More Than a Little Slice of Paradise

“Throughout his life, Mr. Basinger (pronounced BAY-singer) devoted himself to pursuits that some would have dismissed as fanciful. As a young man, he walked from New York to San Francisco. He moved to Kenya on a whim, becoming fluent in Swahili after spending five years teaching at a rural school for boys. Perhaps most improbably, he became a musician for the National Theater of the Deaf. He was not deaf, but he mastered sign language and spent decades performing with, writing for and helping run the troupe.” And then he decided to try something else. NYT (Gift Article): John Basinger, Who Memorized All 12 Books of ‘Paradise Lost,’ Dies at 92.