research project with Phillips and others. He took odd jobs as a traveling sewing machine salesman. He even briefly opened his own publishing house named Kwian Thong ('Golden Oxcart'). Publication of Fa Bo Kan A year after his stint in the forestry service, Khamsing began publishing short stories in the newspaper Piyamit () ['Dear Friend']. Other publications where his work appeared include: Chiwit, Sangkhommasat Parithat, Khwan Chai and Chatturat. This corresponded with the relatively free press Thailand enjoyed during the years 1955–1958. Due to the political power-struggle between CIA-backed Phao Sriyanond and Pentagon-supported Sarit Thanarat, Thai writers and intellectuals were free to express their ideas. This atmosphere of free press quickly evaporated after the 16 September 1957 coup that drove Phao and Plaek Pibulsonggram into exile. Anderson argues that Khamsing's Fa Bo Kan, a collection of many of his stories originally published in Piyamit, best symbolizes this period of intellectual freedom. Shortly after the publication of Fa Bo Kan, Sarit seized power and established an absolute regime. Sarit's regime reinstated strict censorship, ending the period of free thought through imprisonment, exile, and execution of Thai intellectuals, writers, and progressives. This crackdown on progressives and the independent press forced Khamsing to abandon writing for a number of years, during which time he returned to Nakhon Ratchasima to his farm. Travels abroad and return In 1967–1968 Khamsing was awarded a Time-Life grant to visit the US. He spent the year working with the publishing house. On his way back to Thailand he visited France, Germany, Israel, and the Ivory Coast, apparently as an official guest studying literary and agricultural activities. He was able to lecture at several universities on his work and contemporary Thai literature. After his return to Thailand, Suchat Sawatsi invited him to contribute regularly to Sangkhommasat Parithat () ['Social Science Review']. These articles, many of which were concerned with social injustice in rural Thailand, were compiled in a 1975 publication known as Kamphaeng (, ) ['Walls']. Suchat, along with Sulak Sivaraksa rediscovered the work of Khamsing after a visit to his farm, which led to the republication of Fa Bo Kan and his writing was disseminated in magazines of university literary clubs. In 1970 Khamsing was married to Prawee. They would subsequently have three daughters together. Political action and exile Khamsing continued writing and working on his farm in Nakhon Ratchasima until the beginning of the 1973 student democracy