M.Ted, I pretty much agree with everything you just said - I don't know for sure how SF would have felt about the comparison to GM - but probably not too bad!

Not miracles, though, I think - just luck, place, and timing. I did, in a very few years, in a time of many cultural changes, meet a surprising number of people whose art and lives are still being talked about and written about, though not always in a positive vein.

Makes me an interesting, if eccentric, old aunt to my intelligent neices, that's the real value!