I had only a few close encounters w/Stanley Crouch over the years & don’t remember the substance so much as the aftertaste of intense generosity his prodigious attention and argumentative fervor carried.

Disagreement, even confrontation, was not simple aggression with Crouch — it didn’t necessarily create an obstacle to connection. On the contrary. It was like because he took himself seriously if he was getting into it with you he took you seriously. He gave a damn.

I last saw Crouch a few yrs ago, long since we'd last met. I was in a coffee shop & he came in & sat reading Faulkner. He didn’t recognize me & I was glad just to be entranced by watching him entranced. When I left, I said, Good book & he said, Oh man -- like I had no idea.