Jim's Writing

If you'd asked Jim to define himself, undoubtedly the first word out of his mouth would have been writer.

Over the years, through two stints in college and beyond, Jim wrote short stories, plays, limericks, songs, screenplays, poetry, formal papers, and reams of technical documentation.

When we realized his cancer was terminal, the first thing we asked was what he wanted us to do with his writing. He chuckled and said, "Just toss it. It's all crap." Typical writer.

While sorting through his papers, we came across an outline of a personal web site he'd planned. It was to include A Man Dropped His Hat, The Snow, Not Yer Ordinary Greasy Spoon, On Capital Punishment, Peter and Cowheads, In a Narrow Grave: Larry McMurtry and the Problem of Regionalism, and A Death in the Family.

We felt this gave us permission to share some of his writing with you. We think he would have approved.

Essays

Allergies
Burnt Orange
Bus Trip
Continuity
Fast Dance in Oakland
Greasy Spoon
Groceries
On Running
Poor Side of Town
Processed Words
Scruples
Naming of Animals
Sudden Money
Tiny

Short Stories

A Man Dropped His Hat
Apache Junction
County Fair
Daughter Bertha
Elmore Biggers
For Robert Pirsig
Strange Doings in L. A.
Gin
Goodbye Illinois
Mauling at West Thumb
Peephole
Peter and the Cowheads
The Snow
Speedo's Revenge
The Visitor

College: First Go Round

American Crime Problem
Archaeology
Boo!
Dangers of Wood Cutting
Dick
Election Year 2000
Familiar Friend
Great Moments in History
Joe Hill Murderer or Martyr?
On Capital Punishment
Nature of Male Sexism
Practical Joke
Riding the Bench
Suicide
Two Towers
What am I?: An Idahoan
Will and Testament

Later Papers

Ativism: Thoreau and Abbey
Death of a Salesman
Frank Church
Function of the Editor
Half a Literature
In a Narrow Grave
Middlemarch
New Plays Program
Notes on the Globe Theatre
Of Plays and Playwrights
Of Rowe's Portrayal of Women
Personal View of Education
Swift's Rhetoric
Tall Dark Stranger
Thoughts On Serial Reading
Worlds Apart
Why Read Emerson?

Plays

A Death in the Family
Monsters and Madmen

Reviews

China Scene
Cloud Nine
Gillian
Our Town
Virginia Wolf

Screenplays

Cowboys and Indians
Craters of the Moon

Poetry

Dr. Hine
Lyrics from an Unsung Song
Renaissance Man
Street Scene
Wandering by the Oily Sea