What I Didn't Do

Whereas some intellectual autobiographies record presence, the theme here is documenting what didn’t happen. One purpose implicit in the blank spaces is that readers are welcome to imagine the results had these proposals been supported (or to make notes). One theme is the reiteration of certain continuing interests. As a sometime trained historian I consider this book to be an experiment in autobiography that reflects the revolutionary influence of conceptual art in establishing value by framing absence. I’m not aware of any precedent except perhaps my own Unfinished My Intellectual Nonhistory (1990), where some of these examples appeared before.