Katmai National Park (Summer 2000)

Bear in a stream feeding Kaflia Bay
In 2000, I won a bear-watching trip to Alaska in a sweepstakes that I didn't even know I had entered!

Somewhere, I had read about Bears magazine, and I bought a subscription for bear-loving Victor. I didn't know that they were having a sweepstakes where some new subscriber would win a bear-watching trip! I was shocked when I got the email telling me I had won. After calling them, I convinced myself that it wasn't some sort of scam.

The only bad part of it was that Victor -- the one who obsesses over bears, the one for whom I bought my subscription, the one indirectly responsible for my winning the trip -- couldn't join me. (Instead, in 2006, Victor and I went bear-watching in British Columbia.) My friend Jerry, who was already planning to be in Alaska visiting his brother at the time of this trip, went along.

It was a fantastic trip. Photos and links to maps are here, and four of my video clips are on YouTube.

Autographs - Ian Whitcomb

Ian Whitcomb

Autographs - Edmund White

Edmund White

Autographs - William Samelson

William Samelson was one of my Hebrew teachers at Temple Beth-El when I was a boy. His first novel, All Lie In Wait, is based on his personal history as a Holocaust survivor who was in Nazi labor and concentration camps at the age of 11. Click here for a 7-minute video interview with Dr. Samelson from 2007.

Index to autographs

For a general introduction to my collection of author autographs, click here. For a note about the science fiction authors, click here. Here is a complete alphabetized link list:

• Don Bachardy
  
• Tim Barela
  
• Jorge Luis Borges
  
• Ray Bradbury
  
• Ivy Bottini
  
• Arthur C. Clarke
  
• Howard Cruse
  
• Samuel R. Delany
  
• Thomas Disch
  
• Harlan Ellison
  
• Philip José Farmer
  
• Nancy Freedman
  
• Allen Ginsberg
  
• Gregoire
  
• Harry Hay
  
• Frank Herbert
  
• David Hockney
  
• Andrew Hodges
  
• Christopher Isherwood
  
• Ken Kesey
  
• Fritz Leiber
  
• Bruce Lemerise
  
• Jerry Mills
  
• Larry Niven
  
• Brad Parker
  
• John Rechy
  
• William Samelson
  
• Sean
  
• Gilbert Shelton
  
• Robert Silverberg
  
• Isaac Bashevis Singer
  
• Norman Spinrad
  
• Theodore Sturgeon
  
• Stuart Timmons
  
• A. E. Van Vogt
  
• Ian Whitcomb
  
• Edmund White
  
• Larry Wilde
  
• Steve Wozniak
  
• Roger Zelazny
  

Autographs - Ray Bradbury

Besides enjoying his work, I've always admired Ray Bradbury for living in Los Angeles without driving a car. (See also my note on Frank Herbert.)

On the other hand, I'm with Cory Doctorow on Bradbury's silliness about others riffing on his titles

Autographs - Frank Herbert

I heard Frank Herbert speak at Rice University while I was an undergraduate there, probably around 1971. What I remember best about his talk was that he asked everyone to pledge never to buy a new internal combustion engine automobile. (Search for "combustion" on this web page, and you'll find the pledge.) I've always been known for my hatred of automobiles, and I jumped at the chance to take the pledge. (I've honored it, too, only buying used cars until 2006, when I bought my first new car, a hybrid Prius.)

Autographs - Samuel R. Delany

Samuel R. (Chip) Delany is one of my favorite writers. I own more books by him than by any other author. I've read his science fiction, his memoirs, his other non-fiction, his literary criticism, and his porn.

On a visit to New York City, I happened to spot a notice that he was going to be signing this new book at a Manhattan bookstore while I would still be in town. I bought the book, got his autograph, and asked if he ever visited Los Angeles. He basically said, "Not if I can help it."

Autographs - Philip José Farmer

Philip José Farmer

Autographs - Fritz Leiber

Fritz Leiber