Cogglnas Indirectly, with many of them. Because of Joaquin 

 Miller. Hi a home on the "Eights" was a shrine for 

 poets. I hadn^t known Joaquin Miller well before 

 then because I hadn't had many contacts with poetry. 



0ilb8 Of all this groi^ you mentioned, who were your 

 close friends? Were any of them in your inner 

 circle of friends? 



Coggins: I saw a great deal of Joaquin Miller and was with 

 him a great deal of the time. Re would come over 

 and we'd have lunch together. I would go up to his 

 place. Sometimes I'd stay overnight there in his 

 mother's cabin. Through him I would meet other 

 people like Q^esrge Sterling, who came up there. 



0ilbl What kind of a man was Sterling? 



Coggins: He was a tragic figure. I wouldn't say he was 



running away from things, but the life he had to 

 live wasn't the life he'd like. As you know, he 

 finally committed suicide. The story was— I don*t 

 know if we should say these things or not. They 

 don't hurt anybody's feelings. 



ailbs Ho. 



Coggins t Well, the story was that somebody had given him a 

 lot of liquor so he could entertain Mencken, who 

 was coming to San Francisco. When Mencken arrived. 

 Sterling had drunk up all the liquor. He was so 



