Brushes with the abyss were a mainstay of her character. Whether hiking alone in unfamiliar mountains, biking solo down the West Coast after college or slipping into communist East Germany to study unpublished transcripts of the Nag Hammadi gospels, “she wanted to see if she had the toughness and intelligence to walk right up to the edge of danger and remain in control,” her first husband, Barry Chandler, said, when we met in Montana. “Seeking experiences, even dangerous ones, was a basic part of her personality.”
