AN URGENT APPEAL TO HELP
THE ACCLAIMED AUTHOR,
STAN GOOCH
by Brent Logan
brentlogan@mindspring.com
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THE IGNOBLEST PRIZE
Prodigious visionaries rarely gift us, even more so when their concepts are grounded in prolific research, compelling lines of reason, and lucid expression: From the merely good, greatness arises. However, too often history has been hard with these resources, and the plight of Stan Gooch is an immediate example.
Highly praised by authors such as Jacquetta Hawkes, Colin Wilson, and Brian Aldiss, the Literary Review has called him ?one of the most formidable and consistent thinkers alive today.? With more than a dozen books (see menu above)--and some two million published words--all proposing novelty like few writers of his generation or after, Stan Gooch, now age 70, is living in the most reduced circumstances . . . through nothing but an ironic fate.
Despite powerful media esteem for his controversial volumes, nothwithstanding a ceaseless workload investigating the dual nature of Homo sapiens, after an impoverished existence this dedicated cultural asset remains virtually destitute--even though the establishment that consistently pilloried him is finally coming around to his profound ideas. While some conclusions may at first seem outlandish, it is impossible to fault the spadework, methodology, and sheer ingenuity Stan Gooch has brought to a wide range of sciences.
In 1976, after being overwhelmed by the originality and rigor of his masterwork, Total Man: An Evolutionary Theory of Personality, I approached the author, and an aspiring writer was rewarded by a very generous critical boost; while I have been sorely derelict in contacting him no more than a few times since (but always receiving kindly replies), perhaps my own seniority has heightened conscience, hence this plea. My sincerest hope is that in small measure good will can be returned to one who has aided so many . . . probably our leading cultural and anthropological psychologist, recalling Joseph Campbell, congruent with William Irwin Thompson.
I implore any open mind to review the following record--an astonishing performance--then roadtest a book by Stan Gooch (www.InnerTraditions.com and www.crowstreetpress.com have reprinted some, www.amazon.com offers several, www.abebooks.com many more, or try local libraries), yet know that he has been marginalized to a rented caravan in a nearly abandoned Welsh trailer park--with neither telephone nor computer, his correspondence inked on the backs of galley proofs, and scarce personal contact--wholly lacking family, right at life's raw edge.
No one, certainly not a global treasure whose brilliance has inflected our deepest understanding of what we are, deserves this. All he wants is the opportunity whereby a final opus by him can draw together everything he has written; please help give him that chance. Monetary contributions or correspondence alone would be a godsend, his heartfelt acknowledgement returned by mail:
Mr. Stan Gooch
36 Oakland Park
Ystrad Road
Fforestfach
Swansea SA5 4BY
Wales, U.K.
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