And there he was in a dream. We are in some restaurant, a San Francisco dream. He gives me a manuscript to read on elegant Mary Beach / Claude Pélieu stationery with raised black lettering in delicate type. He’s terminal. We both know it. He’s being objective about it. He indicates, somehow without words, not to get worked up about it. Take it as it comes. Happens to all. End of dream.
Carl was an author, “little magazine” editor, radio playwright, and German translator of more than 100 books (including many by Charles Bukowski, William Burroughs, Nelson Algren, J.G. Ballard, also by Frank Zappa, Allen Ginsberg, Ken Kesey, Charles Plymell, Diane Arbus, Andy Warhol, Bob Dylan, and Leonard Cohen), as well as a literary agent who spread the work of dissident writers even further. Le Regard d’Autrui, published posthumously in 2019, shows him to have been as magnetic a storyteller as any of the celebrated writers he translated.
!['Eine Andere Liga' ('A Different League') by Carl Weissner [Milena Verlag, 2013]](http://www.artsjournal.com/herman/wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Eine-Andere-front-cover-140.jpg)
Jan,
Thank you for the reminder,
I think about Carl’s work frequently and remember how much I enjoyed reading it.
I patiently wait on an English translation of Manhattan Muff Diver and enjoy immensely the fragment in English that you posted a while back.
posted from the text.
I think that what I read was a protracted reading in English of an extremely funny scene in German.
I fully understand Mr. Burroughs’ respect for Carl. because Carl was a Real-Deal Writer, like Mr. Burroughs.
Your comment much appreciated. Yes, Carl was the real deal. A writer and a mensch. The idea of an English translation of Manhattan Muffdiver is right on point. With the help of some very good translation sites these days, it may well be a possibility.