Josh is a bright guy, so I\u2019m sure this will be really interesting. And Lind was an amazingly eccentric writer. We\u2019ve published two of his books \u2014 Ergo<\/em><\/a> and Landscape in Concrete<\/em><\/a> \u2014 and NYRB<\/span> brought out Soul of Wood<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve posted Lind\u2019s bio on here probably a half-dozen times, but it\u2019s so interesting and strange that it\u2019s worth restating. From the NYRB<\/span> site:<\/p>\n Jakov Lind (1927-2007) was born Heinz Jakov Landwirth into an educated Jewish family in Vienna. After the 1938 Anschluss, Lind and one of his sisters were sent for safety to Holland, from where they were join their parents in Palestine; this proved impossible, and following the occupation of Holland, Lind, who was already fluent in Dutch, had no choice but to go into hiding. Taking the name of Jan Gerrit Overbeek\u2014\u201dsailing under a false self,\u201d as he would later describe it\u2014he worked on a barge traveling up and down the Rhine. When the Allies began to bomb the industrial cities of the Rhine, Lind\/Overbeek moved to Germany, where he was employed by a Nazi government ministry in Berlin. The end of the war allowed Lind to join his family in Palestine, but it was not long before he returned to Europe, studying drama in Vienna and, in 1954, settling in London, where he began work on the stories that were published in 1962 as Soul of Wood<\/em>. Lind\u2019s other books in German include the novels Landscape in Concrete<\/em> and Ergo<\/em> and, in English, four volumes of autobiography, two novels, and numerous stories. Lind was also a playwright and film director, as well as a talented visual artist. In a eulogy delivered at Lind\u2019s funeral, Anthony Rudolf described Lind as \u201cA coyote, a trickster\u2026. A wicked smile played around his mouth, while witty aphorisms and deep insights tripped off his lips. He emanated inner strength\u2014and an electric intelligence that we all wanted to emulate.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Another interesting thing about Lind is how much he looked like Georges Perec in certain pictures<\/a>.<\/p>\n Anyway, this event sounds brilliant, and if I lived in New York, or if the high speed rail from Buffalo to NYC<\/span> was completed (ha!), I\u2019d totally be there.<\/p>\n\n
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