George Cockcroft (born November 15, 1932), frequently misspelt "Cockroft", is an author who writes under the pen name Luke Rhinehart (see that article for information about his books). Most authors have nice biographies which show a place of birth, current location, and preferably a few nice pictures. Not this one. Those few facts and figures which are out in the public domain are uncertain. In any case, one would expect a diceperson to be free and loose with the truth. This is certainly the impression he gives when writing: November 15 is the 319th day of the year (320th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 46 days remaining. ... 1932 (MCMXXXII) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link will take you to a full 1932 calendar). ... Luke Rhinehart is the pen name of the author George Cockcroft (see that entry for a biography). ...

"Finally, there is George Cockcroft. In theory he is the author of several books, including The Dice Man. For most of the last 30 years he has hidden behind the name of Luke Rhinehart, but in this book he begins to peek out behind Luke's bulky presence and reveal a few things about himself. Any man who has as one of his mottos: 'This Truth Above All: Fake It' can hardly be considered reliable, so the intelligent reader will take anything he says with the same pinch of salt taken when listening to any other fictional character."

This elusiveness is helped by his friends and followers, who are always at their most unreliable when answering questions about him. This is no doubt inspired by The Search for the Dice Man, where his fictional followers are equally creative in their answers. The following life story is therefore not 100% reliable, but is closer to reality than most. The Dice Man is a comedic novel published in 1971 by George Cockcroft under the pen name Luke Rhinehart and tells the story of a psychiatrist who begins making life decisions based on the casting of dice. ... The Search for the Dice Man was written by George Cockcroft under the pen name Luke Rhinehart. ...

Biography (unreliable)

George Cockroft was born in the United States, son of an engineer and a civil servant. He got his BA at Cornell University, and his MA at Columbia University. Subsequently he got a PhD in psychology, also at Columbia. He married his wife, Ann on June 30, 1956. He currently has three children. At some point in his life he converted to Zen Buddhism. Look up engineer in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... Cornell redirects here. ... Columbia University is a private university whose main campus lies in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of the Borough of Manhattan in New York City. ... Psychology is an academic and applied field involving the scientific study of mental processes and behavior. ... June 30 is the 181st day of the year (182nd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 184 days remaining. ... 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Zen is a form of Mahayana Buddhism that places great importance on moment-by-moment awareness and seeing deeply into the nature of things by direct experience. ...

After obtaining his PhD he went into teaching. During his years as a university teacher he taught, amongst other things, courses in Zen and Western literature. He first floated the idea of living by the dice in a lecture: the reaction was equal parts intrigue and disgust, and it was at this point he realised it could become a novel. Cockcroft started experimenting with dice a long time before writing The Dice Man, but this made progress on the novel rather slow. When he actually finished it he was 37, and lived in Majorca teaching English to the hippies. Zen is a form of Mahayana Buddhism that places great importance on moment-by-moment awareness and seeing deeply into the nature of things by direct experience. ... The term Western World or the West can have multiple meanings depending on its context. ... Majorca (Mallorca in Catalan and Spanish, sometimes also encountered in English),: from Latin insula maior, later Maiorica, (major island) is one of the Balearic Islands (Catalan: Illes Balears, Spanish: Islas Baleares), which are located in the Mediterranean Sea and are a part of Spain. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...

It was only by chance that he ran into a publisher, probably in Deya and the rest of the world could share his dream. In 1970 he became a full-time writer and "leader of the dice cult". In 1971 he was engaged in creating a dice centre in New York. In 1975 he was involved in a round-the-world voyage in a large trimaran ketch. Deya is a small coastal village in the northern ridge of the Spanish island of Majorca. ... 1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1970 calendar). ... 1971 (MCMLXXI) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1971 calendar). ... 1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday. ...

Later on he spent some time in a sailboat in the Mediterranean, and from there moved to a former Sufi retreat on the edge of a lake. He's not quite as evangelical as the Luke who wrote The Dice Man, and has settled down a whole lot. His last known mailing address was Luke Hill in Canaan, New York. Email: [1]. The Mediterranean Sea is an intercontinental sea positioned between Europe to the north, Africa to the south and Asia to the east, covering an approximate area of 2. ... Sufism (Arabic تصوف taṣawwuf) is a system of esoteric philosophy commonly associated with Islam. ... Canaan is a town located in Columbia County, New York. ...

External links

• Luke Rhinehart: Official home page