This somewhat demented Green Man was a literary celebrity named Eugene Walter. He was a devoted Southerner from Mobile, Alabama but at the time I met him he was living in Rome as an expatriate writer. According to what I've read about him, there wasn't anything cultural he couldn't do. He acted in Fellini films, wrote a gourmet Southern cookbook, wrote fiction and criticism, helped run famous literary bookstores, and was a songwriter and puppeteer. His life sounds wildly interesting. I was invited to his Roman home in the spring of 1976 and I must have tasted his cuisine there. I have no idea, 44 years later, who invited me. One thing I do remember is that he let his cats walk around on the dining table while we ate.
He gave me one of those "signed celebrity memento photos" which is what this is. He signed it "For Cousin Hannah Love from Cousin Eugene Rome '76." This inscription is special and has a Southern meaning I don't quite get. Why does he call us "Cousins?" Is that good, bad, or both? I'll have to ask one of my Southern friends.
Photograph, about 6 1/2" x 10", spring 1976). It was in my Roman sketchbook.
1 comment:
Of course it's good!
Post a Comment