Southern turned 60 in 1984, and his career continued to alternate between promise and disappointment. "Flash and Filigree" was reissued by Arbor House with a new introduction by Burroughs, and Sandy Lieberson (now at Fox) hired him to work on a script called "Intensive Heat", based on the life of jewel thief Albie Baker. During this period, Southern ran into problems with his long-overdue new book (a "bildungsroman" inspired by his Texas childhood alternatively known as "Youngblood", "Southern Idyll" and "Behind the Grassy Knoll") when Putnam demanded the return of the $20,000 advance, precipitating his abandonment of the work. In 1985, "Candy" and "The Magic Christian" were reprinted by Penguin and Southern featured prominently in the Howard Brookner documentary "".