In this issue: A special tribute to Alan Weiss
Mathematician, graduate of M.I.T., wanderer through Cuba, Paris, Corfu, Alan Weiss (Nigeria 1963–64) joined the Peace Corps wanting “to become part of something for once.” He entered a summer training program at Columbia University in New York City, preparatory to assignment as a teacher. In his book, High Risk/High Gain, he tells the story of that training program. The book, published by St. Martin’s Press in 1968, had as its subtitle: “A freewheeling account of Peace Corps Training.” From time to time in the years following its publication, I would spot small back-page ads in magazines like The New Republic offering the book for sale. Alan had bought from the publisher copies of his remaindered book and was hawking the book himself. Then the ads disappeared. The book disappeared. And Alan Weiss disappeared. He committed suicide in 1971.
     Since those days, two RPCVs who served with Alan — Bob Cohen and Ed Gruberg — have kept telling tales of Weiss. Repeatedly, Bob Cohen would suggest that I write about Weiss and his Peace Corps book in our newsletter RPCV Writers & Readers.
     So we begin our new website with an interview with Bob Cohen, a remembrance by Ed Gruberg, a review of High Risk/High Gain and excerpts from High Risk/High Gain. We, too, will keep his book alive.