This collection documents the creation, revision, and publication of a literary novel, Fellow Traveler, set in the Grateful Dead milieu. It traces the writing process from early notes through final draft, demonstrating how the Grateful Dead phenomenon informed the novel and helped to define its revision into a final, published book. The collection provides insights into the challenges of addressing the sprawling complexity of the Deadhead experience in a fictional setting, and it casts light on a number of issues that defined the last ten years of the Grateful Dead phenomenon, including the problems caused by the band’s explosive popularity following the 1987 release In the Dark.

James D. McCallister (1966 - ) has worked as a media archivist, newspaper columnist, freelance journalist, small business owner, and author. His novels include King's Highway (Red Letter Press, 2007) and Fellow Traveler (Muddy Ford Press, 2012), the subject of this collection. A two-time South Carolina Fiction Project awardee as well as a Faulkner-Wisdom Competition and Saturday Evening Post short story finalist, McCallister lives in West Columbia, SC, with his wife Jenn.

0.5 Linear feet (1) document box

Property rights reside with the University of California. Literary rights are retained by James D. McCallister or his designee. For more information, please contact the Head of Special Collections and Archives.

The collection is open for research.