Stimso Adid

From Plastic Tub

Born May 27, 1920 in Cairo, Egypt.

Stimso Adid's father Ali was an Egyptian who had voyaged to India and become a soldier in the Royal Army. He rose to the rank of Staff Sergeant Major, 1st Class. There he met and fell in love with Miss Veronica Stimson, the pretty young daughter of a spice merchant who had taken up residence in New Delhi. Though Barnabas Stimson didn't object to his daughter's marriage to a Muslim, others were less forgiving. The elder Adid was transferred to a diplomatic post in his native Cairo. After the War he retired and became a guide and outfitter for English archeologists working in Egypt and North Africa. His son was born in 1920 and he and his wife chose to honor their open-minded father by naming him Stimso. In 1922 a sister, Fatima was born.

Young Stimso was one of those young lads caught between worlds, never quite fitting in with the Muslim population and rejected by the snobbery of the English. He wasn't entirely unhappy though. His mother bequeathed to the lad a love of art and literature. An unusual woman for the time, she exposed him to the avant-garde currents of European literature, painting and cinema. His father introduced him to Sufism and the Arabian Nights.

When England entered the Second World War, young Stimso did not hesitate to join. He wasn't a great lover of England, but he was looking for adventure. In 1939 he joined the Royal Marines. That same year a training accident damaged his hearing and his right leg enough to get him a medical discharge. He then obtained a visa and travelled to the United States to follow a course in anthropology at the University of Chicago.

Adid took a room at a boarding house at 27 Waukegan Blvd., where he whiled away his time studying lazily and smoking hashish with a small circle of Tunisian friends. One day he received a curious visitor. A distinguished-looking young WASP about his age appeared at his door bearing a letter from his mother.

Co-founder, with Stimes Addisson of Accidental Associationalism. Author of THE BOOK OF A DEED; co-founder-editor original series Reticent 27.