It is my professional belief that solitude is dangerous. It is the ultimate failure of the human condition. We, who clustered around the same tiny fires for survival, cannot live alone. Nature has decreed we must die alone-and so when we are alone, we die. That is what I believe. Dear reader, turn back from this path, lest the emptiness consume you.

But should you be compelled to seek your own lonely way, the book open before you is the only guide I can, in good conscience, ...