In the process of writing Living by Fiction, I talked myself into writing an old-fashioned novel. The result was The Living (1992). It tells the story of the first European settlers plunked down on the Pacific Northwest coast. (They watched the ship sail away). During the many years of its writing I never allowed myself to read anything that postdated the year I was writing about, nor did I use any anachronistic word. Many readers bought and loved this book---according to my mail (now at Yale).