William Buck was a very wealthy man. He once owned the Anchor Steam Brewery, but I believe sold it to Fritz Maytag in the early 1960's. His family, the Bucks, were early fruit dealers in California who sold out to Pacific Fruit in 1933. His mother, Eva B Buck died in 1990 and is buried beside her son William Buck at the Vacaville Elmira Cemetery. I believe he was a very early bohemian in the San Francisco scene. His wife, Jane Hamner Buck also died young as did his father. Frank Buck,jr.
oral interview of Shirley Staschen Triest published in 1997 that is crucial to understanding the William Buck story. page 280.
"Anyway, Bill Buck was a nebbish. A nebbish is somebody who for some reason just can't quite make it. He was all right, but he just couldn't understand himself. He was obviously smart and able, but he was very unhappy. He was very appreciative of everything you did for him, but he hung around like a weight around your neck; he was always there and wanted to know what's this and what's that. Anyway,one day, not only is Jane (Hamner Buck) gone she would take off once in a while but the two kids are gone. I didn't know where they were, and this went on for several days. finally we found out that she was supposedly living with Wallace, the former librarian who at the time weas living on the hill in Sausalito. Wallace was really her best friend; he later went into a monastery in New York State. Anyway, Jane and Bill had moved to Nevada. Meanwhile I'm incredulous. All of a sudden I'm alone on the barge. Bill, Pam and Buckwheat had all moved out aroud the same time, lock, stock and barrel. Also Bill(Buck) bought the Boobam Bamboo Drum business, and I'm out. Next thing. he tries to buy the barge, unsuccessfully. My mistake by the way, I should have sold it to him (laughter). Next thing, he puts out a book of poetry by Jane and himself and Wally. In the meantime, I'm getting paranoid about what they might do next. In the meantime, I'm getting involved with Maya Angelou.
During this time, all of a sudden, we find out, or I find out that Bill is probably from one of the richest families in California, the Buck family. When I realized he was a multimillionaire, I began to understand why Jane left; she was tired of living a life of poverty. Then Bill Buck bought the Anchor steam brewery. Anchor Steam beer had been one of Jane's favorite things in the world. She introduced me to it at the Crystal Palace in San Francisco. People I remember were saying he had bought her a new Mercedes, which in those days were not ordinary at all. Eventually they moved to Bolinas. Bought a huge house in Bolinas. They went to Thailand in the far east, leaving their kids in charge of some sweet but not necessarily reliable friends of ours, the Simpsons. During that time, our children (the Bucks children), Radha, and Adam especially got polio. Later on they found out that Adam had muscular Dystrophy as well. Radha had a very light case of polio. When they notified Bill and Jane, they didn't come back from asia immediately. That left the Simpsons on the spot, they were not supposed to contact me. I was very upset though. Then when they returned, eventually Bill Buck when mad. He was in a wheelchair and was translating Hindu books. I mean the man did not know any Sanskrit, I don't know how it was done, but through the influence of his family, or maybe through subsidy, anyway, the University of California published it. While he was doing this work, he would lock himself up in the top floor of his house and he wouldn't come down for long periods of time. He finally became psychotic, and his grandmother and Jane had him institutionalized. By this time they had had a son Paul. And after he got out of the institution, he didn't go back to Jane. They had gotton rid of the house in Bolinas, and Jane had another house in Nevada, and now she needed me. So we became friendly again. We remained friendly to the end of her life. By this time Jane had moved three times more. Adam eventually Died."
http://www.buckfoundation.org/history.html
William Buck (Author), B.A. van Nooten (Introduction), Shirley Triest (Illustrator)
Paperback: 440 pages
Publisher: University of California Press; 3 edition (June 12, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0520273028
ISBN-13: 978-0520273023
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1 x 8.2 inches
William Buck died in 1970 at the age of 37 after more than 15 years of work on the Ramayana, Mahabharata, and the unfinished Harivamsa. Of the two finished books, he wrote, "My method in writing both Mahabharata and Ramayana was to begin with a literal translation from which to extract the story, and then to tell that story in an interesting way that would preserve the spirit and flavor of the original."