Waiting on the Moon: Artists, Poets, Drifters, Grifters, and Goddesses

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of mental illness, substance use, addiction, sexual content, and death.

Peter Wolf introduces his memoir by pointing out that his memories and his life have been more about the people around him and those experiences than about himself, so that is what he chose to write about. Wolf was encouraged to write a memoir because of the vivid stories he told about the people he met, so he undertook the painstaking journey to complete it piece by piece, memory by memory, as accurately as possible.

When Peter Wolf was 10 years old, his sister Nancy was sick with rheumatic fever and was hospitalized in Manhattan. He and his parents traveled from the Bronx every week to visit her. After a particularly troubling visit, Peter’s parents took him to the cinema. It was a dull French movie. As Peter sat restlessly in his chair, a couple approached and sat down next to him. The woman wore only a nightgown under her coat, slippers, and an intoxicating perfume. During the movie, she fell asleep on Peter’s shoulder and was woken at the end by her husband jostling her.