Shaver's Last Gasp?

The following "letter" was written by Richard Shaver. He died before he could mail it to W.G. Bliss in November 1975.

His wife, Dottie found it in Shaver's studio and posted it soon after, adding her own handwritten note: "This was addressed to you."

This downbeat, short essay, "Forgive My Stupidity," reveals Shaver the environmentalist. On reading this essay, now 31 years old, we fear his observations are more real now than they were then.

Was this Shaver's Swan Song? Maybe. But the one-liner, "Goodbye Humanity," was eerily prophetic. By the end of the piece, he appears ready to abdicate his part in the Shaver Mystery. And who was Rolla Jenkins? Hmm. Looks as though there was still some mystery left in the old man after all.

We are grateful to W.G. Bliss for this contribution.



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