A good number of literary friends and acquaintances acknowledged Rick Harsch's passing: W.D. Clarke, author of two of Rick's Corona\Samizdat titles; Louis Armand, author of The Combinations and Rick's literary friend in Central Europe who broke the news for most of us; Art Winslow, former literary editor at The Nation; Tom Bowden who posted an extensive interview with Rick; Draxtor, patron and reader; avid reader and gardener Shoba at Substack; poet Bob Black; and the folks at Equus Press.
I've read four or five Corona\Samizdat titles including Rick's slim Rick & Jack in Croatia. Rick and I were not close friends, but we had exchanged many emails, and he'd read all or substantial portions of both Fight for Your Long Day and the unpublished Spark Park: A Tale in Two Parts. He told me in one of the last emails I received from him that he was "trying to do too much"; publishing one of my books moved off the table only four to six weeks before Rick's initial serious medical event, and then Louis Armand seems to be telling us that Rick never left the room where he was recovering from the stroke and coma. He lived in that room for close to a year, but before that, he had an amazing run. He was published by traditional presses more than several times before he began producing his own books, sold the rights to The Manifold Destiny of Eddie Vegas to Zerogram Press, and launched W.D. Clarke and others into print for the first time as novelists.
Rick Harsch was an incredibly prolific author and publisher—a genuinely dedicated man of letters. Rick & Jack in Croatia is a slim memoir that partly concerns two of the greatest literary topics of all—at least according to the famous Irishman who passed through Trieste, like Rick, on the way to literary notoriety. I'm hopeful that Louis Armand or Rick's family will be able to liberate the remaining Corona\Samizdat titles. Rick contracted with a traditional small business who printed batches of books; he was not at all keen on print-on-demand or many of the other latest publishing gimmicks and trends—so when the remaining books become available, I will be sure to post news of it here.
