Monday, August 13, 2012

Little Paul's Oldest Daughter





Claire Vaye Watkins on Growing up Manson and “Battleborn”

For writer Claire Vaye Watkins her life has been lived in the shadow of her father, Charles Manson’s right-hand man, but in her debut story collection she breaks free to capture the American West with beauty and power. She speaks to Claiborne Smith about her hunger for Nevada, her mother’s death, and her fiction.

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(L-R) Author Claire Vaye Watkins. Members of Charles Manson's "family", Mark Ross, tall with dark beard, Paul Watkins, front center, and Catherine "Gypsy" Share, holding Sandra Good's son Ivan, congregate in the Los Angeles Hall of Justice on Feb. 24, 1970. None of these is accused. (Twitter; AP Photo)

5 comments:

Leigh said...

Thanks for sharing. Can't wait to read the book. I've been seeing lots of good press for it all over the place. The stuff I've already seen in literary magazines is fantastic.

TomG said...

From the excerpts that I was able to pull up on the internet, I found Claire Vaye Watkins to be a pretty good writer, with a story that is very worth being told.

TomG said...

She also claims that Steve Grogan set afire a van that Paul was sleeping in which almost killed him. Which singed his lungs and ruined his vocals.

But were all suppose to respect Adam Gabriel, or whoever the fuck he is, with all the shit he's sidestepped. Bald headed semi-pro ex felon jerk off. No wonder he wears a hat. And it wouldn't hurt to drop a few pounds, Clem, Steve, Adam.

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Leigh said...

Didn't Grogan say he did it at some point but it was never clear whether they were actually behind it or it was just an accident (falling asleep with a still-burning joint, a candle, whatever)?

Her story 'Ghosts, Cowboys' is the only one in the book that is related to her father and Manson. All of the stories are fiction so some of the details even in that story are fictionalized. The story from 2009 on Granta's website called 'Keeping it in the family' is non-fiction though.