Over a 48-year period I taught literature at UCLA, the University of Maryland, and, as a visiting professor, at five German universities. I've published critical books on Flaubert and Joyce and on Malcolm Lowry as well as many essays, and stories, most recently in Southwest Review. . In my retirement I've turned to writing mainly personal essays and stories. The story I'm submitting to SixFold belongs to a suite on transatlantic themes, one of which, "A Candle for Pankratz," appeared in the (alas, now defunct) quarterly Delos.