 Still determined to become an independent writer and reluctant to commit to an academic career, Cook supported himself and his family by various odd jobs, from encyclopedia salesman to museum accountant, until fiscal rescue arrived once more in the form of a Fulbright grant to France.Financial necessity finally persuaded him to accept the offer of a teaching position in the University of California at Berkeley.Told early on that his contract would not be renewed, he spent the remaining time of his teaching stint in learning Hebrew, before securing another Fulbright Fellowship, this time to Munich.