John Richard Nold

The Ocean Roars: Sketches and Stories from the 50s and 60s John Richard Nold

"My lifelong passion has been for great literature, great music, great art including
sculpture and architecture, and great philosophy.
I had some talented English teachers in high school and at the junior college in St.
Joseph, MO.; also at Kansas University in Lawrence, KS., with extra credits from
the University of Missouri-Columbia and University of Missouri-Kansas City.
This led to my embarking on a teaching vocation myself. I taught on several levels
and I should have been able to use the experience to my benefit. Instead I had
a breakdown that took me a while to recover from. While I was floundering my
way out of this dilemma, I was hired by the City of Kansas City, MO. for a clerical
position and was assigned to their Municipal Farm (a still flourishing prison farm)
which eventually evolved into the Municipal Correctional Institution. I intended and
expected that this would be a temporary expedient for me. I ended up staying for
thirty years, mostly as a records officer at the prison.
I?ve never written about those years, but that may yet occur provided time allows.
During those thirty years I was able to partake of the City?s rich cultural life and I
read, read, read and also continued to write all through that period.
Here are some stories from an earlier period of my life before most of these
latter things happened. Eventually I broadened my horizon to include an interest
in German literature and currently I?m working at developing and honing my
translation skills, hoping to make a contribution to the literary challenge of being
a translator."