Last Thursday, author and Pensacola native, Paul Magnus Lefcourt, visited my critical reviews class to speak to us about his life and his novel, "Ghost Crab." He shared with us details about his personal journey, revelations, and writing process. Below is the profile that I wrote on Mr. Lefcourt. Enjoy.
Paul Magnus Lefcourt
When speaking of marine biologist-turned-author Paul Magnus Lefourt, the first thing that comes to mind is survivor, the second is transformation. His first novel, “Ghost Crab,” is a reflection of his own personal journey and transformation, but instead as a scientist reincarnated as a ghost crab named Max. Lefcourt was raised in New York City, near the Jamaica Bay. From childhood on, he found himself intrigued by the water and its inhabitants.
In 1963 he went on to earn a Bachelor of Science degree from the City College of New York, a Master of Public Health degree from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1965, then a PH.D in Environmental Science from Rutgers University in 1972.
After graduate school, Lefcourt was employed by the Environmental Protection Agency, where he worked for over 20 years. Lefcourt said his lifelong commitment is seeking improvement in the quality of natural waters. This commitment, along with his paralyzing accident, undoubtedly compelled him to tell his story. Although Lefcourt said that he always wrote a little bit, he never took writing serious until he had the accident.
“I believe we all experience, at some time in our lives, a singular event, an event so powerful, so full of personal meaning and significance, that our life, from that time forward, is forever changed,” Lecourt said.
On August 22, 1987, Lefcourt was celebrating his early retirement at a bar on Pensacola Beach when that singular event took place. That night, he said he was happier than he’d been in years—then tragedy struck. As he tried to step onto his boat, he fell into the water, slamming his head against the boat on his way down, causing his head to snap back, pushing a bone spur that he from a previous injury, into his spinal cord. This accident left him paralyzed from the neck down.
While he was submerged in the water, Lefcourt said he heard a voice speak to him—a voice similar to his own. The voice told him, “Relax Paul, this will be over in a moment,” he said. “It really is a good time to die.” At that instant, Lefcourt told the voice that he wanted to live, and he was miraculously washed onto land, twenty to thirty feet from his boat, which was tied in the cove.
“While I was lying in the water, I was thinking about the crabs eating me. After all, there was nothing I could do if the crab came up to me and decided it wanted to eat me, there was nothing I could do. The only good thing is I wouldn’t feel it because I had no sense of pain.”
Lefcourt said a couple years after the accident he began writing “Ghost Crab,” and while he was in the hospital, he reminisced on his experience and the meaning of life.
“The concept of living is to live and experience, but what you experience, you don’t understand, you cannot understand it because there are so many forces working on your mind as you live,” he said. “And only when you die is it revealed, and how is it revealed?” You are given a psychotherapist.” His psychotherapist in “Ghost Crab” was his lover Peaches, also reincarnated as a ghost crab.
“I started writing this story about this guy who is conscious, but he’s dead and he doesn’t understand it and that’s the beginning of ‘Ghost Crab,’” he said. “He’s spiraling through whatever, and when he finally focuses he’s inside a ghost crab.” Sound familiar?
Lefcourt said he took time writing the self-published “Ghost Crab,” and that he wrote most of the book during the night after he dreamed.
“When you’re living by yourself in a boat, and you don’t have to go to work, it’s a big advantage,” he said. “My time is my time. Whenever I’d feel like writing, I’d write. Sometimes there would be weeks when I didn’t write anything, there was no inspiration. So it’s very inspiring, whatever the hell that means.”
Lefcourt said that he began writing a sequel to “Ghost Crab,” but after he completed 20 chapters, he lost his inspiration.
“I think that there are a lot of writers like that, they’re essentially one-book writers,” he said, naming “Catcher in the Rye” author J.D. Salinger.
A self-described ego-maniac, Lefcourt’s writing includes a book of poetry, poetry that also reflects his life, such as his childhood, high school and college years and relationships.
“Ghost Crab,” Lefcourt said, is a more creative work than his book of poetry because he had no fear of inventing things such as making Max a genius, and his father, who is also Max’s son, one of the most famous scientists in the world.
“Read this book, and you’ll find out what a screwball I really am, but I’m very lovable," he said.
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