I’m sad that I found out about this through Boing Boing, but I am so glad that they posted on this.
Paul Williams is a terrific writer who I was lucky enough to meet many years ago. A champion of the then booming and vibrant San Diego music scene, Paul befriended us all, and we were always happy to see his big grin out in the audience at shows. He was a biographer of Bob Dylan, The Beach Boys, Neil Young, created the seminal Crawdaddy magazine, and was a friend and supporter of Phillip K Dick, writing about him in Rolling Stone and eventually serving as Dick’s literary executor after his passing. You can thank Paul for the fact that nearly all of Dick’s work is still available.
I for one spent an entire year waking up every morning to read one page of Waking Up Together, and still have the battered copy he inscribed to me. In 1995 he had a horrible bicycle accident that caused traumatic brain injury. Although he recovered amazingly, regaining speech and the ability to walk, his health has been steadily declining since then. The last time I was at his house, he seemed unable to get out of bed–I have been out of touch with both he and Cindy for many years & am so dismayed to hear that he continues to struggle, and that the impact on his family has reached the point where they are now asking for help. Please take the time to visit the site set up to support him and his family, even if you don’t have the ability to donate to his family to help with his care.
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