COVID Check-In with Henry Wessells

“One of the great lines from AJ Liebling, which I wish I had known when I was 25, is, ‘Often alone, but seldom lonely.'”

Writer, editor and rare book dealer Henry Wessells checks in from Montclair, NJ. We talk about the books he’s bingeing on, the big project of selling Ricky Jay’s collection, the joy of a walk in the woods, the one cooking ingredient he wishes he’d stocked up on before battening down the hatches, and more. Give it a listen! And go check out his book, A Conversation Larger Than The Universe: Readings in Science Fiction and the Fantastic 1762-2017!

Listen to the conversation! Then check out the archives for more conversations from The Before Times.

You can listen to all these COVID Check-In episodes at The COVID-19 Sessions.

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About our Guest

Henry Wessells is a Buddhist vegetarian polyglot and parent; lives in a house; is author of a collection of short stories, Another green world, a collection of poems, The Private Life of Books (with photographs by Paul Schütze), and A Conversation larger than the Universe; and publisher of Temporary Culture, whose titles include Hope-in-the-Mist by Michael Swanwick and Forever Peace. To Stop War by Joe Haldeman & Judith Clute; is a writer, translator, and antiquarian bookseller (see CV here); a baker of pies, peach, apple, & pumpkin; originator of the word electronym; a hand bookbinder; compiler of the Avram Davidson website; and a reader of books.

Credits: The conversation was recorded remotely via Zencastr. I used a Heil PR-40 Dynamic Studio Recording Microphone feeding into a Cloudlifter CL-1 and a Mackie Onyx Blackjack 2×2 USB Recording Interface. All processing and editing done in Adobe Audition CC. Photo of Henry by his wife, presumably. That won’t stop me from posting it on my instagram.