[liberty or death]

That is why he became a recluse. He wrote something from his heart and a bunch of nutjobs tried to turn a normal private man into an icon of the SF 60’s spoiled left.

The guy was just a quiet writer wanting to be left alone.

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

I tend to think you’re right. Unless some biography comes out strongly making some bizarre point, I think he just liked the story he wrote, wanted to write others, but didn’t want everything he wrote to be compared to everything else he wrote.