The Collected Writings of Joe Brainard
450
The Collected Writings of Joe Brainard
450eBook
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Overview
An artist associated with the New York School of poets, Joe Brainard (1942-1994) was a wonderful writer whose one-of-a-kind autobiographical work I Remember has had a wide and growing influence. It is joined in this major new retrospective with many other pieces that for the first time present the full range of Brainard's writing in all its deadpan wit, madcap inventiveness, self-revealing frankness, and generosity of spirit. The Collected Writings of Joe Brainard gathers intimate journals, jottings, stories, one-liners, comic strips, mini-essays, and short plays, many of them available until now only as expensive rarities, if at all.
“Brainard disarms us with the seemingly tossed-off, spontaneous nature of his writing and his stubborn refusal to accede to the pieties of self-importance,” writes Paul Auster in the introduction to this collection. “These little works . . . are not really about anything so much as what it means to be young, that hopeful, anarchic time when all horizons are open to us and the future appears to be without limits.”
Assembled by the author’s longtime friend and biographer Ron Padgett and including fourteen previously unpublished works, here is a fresh and affordable way to rediscover a unique American artist.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781598531770 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Library of America |
| Publication date: | 03/29/2012 |
| Sold by: | Penguin Random House Publisher Services |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 450 |
| Sales rank: | 1,035,781 |
| File size: | 9 MB |
About the Author
Table of Contents
Editor's Preface Ron Padgett xiii
Introduction Paul Auster xvii
I Remember 5
Self-Portrait
Self-Portrait on Christmas Night 137
Back in Tulsa Again 147
Saturday July 21st 1962 153
Diary Aug. 4th-15th 155
The China Sea 158
Picnic or Yonder Comes the Blue 160
A True Story 162
I Like ["A happy glory to sky!"] 170
I Like ["I Joe"] 172
The People 175
Andy Warhol: Andy Do It 178
The Man 180
Marge 182
Johnny 185
Nancy ["It was coffee time"] 186
Nancy ["Nancy was always handing me"] 189
May Dye 193
Colgate Dental Cream 196
Brunswick Stew 198
Sick Art 199
Sunday, July the 30th, 1964 200
Saturday, December the 11th, 1965 204
Van Gogh 206
People of the World: Relax! 207
Ron Padgett 215
January 26th, 1967 216
Pat 217
August 29th, 1967 218
Jamaica 1968 221
What Is Money? 225
Little-Known Facts about People 228
Diary 1969 232
Diary 1969 (Continued) 239
Sex 250
A Special Diary 251
Some Drawings of Some Notes to Myself 255
Death 263
Autobiography 265
Some Train Notes 266
Diary 1970-71 269
December 22, 1970 274
1970 277
Queer Bars 278
Art 279
Short Story 280
Life ["When I stop and think"] 281
Rim of the Desert 282
How to Be Alone Again 283
Bolinas Journal 28s
Wednesday, July 7th, 1971 334
Selections from "Vermont Journal: 1971" 353
Fear 356
White Spots 357
My Favorite Quotations 358
Selections from "Self-Portrait: 1971" 359
from N.Y.C. Journals: 1971-1972 363
Friday, June 16th, 1972 375
Tuesday, July 11th, 1972 380
What I Did This Summer 381
Washington D.C. Journal 1972 382
The Gay Way 389
Matches 391
Self-Portrait (As a Writer) If I Was Old and Fat and Wore Hats 392
Dirty Prose 393
Fantastic Dream I Had Last Night! 394
If 395
The Friendly Way 397
The Friendly Way (Continued) 406
If I Was God 409
Ponder This 410
Grandmother 411
Night 412
Neck 413
30 One-Liners 414
The Cigarette Book 417
Poem ["Sometimes"] 435
No Story 436
Journals 437
Before I Die 446
Right Now 447
Life ["The life of a human being is"] 448
Stoned Again 450
A Depressing Thought 451
Thirty 452
Ten Imaginary Still Lifes 453
from 2.9 Mini-Essays 455
The Outer Banks 458
Towards a Better Life (Eleven Exercises) 461
Twenty-three Mini-Essays 464
Religion 467
Out in the Hamptons 468
Nothing to Write Home About 470
A State of the Flowers Report 482
Jimmy Schuyler: A Portrait 484
January 13th 485
Interviews
The Joe Brainard Interview Tim Dlugos 489
An Interview with Joe Brainard Anne Waldman 509
Chronology 519
Note on the Texts 523
Glossary of Names 529
What People are Saying About This
It is wonderful, and singularly fitting, that Joe Brainard's collected writings are being published by The Library of America. Brainard's subject was memory, that is, the things that memory remembers. In his case these were as quirky as anybody's, which is why so many readers have responded to them. Brainard was that recognizable American phenomenon, the oddball classicist.
“ Beautifully designed, Collected Writings reproduces the improvised, homemade feel of Brainard’s journal writings by including drawings and handwritten notes and memos and cartoons and flyers.”
—Mark Ford, The New York Review of Books
“ This is a really fun book, one that will win over old friends and new fans alike.”
—Patrick James Dunagan, Rain Taxi