More Fine & Private Places

A Fine and Private Place has recently been reviewed on SF Site. Dick Lupoff talked to Peter about the book, and closes with this lovely anecdote:

"Over a cold beverage and a hot bowl of chili, Peter Beagle recently told me how he came to write A Fine and Private Place. He was just 19 years old at the time, the length of time that Mr. Rebeck spent in that cemetery. He was working as a counselor at a boys' summer camp. Once the campers were settled for the night there wasn't much for the counselors to do. Those who had sweethearts at the girls' camp across the lake would borrow canoes and paddle across to see them. Peter had no such luck, he told me, so he warmed up his rattly little portable typewriter, cracked open a ream of paper, and starting writing a book.

We are all incredibly lucky that Peter had no girlfriend that summer."

Yes, we are.