rich man, poor man
beggarman, theif.

When the book came out in 74 I was a freshman in high school. I didn’t actually put my hands on a copy until my first year at Purdue, where I bought it for a buck out of the remaindered rack.

In 1978 I was a lot more interested in wetting my wick than filling my brain, but I still read a good deal, and this book, in that era of typewriters and shorthand and long distance communication by mail and telegraph, it seemed very advanced. Microdots. Matchbox cameras. Dead drops.

Today the technology seems primitive, but the human interaction is as real- if not more real- than we have today. WHat is now relegated to technology was once the domain of roomsful of people with typewriters and pencils.

I re-read it New Years day, to try to refresh my memories of the players for the upcoming movie. It is as good now as it was then, despite the dated technology. I cannot wait to see the movie, though if the theater is loaded with screen talkers, I may have to borrow Francesco Gullino’s umbrella.