Jeff Swanson

Swanson disappeared on an ill-advised trip to the Arctic in late 1926 -- but even before that he was a mystery, smudged out by the fog of conflicting opinions and recollections, just as he would be effaced by history in the dim and merciless fog of the poles, eventually to be overturned on some floe, dumped into the deep slush of the polar ocean, and consumed by narwhals and worms. That is, of course, conjecture -- according to some, Swanson was an accomplished Yogi and enjoyed the power of levitation. This might explain some rumored sightings in the forests of Siberia during the Gulag era, but whenever the commissars took detachments out into the woods to hunt down this shaggy vagabond, they were never able to find him. What's more, strange things happened during those sorties -- birds went still, or cried out in nonsense tongues...dogs disappeared...a man was struck blind, another man's right eye changed color to blood red for three hours, still another man's hair went white, permanently. But no firm sightings, which only increased the legend and, though you may not have heard of it, rest assured there are young students in the halls of Academia preparing papers on Swanson at this very moment.

More information can be found at jeff2001.livejournal.com or www.myspace.com/wordlings. Swanson's book can be found at his website, Wordlings.