His father was a former Sussex County judge, and he claimed to be family friends with Woodrow Wilson, a man who had a profound impact on his life.

[4] In 1953, he suggested that if Winston Churchill doublecrossed the United States, the atom bomb should be used to divert the Gulf Stream in order to freeze England.

[5] He suggested the same thing two years later in Upper Purgatory, claiming to have received a letter from William E. Bergin, Adjutant General of the United States, treating the idea seriously (pages 17–18).

[7] That year he also provided the foreword to a book by Blanche A. Draper, the pastor of the Church of the Radiant Flame, a woman who worked as a psychic and medium.

In the book, he addressed ghosts, ectoplasm, demons, zombies, werewolves and other similar topics, as well as claiming to be a descendant of Jean Bodin.

Old Vagabond serves as a vector for Bodin to express his views, where he derides those who seek conflict based on class or race, champions both Robert E. Lee and Abraham Lincoln as true American heroes, and calls for a universal religious brotherhood regardless of faith.