I'm in Key West on the pier, off Higgs Beach. I came to that beach nearly every day in November 1977. I didn't know anyone; for over a week I stayed alone in the Southern Cross Hotel on Duval, Key West's main street. It was run by two men from the Midwest. On my birthday, a professor at a university in South Carolina, whom I met on this beach, took me out to dinner at La Concha Hotel. He told me I had a religious nature and that he continually heard voices from creatures from outerspace.

LRB 18 April 1996 | PDF Download