William Phillips
LIVES AND WIVES OF A GENIUS
Many people felt that Stanley Green had the personality
of a genius. He had the dreamlike intensity, the demonic look. He
could talk brilliantly and for as long as anyone cared to listen on
any intellectual question; he had a daring and paradoxical way of
looking at .all things; he dedicated himself to the creative life with
a monkish fire and purity.
Stanley Green had no roots nor any strong personal ties and
he seemed indifferent to clothes, food, money. Not that he con–
demned the worldly concerns of other people, he simply paid no
attention to them. Nor did he flaunt himself as a man of sensibility,
a gourmet, or a great lover, as do so many people who cultivate an
artistic personality. He was simply a man who had detached him–
self from the routines of living.
Stanley Green had published a few essays in the little maga–
zines, which were thought to be very original and suggestive, though
their precise meaning was not very clear. His main ideas were sup–
posedly contained, however, in a battered portfolio which he car–
ried with him at all times. Occasionally, when sitting alone in a
restaurant, he would take some papers out of his portfolio, read
them thoughtfully, then write something in them for ten or fifteen
minutes at a time. Nobody had ever seen these papers, but an editor
of a literary magazine once asked him whether he planned to pub–
lish any of them. He replied that he did not value production or
publication for its own sake, since, he claimed, a distinction had
to be made between the professional writer who plied a trade, and
the amateur who wrote when he had something to say. His own
problem was simply the proper choice of genres, for as he con–
fided to a few people, he had not decided whether to make his
