he was grateful for everything his work and friendships brought him. His curiosity was bottomless, and he followed wherever it led: "I really am like old America: just get up and get in the covered wagon and go three thousand miles because you want fresh air... Most people really don't take chances, you see. They wanted to go. But they didn't have the -- I don't know what it is. It's not courage. It's not ambition. It's cat and monkey spirit. Let's see what's over there. Let's just have a look." Perhaps all of us harbor, somewhere deep inside, a free spirit yearning to break loose, but few of us have the... whatever... to go ahead and let it do so. Eugene Walter did, and led a life with "more delights than regrets." The story of that life, as told here, is absolutely over-the-top, a treasure, a wholly unexpected surprise. Not since John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces -- another posthumous book by another unknown Southerner -- has a book come from so completely out of the blue to give me so much pleasure. Recordings There are two compact disc releases of Walter reading his own works. Rare Bird is a sampler of Walter at his best and includes "The Byzantine Riddle." Monkey Poems is faithful to the 1953 book that is the source. Both CDs feature cover art by Walter. Produced by Charlie Smoke and Barry Little with permission from Walter's estate, these CDs are available from Nomad Productions, Inc. Eugene Walter: Last of the Bohemians (2008) is a documentary by Waterfront Pictures. References Listen to Glen Weston singing the Nino Rota/Eugene Walter song, "What Is a Youth" Eugene Walter reading Rare Bird (poems, stories, songs) Sources Oral biography. External links Eugene Walter's "Front Porches" (full text) Milking the Moon: A Southerner's Story of Life on This Planet (excerpt) Trailer for the documentary, Eugene Walter: Last of the Bohemians Eugene Walter Collection at the Harry Ransom Center 1921 births 1998 deaths 20th-century American short story writers 20th-century American memoirists Writers from Mobile, Alabama Deaths from liver cancer 20th-century American male actors United States Army personnel of World War II 20th-century American male writers American male short story writers American male non-fiction writers Deaths from cancer in Alabama