A Troubled Mind Translated into Words

A troubled mind translated into words is how one critic described Calvin London. Another referred to him as having Van Gogh syndrome. Vincent Willem van Gogh was a Dutch Impressionist artist. He created over 2,000 works in his lifetime. He sold only one painting in his lifetime and gained fame only after his death.

Ironically, the first Top story Calvin ever achieved on the popular Vocal platform was about writing and comparisons to Van Gogh.  “Do You Have Van Gogh Syndrome?” was written in November 2024.

Calvin developed a passion for writing in his thirties. In his various jobs, he was recognised for his newsletters and articles. He used these to teach and train employees in the companies where he worked. These were all non-fiction, technical, or scientific works. He published over 50 scientific journal articles throughout his lifetime.

The other facets of his writing would have to wait for another ten years to show. He had a background in writing songs for various bands in the seventies. He picked a career over writing and focused on it until his semi-retirement. Then, he began creating most of his memorable works.

The itch didn’t go away. At his last company, he wrote much of the first-draft content for his Ben Boa book series. In an interview that marked the release of the third book, he was asked how the character came about.

"Ben Boa was a made-up character. He appeared around the time of the Chinese pharmaceutical industry crisis. Most characters in the first series were based on real people. They were inspired by employees from the company I worked at. I won't reveal who they were, but I will say there's a lot of my alter ego in Calvernicus, the Godfather of Compliance."

London never had a huge following; it was more of a cult following of loyal supporters. His passing changed that to some degree. Critics have said that a part of his lack of recognition was that he didn’t have a main genre. Instead, he wrote across fiction, non-fiction, and poetry.

His non-fiction often included humour. A good example is his series “The Grumpy Old Men,” which began in his later years. His work was known for lively dialogue. Many readers felt this made the stories come alive and feel real.

His poetry was dominated by nature, the things around us, and the elements (good and bad) of love. Non-fiction after retiring shared life lessons. When asked about his series “52 Guiding Lights," he said:

"I have always loved idioms and sayings. I used them at work to express feelings and needs. Guiding Lights began as a project to compile 52 sayings. Each saying comes with an explanation, creating a book—one saying for each week of the year."

This was helped along enormously by writing one every week or two on the Vocal platform. It provided a great sounding board for those stories readers related to and those that didn’t hit the mark.

London was one of those writers who wrote because he had something to say. He had a lot of life experience. He admitted early on that, despite wanting to be like John Grisham or James Patterson, it wasn’t going to happen.

“I didn’t have the commitment to be a full-time writer and left my run too late anyway. I write for pleasure and as an outlet for my feelings and my imagination.”

Will he be missed and spoken about for years to come? I doubt it. Pick up some of his works and see for yourself what an eclectic collection he has created. You might just like some of them.

Till next time,

“Writers we did not know or understand”

Submitted for the "Posthumous Author " challenge.