David Hajdu tells us in Positively 4th Street that Fariņa had been scheduled to write an essay for Esquire's annual College Issue before he died. Upon Fariņa's death, the editor at Esquire asked Thomas Pynchon to write an article on Fariņa to fill in the scheduled slot, but Pynchon considered the idea exploitive. The editor then appealed to Joan Baez, who wrote an affectionate essay on her memories of Fariņa. A tacky and non-sensical title, "Introduction to (and Conclusion of) of Future Hero," was probably added by Esquire and had little to do with Baez's essay, which was a highly personal reminiscence far removed from the cult status Fariņa attained briefly after his death. The editors also added the breezy, mock-solemn blurb, Folk singer, composer, dulcimer player, hippie and lyric dreamer, the epigram of his novel read, "I must soon quit the scene..." The tragedy is: he did. The article began with a flashy two-page spread, with a huge picture of Fariņa's head emitting comic-book style word balloons filled with soundbites from the novel. Unfortunately, Esquire was such a large magazine back in the sixties (13" by 10") that the pages wouldn't even fit on my scanner. To make matters worse, the huge picture of Fariņa's head is right in the middle of the spread, split by the spine of the magazine. So this is the best I can do:

A detail of the famous Fariņa head:

This issue also contained an article about the growing popularity of comic books--particularly Marvel Comics--among college students, some of whom were beginning to write theses and dissertations on them. Fariņa would have liked that! Mimi once explained a reference to Plastic Man in Long Time Coming and a Long Time Gone:

"As for Plastic Man, Dick just loved all that weirdness, cartoon-craziness; he really had that great sense of mush! I have an odd feeling that they've met by now, he and Plastic Man and all the rest. I hope they're having a good laugh." (p. 40, Random House edition)

Let's take a closer look at some of these vignettes:

Incidentally, Esquire did finally get a Fariņa piece for their 1969 College Issue, a short story called "Ringing In The New Year In Happy Havana." For more information on the September 1969 issue, click here.

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