Paul Rosenberg

Sunni: A very impressive list for just off the top of your head! What prompted you to write A Lodging of Wayfaring Men? And why did you originally publish it anonymously?

Paul: Strange as it sounds, I needed to write it. I had all these threads growing together in my head, and they needed to continue growing, developing, and to be expressed. And, I was already an experienced writer at that point, so I had the skills to support such a massive effort.

Sunni: What kind of response did it get? Was the focus more on the mystery than the book itself, and its ideas?

Paul: Actually the response was pretty good, sometimes very good. Among the folks who got promo copies was Dr. Tom Dorman, whom I knew from Eris, and who I thought might have been the smartest man I had ever met. He had no idea that I was the author, by the way. Just like everyone else. He gave the book a magnificent review. Really good, glowing. And the fact that this man loved my work that much [pauses] Well, that still stands out in my mind. If Tom Dorman thought it was that great [pauses] wow.

Sunni: That’s a powerful validation of all your effort, for sure.

Paul: Yeah. Although [pauses] I am dead set against people relying on external validation. But I am not, however, dead set against enjoying it! [chuckles]

Sunni: A vitally important difference!

Paul: And I enjoyed that one a lot. But, back to your question. People certainly wondered about who wrote the book, but that never seemed to be too large an issue. [Pauses] Well, now that I think about it, there were a lot of people talking about it; I guess I just never paid it a lot of attention. Some of them thought it was written by Buckminster Fuller’s assistant/successor. I was flattered. And I have to tell you that it was pretty odd to have people talk to me, about my own book, having no idea that I was the guy who wrote it. Very strange!

Sunni: [laughs] I can imagine! I would think being authored anonymously made it harder to promote the book in some ways. Did you do anything special to try to get around those limitations?

Paul: Yes, it made it much, much harder. I tried a few things to get around that, and did have some success with them, but promotion was severely limited by being anonymous.

Sunni: So, after all this time, Paul, why did you out yourself as the author?

Paul: Good question. For one thing, I was much more ready to do it now, in a variety of ways. When I first released it, I didn’t want to become a public figure—as I might have, if the book had become very popular—and I most certainly didn’t want to become a guru. But, at this point, I think my life is such that those problems can be avoided or minimized. At this point, I’ve spent most of my life as a radical, and the fame stuff has minimal appeal. I’m under no impression that the adulation of crowds would speak anything good about me. I could go back to the shadows with no great discomfort.

In addition, my general feeling regarding the political climate was rather foreboding as I was completing the book. I’ve adjusted and the situation has changed since, and generally in a more comfortable direction for me. And, of course, there is the problem of promotion. If I want to get this book to the sixteen-year-old kid who just read the Declaration for the first time, I’ll have to pursue it openly. I don’t see how it can be done effectively while still hiding myself.

Sunni: Lots of wisdom there. I believe it was the same email that you told me you’d written the book that you said it was available again—one of several books available at Vera Verba. First, why are you selling the book again? What are you hoping to accomplish, besides maybe cleaning out your garage? [laughs]

Paul: Actually, the purpose of this exercise is to get it into the hands of people like the sixteen-year-old kid. One of the things that pushed me over the edge was that I had no more copies and that people were begging me for the last few. People that like the book, tend to love the book. One gentleman wanted 48 copies to give away as Christmas gifts. And I had no more to send him! That hurt. I didn’t strain my soul for all those years, just to say, “Sorry, the fountain is closed.”