LTV Presents Peter Leroy
Those readers who have faithfully followed the adventures and peregrinations of the fictional character Peter Leroy will have a chance to meet the character in person (though he may look a little like his creator, Eric Kraft) in a 13-part series to be aired on LTV, starting on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
For more than 35 years, Eric Kraft has been working to make one large work of fiction that is composed of many interconnected parts, all revolving around Peter Leroy.
The author has said "it is about the effect of the imagination on perception, memory, hope, and fear; about life in the United States in this century; about the physical nature of the universe and the role of human consciousness within it, and - despite the misery of many of its characters - it is about joy."
Boy In Dream
Mr. Kraft recalls a cold winter afternoon in 1962, when, as a sophomore majoring in physics and mathematics at Harvard, he fell asleep in the Lamont Library. When he fell off his chair and woke up, he recalled a dream about a little boy, sitting on a dilapidated dock and dabbling his feet in the water. The child became Peter Leroy.
Over the years, he added a context for the boy - an island with an abandoned hotel on a gray bay - and eventually he began to write about it. The hunt for a form that could accommodate so much material was wearying and frustrating, he recalled.
"I know now that throughout that time I was looking not only for a form, but also for a voice," Mr. Kraft said.
In 1975, Mr. Kraft was laid off by the educational publishing company he was working for, and he became a freelance editor.
Wider Public
He began publishing the Leroy history in the form of a newsletter, mailing it to friends, but it wasn't until 1981 that Peter Leroy started to reach a wider public in the form of published novels.
The large (and growing) work of fiction called "The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences and Observations of Peter Leroy," which Newsweek called "the literary equivalent of Fred Astaire dancing: great art that looks like fun," now contains seven novels: "Herb 'n' Lorna," "Reservations Recommended," "Little Follies," "Where Do You Stop?" "What a Piece of Work I Am," "At Home With the Glynns," and the latest, "Leaving Small's Hotel," which will be published in the spring.
"I have gone to all this trouble, am going to all this trouble, and will continue to go to all this trouble," said Mr. Kraft, "to produce the artifacts of what lies at the center of this work and is implied by it: the mind of Peter Leroy."
The backdrop of Mr. Kraft's readings will appear to be the lobby of Small's Hotel ("the little hotel without a slogan"), where Peter lives and writes while his beautiful wife, Albertine, runs the hotel.
Albertine has arranged for her husband, by now an aging dreamer, to read brief reminiscences of his personal history to the hotel guests for 50 consecutive evenings. It is these readings - in reality excerpts from "Leaving Small's Hotel" - that will constitute the 13 television episodes. Genie Chipps Henderson is the producer and director.
After graduating from Harvard, Mr. Kraft received a master's degree in teaching from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He has taught school and written textbooks, received a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and was for a time part owner and co-captain of a clam boat, which sank.