A memorial by Trevor Blake

Peter Lamborn Wilson, also known as Hakim Bey, has passed. Peter was an enthusiast for Der Geist, the annual publication of The Union of Egoists. He volunteered to be an uncredited copy editor for several issues, for which we gave thanks and give thanks again.

I met Peter in Boston in 1987. He and I became correspondents. I published several of his essays in my zine OVO which were later collected in his book T.A.Z.: The Temporary Autonomous Zone. That’s why he gives thanks to OVO in T.A.Z. My work appeared in two books he edited, semiotext(e) USA and The Astral Convention (the later he gave me permission to reprint a very limited number of). I met Peter a second time a few years later in New York City, and after that a few phone calls, and after that letters with ever longer between them.

I still have the essays, zines and letters he sent me, many still uncollected. I still have the friends he introduced me to. But none of us have Peter any more.

A memorial by Kevin I. Slaughter

I was late to the egoist party by name, traveling to it from non-Anarchist origins. When Trevor and I began the work on the Union of Egoists project it was clear that Mr. Wilson was one of the few living bridges to the great figures of the egoist past. From his work with the Libertarian Book Club of New York City, his collaborations with Mark A. Sullivan and much more, I was pleased to have him as a correspondent in the last few years. It was with a great deal of pride that he took on a role as proofreader beginning with the second issue of our journal Der Geist, which he was quite fond of. He fell too ill to work on the fifth issue, but I was pleased to be able to send him a copy a few months ago with our best wishes. I sent him a Union of Egoists lapel pin, and tucked in a signed copy of his Utopian Trace he wrote a letter: “Thanx for lovely pin – send GEIST 3 galleys for proofreading if you wish!” I have only begun to explore the great deal of work he has now left behind, and I am proud that the Union of Egoists is, in some small way, part of that work.