in the summer of 1962, southern worked for two months as a relief editor at "esquire", and during this period he had several stories published in the magazine, including "the road to axotle". through the "esquire" job, he interviewed rising filmmaker stanley kubrick, who had just completed his controversial screen adaptation of vladimir nabokov's novel "lolita". although southern knew little about kubrick, the director was already well aware of southern's work, having been given a copy of "the magic christian" by peter sellers during the making of "lolita".