THE LAKESIDE LITERARY SCENE
By Alejandro Grattan-Dominguez

The lakeside area has long been a mecca for writers from all over the world. In 1923, D.H. Lawrence took up residence in Chapala, where he would eventually complete one of his most celebrated novels, The Plumed Serpent. In the late thirties, W. Somerset Maugham lived for several months in Ajijic, putting the final touches on The Razor´s Edge, a book that when transposed to the screen would win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Another famous work had its genesis here at Lakeside. In the forties, Tennessee Williams spent time in Ajijic, staying at the legendary Old Posada, where almost every night he hosted a poker game.

These games were the inspiration for a short story called The Poker Night, which eventually became the play (and later the movie) A Streetcar Named Desire. Since then, many other (albeit less famous) writers have spent time in our area, encouraged by not only the literary tradition but the glorious weather and low cost of living. A few of the more illustrious of these scribes are Barbara Bickmore, who while living here wrote several best-selling novels, and Jim Tuck, a writer who has penned several non-fictional books. Over the past few decades, there has often been a writer´s group in Ajijic. Its latest incarnation came in 1990, when a woman organized the group that still exists today. The lady who first formed the group, however, never returned after the initial meeting. Years later, she was asked why she had not returned to the very group she had founded. She replied that when she observed the rowdy antics of writers and wannabees who had responded to her call, said she felt much like Dr. Frankenstein must have when first seeing the over-the-top behavior of his creation. Today, the group still sports many of the more profane and colorful characters to be found here at Lakeside. But writers have never been noted for their docile manner. The group meets the first and third Fridays of every month in a beautiful garden, a deceptively placid setting for what often becomes a veritable battle-ground of hotly-contested views and opinions. Visitors interested in such intellectual carnage are warmly invited.

(The author is the editor of El Ojo del Lago, who after serving a twenty-five year sentence in Hollywood as a director/writer, came to Ajijic to try his hand at writing novels. His first book, The Dark Side of the Dream, was published in 1995. His second novel, Breaking Even, was published in November of 1997.)
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