Begins postgraduate study in English at the University of Southern California.

Marries Kerstin Mornestam, a naturalized citizen from Sweden with whom he shares strong interests in the arts and nature. His parents give him a copy of This Is the American Earth.

Spends the first of several summers with Kerstin on the northern Oregon coast in a weathered building that had been at various times a gas station, church, and bar; days are spent walking the beach, and evenings reading.