George Dibbern

Congratulations on all your efforts in writing Dark Sun! I want you to know I thoroughly enjoyed reading every word and never once got bored. In fact it’s still in my Bookhug as I reread parts when I get a chance. There’s much one could discuss about George and his chosen life-style but alas, not in a short email. ?? Personally, I agree that less is more when it comes to any government’s regulations and rules over us..but don’t get me started.;)

I’m no expert but I know what I like, and your book was a great read for me; I was sorry when it ended. Good on you for writing an excellent, thought provoking book.

I really enjoyed meeting you at your Dibbern book presentation. I have in the meantime read the book and can only confirm what you attempted to impart to your listeners: Dibbern is a fascinating person whose work (Quest) and whose biography (i.e. your book) deserve to be made available to the German reading public.

You have written a fascinating chronicle of a remarkable man. I’m sure it was an odyssey to complete the book as much as his life was and odyssey!!! I enjoyed your biography of him all the more so because he comes from the Kiel area, my birthplace. The quote on page 226, when he talks of the calm after the storm in very spritual terms, is the kind of thinking that apppeals to me.

Just finished the book! What a marvelous job you’ve done. The depth of research you’ve put into it, the continuity of the story, the sustained high level of interest, and the realism you’ve achieved in the characters of George and his family. I admire the passion and commitment you’ve put into this work. And the authenticity of language, that is, nautical terms and German references and reflections of that era. Nothing tacky. Dark Sun is a good mix of mystery, human interest and adventure. Well done!

George’s philosophy is still a mystery to me. On the one hand I think of him as an irresponsible drifter who seeks to justify his behavior by his ever expanding philosophy of “love is all and excuses all”, and on the other hand I can’t help thinking maybe he is on to something. In any case, the story certainly makes you think.

I hope the book takes hold in a big way and you get the credit you deserve.

Believe me, my husband’s not a reader – and he couldn’t put Dark Sun down!

Well, how do I start. Brilliant, what a book, the only book I’ve read in years that hasn’t sent me to sleep in 20 mins. …a bad dose of flu gave me the opportunity to read a few pages, and once I’d started I just had to continue. …Thank you Erika, a book I’ll treasure.

I am reading Dark Sun on passage. I love it. I wish I had known George & Eileen—some people! My Dad was a pacifist on Christian principles and was interned during the Second World War.

I am still convinced that this is not a “sailing/yachting book” proper. I think you did an absolutely wonderful job in pulling all this wealth of information together and arranging it in a very readable form. It really is the story of every human, isn’t it? I mean it’s about dreams and reality (and the resulting conflicts/discrepancies) in life. One spends one’s life in trying to make the discrepancies smaller; that seems the underlying purpose for most of us. […]

I really wanted to thank you for having written this book. No one else would have or perhaps could have. And you did it so well. It’s priceless for my family, of course, but it’s also of tremendous value for anyone—not just sailing folks—who is interested in these very basic but confusing issues regarding struggles in life everyone has in some form or another.

Du hast es so wunderbar geschrieben, daß es [Dark Sun] auch für “Nichtsegler” hoch interessant ist.

Translation: You wrote it so wonderfully that it [Dark Sun] is really interesting for “non-sailors” as well.

I just wanted to tell you that I am in the midst of reading, Dark Sun and which I am enjoying very much. You have a lively writing style that keeps the story of this amazing man moving right along.

It really moves along. I actually cried at the end.

Your writing style is so invitational and readable. I’m no author, as such, but as a story songwriter I know the importance of character development.

Even though you’ve written a biography with the story laid out in front of you and already know the beginning, middle, and end, it’s no easy task, I would think, to sustain the reader’s dramatic interest. There is a tone that you sustain that makes it sound like a tale of adventure of the mythic variety—which, of course, it is!

Page 169 I could read over and over and over again. It reflects some of my deepest inner longings and intentions. I need to repeat the following quote many times each day as a reminder of who/what I am/want to be about: “…now that I have found what is my work, to work at something else I feel would be wrong.” Heart surgery or no heart surgery, I’m still a troubadour for as long as I can be. Thanks for the reminder, George.

I believe this story intersects the lives of all of us in more ways than one.

I like your writing style – it really flows. I loved looking at the pictures; there’s such a variety. It’s quite a story…

I have now finished the book, but find it filling my thoughts at odd moments and I may even begin again! It was just so sad that he never saw his German family ever again, I can’t believe the children did not travel out to see him.

Ich habe es viel zu schnell gelesen, es ist spannend wie ein Kriminalroman. Ich habe ungeheuren respekt für Ihre Arbeit. Man meint, Sie seien dabei gewesen. […] Insgesamt zu Ihrem Buch denkt man manchmal, eine Art Kommentar oder Bewertung fehlt. Anderseits haben Sie ja durch das ganze Buch kurze oft weise Bemärkungen und Erklärungen gestreut. So treffend auch die überschriften der Kapital! Das sagt eigentlich genug und der Leser ist frei, selbst zu urteilen.

Von meiner deutschen Sicht aus wünschte ich mir noch, dass der Kontrast zwischen Nazideutschland und Dibbern beschrieben sein sollte. Hier die perfide und mörderische Barbarei, der Verlust alle Humanität und dort ein wahrer Mensch. Welch ein Lichtblick für uns Deutsche! Dass Sie diese Arbeit auf sich genommen haben, ist bewundernswert. Lassen Sie mich Dank sagen. Ohne Auftrag zwar aber doch im Namen aller Deutschen die unter der Erinnerung unserer schrecklchen Geschichte leiden. Dibbern ist – bei alle Unzulänglichkeit – Balsam für die deutsche Seele. Vielleicht dauert es noch eine Generation, bis er hier die gebührende Ehre erhält. Oder das Wunder geschieht, dank Ihre Arbeit. Vielen Dank dafür!

We met on the ferry a couple of years ago and I bought your book. I just wanted to tell you that I loved that book and I couldn’t put it down. I’m a world traveller myself and I just really got immersed in his story and I just loved it. The meticulous research that went into it was so obvious. Thank you for writing it – because I really enjoyed it.

I have just finished reading Dark Sun which greatly impressed me. I agree with the statement on the book’s “monumental challenge” to write the George Dibbern story. You are to be congratulated.

I dropped in [to the Squirrel Cove Craft Co-op] to say how much I am enjoying Dark Sun. What a tremendous job you have done. I do feel I know George Dibbern and would have appreciated him. I am going to try to find a copy of Quest as I am still not absolutely clear on what he termed his philosophy, and maybe it wasn’t altogether consistant or even coherent, though the basics of individual human freedom and the goal to be a citizen of the world are in my view admirable if virtually impossible to achieve. It is frustrating to watch freedoms being whittled away as security diminishes, and yet how can it be otherwise with the sheer growth of human numbers and complexity of technology. Yes, I share many of George’s frustrations! Perhaps my greatest frustration is watching the environment going down under a relentless onslaught of excess. Suffice it to say, this book provides lots of food for thought. A man of his turbulent times, Dibbern was also ahead of ours perhaps.

I have just finished reading Dark Sun and must let you know how much I enjoyed it. I find George fascinating but still cannot make up my mind whether he is a selfish escapist or some one to be admired for his determination to stick to his ideals! I wonder what would have happened if he had not been befriended by Henry Miller. The amount of research you did was enormous and I can see how it took you 10 years.

I admired your detail observations in the book. More like a novel.