How is it that the text is dedicated to Yukio Mishima?
Mishima, the Japanese homoerotic post WWII novelist, was a personal friend of Williams. The two met casually on the street in Manhattan in 1957, then formally at the offices of New Directions two days later. Williams visited Japan as Mishima’s guest in 1959, then again in 1969. Mishima committed hara-kiri in 1970 at the age of 45.
