Kevin Avery on the process of compiling interviews for his Paul Nelson bio/compilation.
It snowballed. One person would lead me to two others who would lead me to four others. A lot of this was accomplished by good will, old friends of Paul’s who really wanted to see his work in print again. I found that among Paul’s friends there was the most immense amount of collective guilt that I’ve ever encountered. They felt like, as a whole, they had let him slip away. Paul didn’t make it easy. A lot of them did try to call Paul and he didn’t return their calls. Paul was very good at shutting doors in his life and not turning back.
I still recall some of Paul Nelson’s reviews, which seemed very intelligent, bordering on poetic (for their intuition and suggestion); and think it’s great to have some tribute paid to his work and to have his legacy preserved.