Gandy Dancing

About the Book

Gandy Dancing begins one of the more remarkable sagas of the last fifty years, the story of Malcolm Ward and his betrayal into the feared and violent world of the 1950's Insane Asylum when Thorozine was only an experiment and attendants routinely walked in pairs and laced up hobnail boots. Whoever would have thought One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was really the lighthearted version. Written by a man who was there and who still survived.

About the Author

44288: b. 6/10/35. A 1953 graduate of Newark, Ohio High School, 44288 was President of Honor Society, Treasurer of Student Council and Secretary of Key Club. Won Denison University scholarship. Worked 11 months on B&O Railroad Section, Outville Gang. Managed Newark Municipal Pool three summers. Dropped out of Ohio State University after being accepted into Law School for class of 1957. Went instead to New York to become a poet. Wound up on New York Bowery. Thumbed up and down Eastern Seaboard while on the road. Probated Columbus State Hospital Fall of 1959. Wrote quatrain Some Die Mad 1962/63. End recorded at Akron St. Thomas Hospital Alcoholic Ward Labor Day of 1968. High school file contained standard document asking 44288 what he wanted to do in life and after he graduated. He said he wanted to “Be a writer.”—Perry Aayr.