>For all his truth-telling, Bob was ostracized
>not only by the progressive establishment in New
>York but also by academia, which found him not
>only too outspoken, but too polymath as well.
>Universities like well-behaved specialists, not
>rude questioners. Though his material situation
>improved somewhat in recent years, he lived most
>of his life on very little money. His major
>sources of income were freelance writing fees,
>small book advances, and the sweatshop wages
>enjoyed by adjunct faculty (which is what you
>call a temp worker with a PhD). As Guttenplan,
>the former Village Voice editor who introduced
>me to Bob, wrote just after his death: “[It’s a]
>scandal that they scrape the barrel to give
>these so-called genius grants to third-rate
>conventional fakers when Bob Fitch, a man who
>did his own thinking and his own research, and
>who came up with truly original insights about
>some pretty important topicsurban planning,
>organized labor, critical journalismhad to live like a luftmensch.”