Awww yeah it's Kinks O'Clock. I know we have fun at the Brits' expense here, but The Kinks were the one major British Invasion band who remained completely *British*, and I'm glad they did because it really is such a core part of their identity.

He was an introvert and often a shut-in! Fortunately his self-honesty meant that the evidence of his own experience gradually superceded his previously learned racism. It took a long time and we as readers didn't get to experience what might've been, but we can still be happy he grew as a person.

He was absolutely a person who benefited positively as he traveled more, the exposure did him a lot of good and the trip to Quebec in particular was notable for being one where his eyes had already started to open.

So AtMoM was written after his views had begun to change significantly, but before he completely turned away from them, with some *possible* later editing. AtMoM could thus perhaps be considered a significant milestone on the road to his repentance, and it's overall theme is defensible today.

The current published version was mostly available (I think?) in the Arkham House editions of the very early '40s which repaired most of the damage (the "definitive" version taken fresh directly from the manuscript was in '85).

The publication in Astounding Stories was rather brutally edited, but it does not seem like those altered the theme of the work, just horrible formatting and a truncated end.

Now AtoMoM is interesting here because it was originally written in '31, however it wasn't actually published until '36. He put it off to the side after it's initial rejection, and I'm unclear how much it was edited in the interim.

He ends this letter with "It's hard to have done all one's growing up since [age] 33, but that's a damn sight better than not growing up at all."

The main evidence that he broadly repudiated his earlier racism entirely was a letter only recently-found, dated Feb 1937 (months before his death), where he speaks about his earlier views and their place in his work with shame and repulsion.

His wife was of course Jewish, and similarly he respected her individually (and she reciprocated - it was not a mere "business arrangement" as some claim), while still making dumb generalizations. Eventually he just couldn't rationalize it anymore.