लैटर टू मिचेल HOFMANN

very well, I'm sorry we couldn't co-operate on this. personally I think your the best living poet I've read.

The last reviewee I wrote to was Milan Kundera, replied with a set of his books, a nice letter in French, strawberries. Must be the swamp air there, sets a person on edge.
Milan Kundera doesn't have to teach creative writing.

The last person I wrote to in Florida was David Irving, surprisingly, in Key West, where he was vacillitating but nevertheless very approachable.

Britain - Florida - Austria -

Because Florida is where - let's not mince words - where the KKK is

and former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan his critics commonly refer to him as a white supremacist. He says he does not think of himself as

a staunchly segregationist platform.

operated a taxi stand undergoing plastic surgery
he went to Laos to teach English to Laotian military officers
He became famous on campus for wearing a Nazi uniform while picketing.

--- Michael Hofmann wrote:

> Dear Mr. Murphy,
>
>
> I fail to understand you. Given the tone of your
> remarks on my previous stuff - which you
> half-heartedly tried to concel from me, but which
> I've
> now seen, and realise I had seen before - what is
> your
> interest in anything I might have to say? Why should
> I
> do anything to give you or your views any wider
> currency? Alternatively, how can you humiliate
> yourself to the extent of approaching me in
> friendship
> and interest, when these are not your feelings?
>
> I would be grateful if you would scrub our
> 'interview'. I have no intention of answering your
> questions, and hope not to hear from you again,
>
Michael Hofmann


Dear Michael Hofmann,

I'm not sure if you know me, but I met you once in the Crown Bar Belfast after a reading.

I previously reviewed 'Approximately Nowhere' and presently I'm reviewing your Selected Poems. I wondered if I could set up an interview to be published alongside the review? Would you mind?
But only if you have the time.

best wishes,

Paul Murphy