421 Pallets Rd.
Virginia Beach, Va. 23454
October 10, 1975
Dear Mr. Meyer:
I never knew Sam Lewis very closely, but I did know him over a period of about 25 years, in which period I saw him every now and then and exchanged some letters with him.
My first recollection of him is this. I was living and working at the Edgar Cayce headquarters in Virginia Beach from 1945 to 1947. At that time I was doing research into the Cayce files on reincarnation, which resulted in my books Many Mansions and The World Within.
The Cayce group held an annual congress in June, and as I recall it, Sam turned up (probably in 1946) at one of these congresses. I was looking out of an upstairs window one day at a group of people on the grass below, and saw a most unusual vignette.
A man was balancing a broomstick on the end of his finger, and walking around the yard, looking upward at the broom, and followed like a Pied Piper by a crowd of children. Later in the day I was introduced to this charismatic character, who turned out to be Sam Lewis.
A few years later, when I was living in California, I met Sam again at my home in Hollywood. He had driven down either from Santa Barbara or San Francisco to meet friends in Los Angeles, and expressed an interest in talking with me. I found him fascinating because of his quick and very learned mind and his grasp of matters not usually dealt with in academic circles.
We saw each other again in San Francisco when I lectured there one night; he had come with his great friend Gavin Arthur. There after we saw each other occasionally, and I remember visiting him once in the hospital with Gavin in San Francisco.
His letters were always lengthy and discursive, often straying from the question or the point, usually filled with allusions to people he knew in far corners of the world, frequently relating instances of how badly he had been treated by those in orthodox circles, and almost always containing some bit of esoteric knowledge and witty comment. I may have saved some of these letters; but finding them would be a difficult matter!
I am sorry that I do not have anything of a more concrete nature to relate to you, and sorry also that his friend Gavin is no longer with us as he could have surely supplied you with much important data.
Fred Reinhold, the psychologist in Hollywood, also knew Sam. His address used to be 2276 Laurel Canyon B1vd; but I have been out of touch with him for some years and he may have moved. It would be worthwhile for you to make an effort to reach him, however.
I am glad to know that you are doing this biography, for I always liked and admired Sam and knew him to be a unique and rather extraordinary being.
sincerely yours,
Gina Cerminara