Johnny Plutonium and Other Survival Stories: Humanity as an Endangered Species

By Harry Willson

An accomplished storyteller and social essayist, Willson avails himself of a full repertoire of literary techniques to tease and taunt us into a deeper appreciation for What There Is, All Interconnected. How does humanity fit into The Whole Thing? Are we anything more than a temporary infestation? Willson's sharply cynical humor is tempered by an all-abiding love of life and living.

"Willson is writing about ideas that can't just be digested over lunchbreak cheeseburgers and then forgotten in the scheduled hectic afternoon of 'nomality'." --Ben G. Price, ANARCHY

"These are the musings of an agnostic pantheist, who is not above tackling that old philosophical chestnut called, 'free will.' Throughout my reading of these stories and pithy comments, the words of Shakespeare's Puck resurfaced again and again: 'What fools these mortals be!'" -- Fred Gillette Sturm, Department of Philosophy, University of New Mexico

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: Harry Willson's opposition to radioactive dumping in New Mexico led him to publish the anti-nuclear manifesto of physicist Charles L. Hyder, to support Dr. Hyder in his fast against the Waste Isolation Pilot Project in Carlsbad, New Mexico, and to personally provide testimony to the Department of Energy in opposition to the plant. It is our privilege to honor Harry Willson's wish that 10% of the proceeds from sales of this book be donated to these organizations: Citizens for Alternatives to Radioactive Dumping (CARD), Albuquerque, NM [www.cardnm.org] and Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, Santa Fe, NM [www.nuclearactive.org].

• Language: English
• Publisher: Amador Publishers, LLC
• Release date: Oct 17, 2017
• ISBN: 9780938513292

Harry Willson

Harry Willson's formal schooling include a B.A. in chemistry and math at Lafayette College, Easton, PA, 1953 [summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa], and an M.Dv. [Master of Divinity] in ancient mid-east language and literature at Princeton Theological Seminary. He also became bilingual, through one year of Spanish Studies at the University of Madrid, and he studied Spanish, literature, philosophy, mythology and theatre arts at the University of New Mexico. He has the Diploma de Espanol como Lengua Extranjera from the University of Salamanca.He learned more by working: truck farming through high school and college in Williamsport, PA, and jackhammering in Lansdale, PA. He served as student pastor at the Presbyterian Church, Hamburg, NJ, for four years while in seminary.In 1958 he moved his family to New Mexico, where he served as bi-lingual missionary pastor, in Bernalillo, Alameda and Placitas for eight years. He served as Permanent Clerk of the Presbytery of Rio Grande, Chairman of Enlistments and Candidates, Chairman of the Commission on Race, and Moderator of the Presbytery.In 1966 he left the church, in sorrow and anger, mostly over its refusal to take a stand against the Vietnam War. He taught school for ten years, at the Albuquerque Academy and at Sandia Preparatory School.In 1976 he became self-employed, assisting in his wife's business, Draperies by Adela, and managing several businesses of his own, including worm ranching, organic gardening, conducting dream workshops, raising rabbits, selling fireplace inserts and caning chairs. All the while he was building a body of work as a writer. In 1986, he and Adela founded Amador Publishers.Throughout his life, Harry was an activist in peace and justice causes. In 1965 he answered Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s call for clergy to go to Selma, Alabama to assist in voter registration and demonstrations again police brutality in the wake of "Bloody Sunday." He participated in the successful march from Selma to Montgomery on March 25, where he personally witnessed Dr. King deliver his "How Long, Not Long" speech. In later years he joined the movement to stop radioactive dumping in New Mexico. He was a long-time member of the Humanist Society of New Mexico.Harry's work has been hard to classify, according to genre. He considered his outlook "planetary, unitary, peacemaking, anti-racist and anti-sexist, sensing the importance of the inner, curious, sensual, mythic."Harry Willson, prolific writer of fiction, satire, social commentary and philosophy, died on March 9, 2010 at the age of 77.