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About the Author
About the Fictional Author
Selby Fing was a failed priest, poet, father and husband who lived a life of abandonment and sorrow in Philadelphia from 1941-60. Raised by his Catholic grandparents (in circumstances of desperation) to become a priest, Fing had the first of several bouts with mental illness, when he was asked to leave the seminary at age 19. He then became an itinerant English teacher and poet, moving around the USA and finding work in various places, always for a short time, because of his instability. He and his common-law wife, Lilica Del Rio, had two children. They moved back to Philadelphia in the last years of his life, where he experienced his final breakdown after finishing The Profane Comedy. He killed himself on July 4th, 1976.
LIMBO: Part Two of The Profane Comedy
D. Selby FingNew Academia Publishing/SCARITH, 2024
64 pages
ISBN 979-8-99005-42-33 Paperback
See an excerpt from the book.
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About the Author
About the Fictional Author
Selby Fing was a failed priest, poet, father and husband who lived a life of abandonment and sorrow in Philadelphia from 1941-60. Raised by his Catholic grandparents (in circumstances of desperation) to become a priest, Fing had the first of several bouts with mental illness, when he was asked to leave the seminary at age 19. He then became an itinerant English teacher and poet, moving around the USA and finding work in various places, always for a short time, because of his instability. He and his common-law wife, Lilica Del Rio, had two children. They moved back to Philadelphia in the last years of his life, where he experienced his final breakdown after finishing The Profane Comedy. He killed himself on July 4th, 1976.
LIMBO: Part Two of The Profane Comedy
Fing arrives in Limbo (USA 1826-1899) after falling out of Perdition, and lands at Ft. Phoenix in Fairhaven Massachusetts. He reunites with Lincoln and meets Herman Melville. They shortly make their way to New Bedford, where they spend some scenes on the docks, joining with a second guide, Jack, who has down’s syndrome. They meet Millard Fillmore and Stephen Douglas before joining with a crew of seamen at the “first shanty bar they could find that to walk in.” There they have adventures with the seamen and Ulysses Grant, before beginning their uphill ascent in earnest, continuing up Union Street, making a few stops on the way. One stop is at Old Hickory’s Tannery, where Andrew Jackson, “accoutred as a Roman” rapes Fing. Shortly after, Fing and Jack witness Lincoln’s assassination, which leaves Fing without his guide. But Jack is there and able, and they are also soon joined by Frederick Douglass and Gertrude Stein as the journey toward Lilica, Freedom, Love and Enlightenment continues. They go to the St. Lawrence Church on County Street and further adventures with a barber, Edgar Allan Poe, John Tyler, Texas, Andrew Johnson and Rutherford Hayes ensue, before Jack and Fing leap off the top of the church tower.