I Hated to Do It: Stories of a Life Read Online Free Page B

inside and we noticed Kurt walking up and down outside the restaurant. I sneaked out and he was busy smoking and talking to someone who wasn’t even a smoker. I guess someone recognized him, and Kurt was happy to be exchanging ideas with someone he had never met.
    And then there was this other night when we saw Kurt outside the restaurant as we waited, and when I went outside, he was gone. I phoned his home and he answered the phone. I inquired what the heck happened and said that Annie and I were ready to eat and drink with him. He explained that he couldn’t find the restaurant. I urged him to get into a cab and come to the same place and I would meet him outside the restaurant. I did just that and we had a good time. Most of the time he was ready to learn by communicating with strangers, the famous, the infamous, and even someone like our young teenage son, Seth.
    Another time we had attended a book signing at the Barnes and Noble near Union Square. It was a joint signing of a book written by Kurt,
Timequake
, and a book written by Lee Stringer,
Grand Central Winter: Stories from the Street
. Dan Simon of Seven Stories Press, which published the Lee Stringer book, knew that if he had the two together, he would get some good publicity for the Stringer book. We arrived, and the place was packed because Kurt always brought out a mob. Although the place was full, Kurt was not in sight. I went outside and found him up the street smoking his cigarette, which was not unusual, but he was also involved in an interested discussion with another person hidden in the doorway, smoking also. I told him he was needed inside and he followed me in.
    Lee Stringer
    What a fascinating person and what an incredible story. Lee Stringer was a crack addict who lived under Grand Central Station. Dan Simon, who published some of Kurt’s work, had discovered Lee Stringer, who by a strange coincidence had exchanged his addiction to crack for an addiction to writing when he found a pencil he used with his crack pipe and one day discovered that the pencil could write and he could make it happen.
    Here is how the relationship of Kurt and Lee Stringer happened. Sometime in 1997, Dan Simon, who publishes books that should be published, had lunch with Kurt at Cafe de Paris, where Kurt liked to eat, and told Kurt that he wanted him to read a bound galley of a book,
Grand Central Winter: Stories from the Street
. Dan was smart enough to tell Kurt that he was giving him the galley not for a blurb, but he wanted Kurt to read the galley from cover to cover, knowing unless he read it all Kurt would just give him a good blurb as a favor. A few days later Kurt communicated with Dan that he had discovered the next Jack London. Dan introduced Kurt to Lee, and Kurt wrote a foreword to the book.
    The joint signing at Barnes and Noble that I referred to was arranged after the book was published in 1998. Kurt was there for the signing of
Timequake
and also because he had written the foreword to Lee’s book. The evening was a smashing success with the banter back and forth between Kurt and Lee about writing and about the condition of the world. Dan Simon was smart enough to record the discussion that took place that night at Barnes and Noble, and it became a book written jointly by Kurt and Lee entitled
Like Shaking Hands With God
, which was published in 2002. Of course, it was and still is a great book.
    Lee Stringer now works with Project Renewal helping counselors who help addicts. After the first book Lee wrote was such a huge success, lots of rave reviews came out, and Dan had lunch with Kurt and Lee again at Cafe de Paris. As Dan tells it, he wanted Kurt to give Lee some encouragement with his writing, since Lee, like many authors, had run into trouble with the writing. Good old Kurt, instead of giving Dan the support he wanted, told Lee that he didn’t have to do it, that he had done enough.
    Before he died, Kurt had become very friendly with Lee Stringer, a