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 "Esquire", he interviewed rising filmmaker Stanley Kubrick, who had completed his controversial screen adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov's novel "Lolita". Although Southern knew little about Kubrick, the director was well aware of Southern's work, having been given a copy of "The Magic Christian" by Peter Sellers during the making of "Lolita".