Degrees of separation. I was in Europe in the late 1980s and bumped into the actor Donald Sutherland while standing in a queue at a ticket counter at the Orly airport in Paris. One of his best known roles was that of Vernon Pinkley in the 1967 film adaptation of the novel “The Dirty Dozen,” by E.M. Nathanson. Later in the ’90s I had one of my prints featured in the MacWorld Expo in San Francisco. Through that exhibition I became acquainted with Ileana Grillo, a Venezuelan artist living in San Diego. She participated in an outdoor art fair in Laguna Niguel, and was approached by a man looking for a book designer. Ileana declined, but recommended me. That’s how I came to know author and historian E.M. “Mick” Nathanson. Mick was such a gracious and generous man. I never got to meet him in person, but we became great friends by phone, letter and email. Mick had recovered the publishing rights to his works, and wanted to issue new editions under his own company. I was thrilled to help him do that. Under his colophon ReGenesis Press in 2002, we published a revised edition of “The Dirty Dozen,” its sequel “A Dirty Distant War,” “The Newcomers,” and “Lovers and Schemers.” Now, Mick’s son Michael E. Nathanson has been working with me to publish his novels “Cries of the Eagle” and “Curse of the Eagle.” I just finished adapting the cover of “Cries…” for an audiobook version coming soon. One thing does indeed lead to another.
The Dirty Dozen
