By Roy Edroso, Friday, May. 1 2009 @ 2:36PM
You may recall the
story Graham Rayman told here of Richard Leck, the longtime East Villager and poet who rubbed shoulders with the local literati and died beloved but penniless. (It took some effort and Graham's intervention to
get Leck buried after many weeks.) Today
EV Grieve interviews Leck's publisher, Karen Lillis, who shares more memories of this interesting and largely unknown East Village scene figure. EV asks her if Leck would approve of Graham's contrast of his bohemianism to "the yuppie scum who invade this sacred ground and drive up the rents." "Yes, Richard shared his feelings on the topic," laughs Lillis. "Early and often." She also informs us that an installment of Leck's autobiographical novel now appears online at
Go Metric. It's worth a look. We hear a little Breslin and a little John McNulty, but also a distinct voice that was Leck's.