Ed Ramsey

I grew up on an ancestral farm two miles west of the bleak, wind-swept (bleak at least in the month of January) prairie village of Crystal, North Dakota. It is hard to divine background influences, but certainly there is a vibrant, creative streak that runs through the generations of Reillys (on my paternal grandmother's side), and that blood and spark are strong in me. I could have been a writer, or have gone to prison, or have been a warrior in Viet Nam, but due to the restraining direction from a firm and fiery mother, I have manged to stay out of trouble, for the most part. The debt that I owe her cannot be repaid.

Dad was half Reilly so the same inventive, artistic temperament flowed through his veins, But his English, Ramsey side gave him from tempering, sensible perspective, so he too lived a pretty regular life.

Mom was an O'Sullivan whose Mother, Margeurite, was a McAndress. These O'Sullivan women were extroverts, loud, aggressive, fiery, (they could be vengeful) and imposing. They were pioneers and matriarchs; they were forces to be reckoned with. Their men suffered badly from alcoholism, so most of the women were fanatically anti-booze. Their Roman Catholicism was the center of their world, and I am deeply ingrained with its psychology and worldview. Their men were rural, macho, patriarchal pioneers. My Grandfather O'Sullivan was powerfully built man who took sauce off of no one, and everybody knew and stepped aside. From the O'Sullivans, I received work ethic, passion, love of life, large appetites, macho outlook and stubbornness.
Deep down, it is less important who were our influences, but, because all are blessed with great talent and potential. Antecedents in no way prevent the ambitious from doing whatever they desire to achieve. Where we came from just flavors how we act, react and perform as we venture along in life. The rest is up to us.

I was writing poetry back in 1972 and 1973. I wrote a series of novels, or started on them, called Somard of Lufe, about a hero/savant leading his people in a hidden retreat, where a small band of elite humans lived in a managed paradise in some northern realm like Iceland. I decided that it was so heavy on didactic content that I might as well just turn to philosophical writing openly. I had made that decision by 1975, and Volume I and Volume II of my first book grew out of those early efforts.