Douglas Beveltigung
the artist
Douglas Beveltigung is a novelist/poet working at his art for 17
years. Well, that is at least what he says. His schedule runs like
this. He wakes up at the butt-crack of dawn each morning in order to
work. He may write about 600 words a day. He is rather slow but in
his seventeen year career has published three books. "Why the hell
DID the chicken cross the road? and other fiction," "I want to be a
paper back writer," and "The Life and Times of Mitty Schwartz" which
is the biography of his great grandmother who came here by boat from
Wichita, Germany. Wichita Germany does not exist anymore, but the
city in Kansas is named after the German city. It was destroyed when
the Weimar republic came to power in the 30's. Douglas Beveltigung
prides himself on his height which is 7'3" which put him in contention
with Thomas Wolfe as one of the tallest writers ever. He is now
currently working on a collection of poetry, in which he is shaping up
poems he has kept in a journal! since he was 16. There are poems
such as "MY SOLIPSISTIC BIG TOE" "ODE TO MY DOG< TWINKIE RUN OVER BY
THE MILKMAN" and others. Publishing date is for summer 95, and
he hopes to be a classic man of letters like Sartre or Hemingway or
Faulkner-all of whom are Douglas's idols.
the art
Douglas writes novels all in the present tense. He is trying to start
a movement called presentism. We'll see how it goes. He is also a
realist in the vein of the Lost Generation writers. Douglas feels
that they are being neglected and should have their proper place in
literary heaven.
the beret
Douglas's beret is a black driving cap-the kind immigrants wore in the
20's. he loves this hat and does everything in it. . . or at least
writes in it. He hates to wear hats outdoors because his dad once
told him that wearing a hat too much makes you go bald. The artist in
twentieth century society is facing a doom, a kind of no-where land
that only he can fill up again. There needs to be a new emphasis on
the arts like there was earlier in the century. Douglas and I hope to
do this.
Submitted by chris roman (c621719r@edinboro.edu), on Tuesday, March 14, 1995, from pittsburgh, PA