Comments on: William J. Craddock. Postsingular Cover.

By: Doug Vieyra

Doug Vieyra — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 08:39:19 +0000

Met him once. I was seeing his sister Diane at the time (1960), and enjoyed both their home in Los Gatos and his mom, who was very nice to a young fellow. His father (also named Bill (William), at the time, as I remember (it has been a few years) was a General in (I think) the Marines Corps. Young Bill was a blurr of whorlling energy, dashing to and fro in a hurried rush to experience, consume and explore all things. I remember thinking “What a contrast between the older Bill and the younger Bill”. His sister Diane said that young Bill showed promise. He was writing even then. But I had no interest then (or now) in young Bill. Only his sister Diane was of interest to me.

By: Rudy

Rudy — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 19:53:26 +0000

Thanks, all, for the comments on Bill and BE NOT CONTENT. At one point I was able to get in touch with Bill’s widow Teresa, but now I’ve lost track of her. I still agree that it would be great to get BE NOT CONTENT back into print, if only as an ebook. And I always wonder about the unpublished sequel that Bill is said to have written.

Have a great 2012, everyone. Here’s a useful thought that I came across in some of my old notes:

I’m always worrying about wasting time, right, and I saw a great line in BE NOT CONTENT. The author-narrator Abel Egregore expresses this fear to one of his stoner friends, who guffaws, “Time? How can you waste time?” And I get a little enlightenment there. What’s to waste? You use one second per second no matter what you’re doing. So relax.

By: Andy Hy

Andy Hy — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 01:31:21 +0000

I’d forgotten that Bill was a water sign, Cancer. Creativity, sensitivity…
Two days separate our birthdays, though several years.
I first read Be Not Content in either late 1970, or early 71. It was assigned reading by my San Jose City College professor, Dr. Robert Weston. Dr. Weston had the book available thru the SJCC bookstore, and though I lost the first copy (hardback) to a fire, a friend of mine found another copy in a used bookshop in StaCruz and I still have it. Also have a copy of Twilight Candelabra. (thanks to Marcella Rawley!) I’d been riding motocycles since age 15, but bought my first Harley in 1975 largely as a result of Bill’s writings/influence. Had lots of good times at the Chatz, some of which I remember.
Used to go to Pat’s shop up on the North Side but mostly hung out in The Pit. Nasty places with little soul like the Side Pocket, Towne House, Pot Belly, but also kool places like the Club Bella, and a funky downtown Campbell dancehall with live music, the name of which escapes me.
I agree with many of the posts above that BNC needs to be republished. It’s a classic tale and should be part of an English Lit/American author study. San Jose State chould help with bucks or connections somehow, seeing as it’s Bill’s alma mater.

Still livin’ in Lost Gatos….

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 02:50:38 +0000

On William J. Craddock:

Hi Ruddy!

I was about 17 or 18 years old when I first read Willy J.’s book “Be Not Content!”…it profoundly affected me…as did Leary/Alpert/Metzner’s “Psychedelic Experience” and later on Alpert’s “Be Not Content”…I am now nearing 60 in 2012…DO THE MATH!…what do you think I was doing back then?…anyway…this guy was so “under-appreciated” …”back in the day”…anyway…that is “a long time gone” (C/S/Nash& Y)…if you are young or old…”dialed in” or “not”…this is a goody!

By: Heavypsychman

Heavypsychman — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 11:46:20 +0000

Does anyone have a Pdf file of this book? If so send to my email address or contact my blog

Peace

By: Victor Koman

Victor Koman — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 16:48:34 +0000

I grew up in Los Gatos, a wonderful town in which to be a kid, and read Bill Craddock’s weekly column, The Vicious Cycle, in the Los Gatos Times-Observer. Dig into those microfilms for a real trip! I remember thinking “Wow! If a leather-clad biker can write a thoughtful, articulate series of essays, then I have to accept people at a far deeper level than face-value.” While I never came across his books, I always wondered how he’d gotten along in life. Sorry to learn of his passing. And I’m glad a fellow author was touched by his words.

By: Robert T

Robert T — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 07:03:48 +0000

I read both of WJC’s books in the early 1980s. We found a copy of Be Not Content in the UC Berkeley library and a copy of Twilight Candelabra in a used book store. The descriptions of the hopes and dreams of folks in “Be Not Content” are really evocative and very poignant. I felt like it really informed me (coming of age in the post-punk years) about what the hippie years (a mere 15 years and yet a world away it seemed) were all about to the young people who lived them. Be Not Content made a big impression on me at the time. I was moved to read how those thoughtful emotionally open kids, hatefully lambasted by so many of their elders as immoral for their drug use and sexual behavior, were really trying to apply Jesus’s teachings of peace, love, and universal brotherhood to life in the wildly immoral years of war, police crackdowns, and assassinations. If only those mean cops could have been made to understand.

I would dearly love to reread them. And the unpublished works (unless they are truly unsuitable for publication). Is there any way to cajole/ encourage/ persuade Teresa into putting those books out there? The internet makes it possible to distribute writings without reliance on a publisher.

Failing that, what if someone scanned copies of the two published works and put ‘em out there on the net? Maybe send them to the Gutenberg Project? If they will never be published again then no money would be lost by anyone and the books might find new and wider audiences. In not too many more years they’ll turn 50 and become officially public domain, right?

RIP WJC. Thanks for recording your personal social history so eloquently. Your work really deserves wider readership.

By: Dagny

Dagny — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 08:28:16 +0000

I had such a big crush on Billy, his bike (I think it was a knuckel head) was so nice. I let mutual friends talk me into buying Billy’s old black “36″ Chevy coop from him even though I had no drivers licence or the ability to drive. I have thought about him from time to time and was sad to hear he passed away. I am grateful to have known him……… so long ago.

By: alan vlautin

alan vlautin — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:16:06 +0000

So nice to see how others have been touched and illuminated, even, by Bill’s presence and writing. I am sure this is a great comfort to Teresa. My wife and I were far away and could not attend the services to our sorrow. Below are the words I sent in our place trying to convey the unique beauty and wisdom of my friend.

Life provides some blessings. Friendship and love are at the top of my list. Bill Craddock’s friendship is an enduring blessing in my life. Besides being a reliable and true friend, his gift of cutting through the cant, puffery, hypocrisy and outright lies that entangle public and private discourse further enlightened and made me a more worthy opponent of pinheads in positions of authority and pious fools who hold forth as our religious and political leadership. Bill, through some inherent sensibility, sought alternative means of reaching the personal and moral strength needed to go past the crap that befuddles and comprises our desires to lead a good life. In his writing and discourse there was humor, joy and a level of honesty that commended him to the Gods, if not all others. Bill succeeded in life. He loved and was loved, very deeply.

Bill and I met in the heydays of the 60s at San Jose State College. We were both occasional contributors to the college newspaper. Sharing common purists and interests, Bill, several others, and myself launched an alternative student newspaper, “The Mobius Strip”, which only through Bill’s level headed dedication and hard work published several issues, delighting our contemporaries, annoying authorities and cementing our friendship. Over the years Bill and I shared adventures and confidences. I always knew he had, for me, the honest word and good advice. In 1984, I convinced him to travel to down to southern Mexico to a little town I’d been visiting for several years. In the course of revels there I fell in love with a beautiful woman from Quebec. Agonizing over the perils of a long distance romance when we both returned to our native climes, Bill, with his always-quick common sense, told me “Al, Just marry the lady”. That advice, well taken then, enriches my life from that day. Bill remained Paule’s and my most treasured friend till the day of his passing.

Bill was never a self-promoter of his work or embellished his experiences in his writing to pump his image up. His was a straightforward attempt to describe and document, not analyze, our times, our dreams, foolishness and heartfelt attempts to achieve change in our selves and our society. His first novel, “Be Not Content”, clearly delineated this and his second published work, “Twilight Candelabra”, uniquely foreshadowed the outlaw scenarios and riffs that infuse much of today’s mainstream and alternative literature and film. Someday, I hope, his other works, that his forever loving wife, Teresa, has carefully conserved will have a wider audience to appreciate his uncommon ability to describe walking barefoot through those existential streets of our youth, over the shards of the shattered realities, their jagged edges sparkling at our feet, shimmering in time to the music in our souls.

Yea, it was something like that and it went by pretty quick but there is a flame that still burns and won’t go out, like love and friendship. May your blessings be many and may you have friends like Bill.

By: Michael Witkin

Michael Witkin — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 03:31:39 +0000

Thanks for posting the obit, Rudy. I was two years ahead of Craddock at LGHS. Many of my friends from class of ’62 hung with him. I never met him, but could have recognized him by sight.