth in Writers’ Row.
This summer I will be talking about the literary 1920s in Paris and New York at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Carnegie-Mellon University.
Manager as Muse, about Scribner’s editor Maxwell Perkins’ relationships with F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and Thomas Wolfe, is also available on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk in both print and e-book versions.
If you want to walk with me through Bloomsbury, you can download my audio walking tour, “Such Friends”: Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group.
SuchFriends Blog 