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* As early as April 1987, Edmund had confided to Ray Carver his desire to return to New York “to write about things there.” This is how Tess Gallagher sums up their conversation in her Paris Journal: “America is his workshop. Things are almost too perfect here in Paris. Edmund needs the abrasiveness of American life” in Our Private Lives (New York: Vintage, 1989).

* David Leavitt gave three readings at the Village Voice, including While England Sleeps (London: Viking UK, 1993) inspired by the life of Stephen Spender. Yet Leavitt’s 1990s were not Spender’s 1930s, and the depiction of homosexual love in his novel shocked Spender, who felt his private life had been intruded upon. The novel was withdrawn, edited, and reprinted.