interested in bayard's life, i decided that i'd better call walter, the executor of the estate of bayard rustin. he's also the one who was bayard's longtime companion the last ten years of his life. and i knew that i needed to talk to walter to see whether i could have permission to reprint and publish these letters in the volume. and walter was so generous and so kind, and he gave permission after a short while. now, picking the letters is not easy. what i wanted to do was sort of show the chronology of his life, but i also wanted to show bayard's personality, and i wanted to show different parts of it. so i wanted to show bayard in his sensitive moment, and i wanted to show bayard in his angry moments. so i wanted to show that part of his personality. i also wanted to show how his politics sort of evolved through the years. i wanted to show his relationship with his family and his relationship with his political friends and his political enemies. so i had these different criteria in mind. and there were some letters that didn't make it in, some beautiful letters that didn't make it in, unfort