We recently checked in with Helen West in Baltimore over email to discuss her successful selection of design #2 in the New Hippie Sven Mug Sweepstakes (NHSMS). Check it out!

How did you first find out about the HML?

I was staying with Vicki Topp back in May, 1980, following a month long workshop with Stan Grof at Esalen. Vicki was living in what had been Maud Oaks’s house on Partington Ridge, at the end of the road next door to Henry Miller’s former abode. I met his children, Tony and Valentine, who were then living in the house and through whom I learned about the library.

What made you –consciously or otherwise — select that correct mug design (see below)?

It’s the one I would have chosen as the best pick. 

Do you think Hippie Sven is simply misunderstood?  If so why/ if not, why not?

I think Hippie Sven isn’t high (LOL) on self-understanding.

Thanks, Helen!