Walker Winslow (February 2, 1905 – May 3, 1969) was an American poet and novelist, one of whose books — an autobiographical work describing his experiences in psychiatric hospitals, both as a patient and as a ward attendant — was published under the pseudonym Harold Maine.
Winslow was something of a larger than life character: "Walker's forte was people"[1] wrote Henry Miller in his 1957 book Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch.
[10] His writing also appeared in the left wing magazine The Anvil,[11] and Kathryn kept up a correspondence with its editor, the novelist Jack Conroy, for the next dozen or so years.
[15] After their separation, Kathryn moved to San Francisco, and Walker soon followed her there, before heading down to South California to the area where his parents lived and to the county where his first wedding had taken place, to sort things out.
[31] Winslow moved from Bellevue to a Christian-run institution for alcoholics in a rural setting about fifty miles from New York, and while there he started working on an old manuscript for a novel.
[34] That year Man in Paradise, subtitled 'A Novel of Hawaii as it is today,' was published by Smith & Durrell, New York[35] One of the novel's themes was the growing influence of the island's resident Japanese population; the book came out in late November,[36] not much more than a week before the attack on Pearl Harbor.
[38] Upon release he found life in the outside world too daunting, and struck upon the idea of working as an attendant in a psychiatric facility, where not only could he find some connection with patients, but also be in a safer and controlled environment.
[42] In the mid 1940s Winslow was in California, and spent time at Big Sur where he was close to Henry Miller, the two of them taking long walks together nearly every evening.
[45] Winslow's former wife[37][46] Kathryn Winslow, with whom Walker had kept in touch, corresponding regularly,[15] had met Miller at Big Sur in 1944, and four years later with her new husband William Mecham was to open a sort of bookstore devoted to selling his work, called “M, the studio for Henry Miller” in the area of Chicago’s old Jackson Park art colony.
Walker wrote at top speed, and seemingly without interruption, in a tiny shack by the roadside which Emil White had built to house the steady stream of stragglers who were forever busting in on him for a day, a week, a month or a year.
[63] At the time of his initial involvement with the Topeka Hospital Winslow was living in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Edna was writing to him from Rochester, New York.
She met the bus and spent the weekend with him, but due to the restricted nature of Los Alamos she was unable to offer him a place to stay.
[74] By this time he was a respected counsellor in the treatment of alcoholics, but around 1963 he dropped out of sight and was eventually found holed up in an apartment and drinking heavily.
[75] For the remaining years of Winslow's life, his long time friend Henry Miller did what he could to help with money,[76] and also to ensure that Walker received the appropriate hospital and institutional care.