remembering a friend

I was "organizing" yesterday & came across a letter written nearly 9 years ago by Richard Martin. it was a shock because I left Richard's hundreds of letters with my papers at Kent State before moving here & after his death in 1999 at the age of 52 sent the remaining letters there. this one was never filed & got "lost." he wrote abt giving his last interview following the murder of Versace & going to see a movie: "I knew I wanted to affirm life in some basic way."

I began my correspondence with Richard in the summer of 1977 when he was editor of Arts. he was doing a Smithson issue & Nancy Holt suggestd to him that I write abt "Partially Buried Woodshed." we didn't meet till 1981 in Cleveland during a costume conference. he was representing FIT & I was helping set up the costume museum at KSU.

my admiration for him as art critic & scholar of fashion history was matchd by my delight in sharing our lives. we often wrote several letters a day to each other & on the phone we giggld like school girls. our attempt at romance never quite workd -- partly because of the distance between us & partly because being buddies seemd more permanent than being lovers.

I miss Richard. & when I saw his familiar writing of my name on that envelope yesterday I became teary. but I was lucky because I had as much time with him as I did.



with Richard in spring of 1990 in Kent