Made a minor correction to my Pirsig timeline when Jim Williams pointed out I’d mixed up second wife Wendy with first wife Nancy in 1976. Ooops.
Coincidentally, and much more exciting, Toronto Star journalist Mark Richardson has agreed a deal with Knopf (Random House, hardcover) and Vintage (paperback) for publication of his “Zen & Now” story of his own Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (ZMM) road trip, into which he has woven much newly researched detail of Pirsig’s biography. Due in September next year; 2008 is the 40th anniversary of the orginal ZMM road trip.
Pisrig fans and scholars will find much new interest in detail background to the schizophrenic enlightenment behind ZMM and Lila. I wish Mark every success with the publication.
See also Henry Gurr’s news item for November 2007.