Fragments of a Long Life

You may not believe it, but every word of this book has been created by rock-hard reality, long since lived, but no longer alive. And in these pages, nothing worth remembering has been forgotten. Very few people expect to be brought back, not actually after their lives, but at least plainly and accurately in the details of what they said and did (or did not do). Simply by reporting these clear and quite fascinating words, I do not believe that I am lifting the dead from their graves, nor am I trying. This book is, in its way, a distinctly unusual form of historical remembrance, but not any form of re-construction. What is dead is dead. These actions, linked to where they fail and where they succeed, can be presented just as, once upon a time, they were all alive -- some better, but a good many for their worse.These pages can be thus re-incarnated simply because I have been, have done, have heard, and have remembered with devoted clarity. Let it be understood, therefore, that although every word you read in these pages may not be pleasant, each and all were more or less accurately spoken. Allow me, please, to act as the reconstructor of what had never expected to be remembered.