George Cockcroft

George Cockcroft (born November 15, 1932) is an author who writes under the pen name Luke Rhinehart (see that entry for info 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:

"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.

A Possible Life Story

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.

After obtaining his PhD he went into teaching. During his years as a university teacher Luke Rhinehart 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. Luke 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.

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.

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: mailto:lukec@taconic.net; Website: http://www.lukerhinehart.net