I took a survey of viewers who saw “Algren,” the new documentary that recently had its world premiere at the Chicago International Film Festival. Here’s what they said: Reviewer #1: Really interesting and fast-paced. It gives me a great sense of the guy without being pious. I’m unsure about the kitschy style. The fast edits […]
Desktopfun: Boo-hooray’s Burroughs Cut/Up Show
Boo-Hooray, in collaboration with Emory University, is presenting a William S. Burroughs centenary exhibition dedicated to the Cut-Up technique. On view will be hand-edited typescript drafts from the Nova Trilogy, rarely seen publications like the mimeographed newsletter The Burrough and the Sigma Portfolio, alongside correspondence with Brion Gysin, vinyl releases, as well as the original […]
Another Sonnet Maudit from Cold Turkey Press
More conventional but still not Petrarchan, Spenserian, or Shakespearean. And not in Ted’s style either. Best of all, it’s presented with Gerard Bellaart’s ‘Morose Delectation,’ chosen by my staff of thousands.
Long-Awaited ‘Algren’ Bows at Chicago Film Festival
Is this Nelson Algren’s moment? If it is, I don’t think he’d give a damn — not personally — considering he’s gone and how long ago that was. I also don’t think he’d appreciate what has become a cliché of the Algren myth — the forgotten writer. Sure, he’s forgotten. Most writers are. And of […]
Cold Turkey’s Sonnets Maudits — No Drum Roll, Please
Not Petrarchan, Spenserian, or Shakespearean. And not in Ted’s style either. Previously . . . And another: “Dream Room.”
Supervert’s ‘Vision of the Future’ Has Arrived
It is possibly Supervert‘s most impressive book beauty to date, judging not only from the immaculate white-and-black antiseptic look of it and the heft of it — the text comes to 240 pages — but also, obviously, from the read of it. At one level POST-DEPRAVITY is a page turner (literally) and at another a […]
Two New Cards from Cold Turkey Press
My staff of thousands insisted on this posting. Postscript: And before I forget — 9/11: THE DAY OF, THE DAY AFTER, THE WEEK AFTER.
Cold Turkey Press Does a Nelson Algren Fight Card
I was having such a great time re-reading one of Nelson Algren’s “lesser” books — Who Lost An American? — that I scanned a little excerpt from the second story, “Down With All Hands,” and sent it to Gerard Bellaart. It struck a nerve. He sent back one of his choice Cold Turkey cards. In […]
Sanders: ‘Book of Glyphs’ = ‘Smile-Book of Grace-Joy’
Granary Books has just published a facsimile edition of Ed Sanders’ first book-length work of glyphs, which he created in Florence, Italy, in 2008, using colored pencils and a small sketchbook. The publisher notes: Though each piece stands on its own, collectively the 72 glyphs convey, with characteristic humility and humor, many of the themes […]
Too Bad Burroughs Isn’t Around to See the Video
No words of mine needed. WILLIAM BURROUGHS – MALCOLM MC NEILL: AH POOK IS HERE AND THE CONTROL OF TIME TWO BOOKS from Malcolm Mc Neill on Vimeo.
50 Years Apart: ‘American Porn’ & ‘Call Me Burroughs’
The similarity was unintended, which makes it even better. The 1965 vinyl “Call Me Burroughs” is a classic.The 2014 vinyl “American Porn” will be.The 1965 vinyl “Call Me Burroughs” is a classic.The 2014 vinyl “American Porn” will be a classic.Here it is with a different sleeve.
Mc Neill’s Diagnosis: ‘Reflux’ in the Metaphysical Sense
Updated: See video below. Malcolm Mc Neil is up to no good again — I loved it the last time — with a new book of essays, titled Reflux. I take that to mean he’s describing a metaphysical case of esophagitis. In other words, as a toddler of my acquaintance, pointing to the vomitus on […]
Malcolm Ritchie’s ‘small lines on the great earth’
… showed up in the mail. It’s a pristine book of gem-like beauties, the poems finely cut and paired with the author’s drawings. small lines on the great earth is divided into six sections. The section titles strung together make the perfect Malcolm Ritchie poem on their own. Like so: small lines on the great […]
Nelson Algren on “the American writer” . . .
uh, before Amazon … “The American writer as often as not is a middle-aged man with a wife and children, two or three books behind him, and eleven dollars in his pocket. He’s up against a conglomerate that deals in millions. He will take what they offer.” —– Nelson Algren, 1980
‘Glory, in Our Time, Smiles Only on the Rich …’
Apparently not much has changed since Céline wrote that 82 years ago in Journey to the End of the Night, his first semi-autobiographical novel. The narrator Ferdinand Bardamu is talking about the Joseph Bioduret Institute, which “is clearly the Pasteur Institute,” according to Ralph Mannheim, who translated the novel. Here’s the complete passage: Glory, in […]
New from Cold Turkey Press: Remembering Pinter
Heathcote Williams’s memory piece about Harold Printer is intimate, probing, and dramatic. Candid yet loving, not out of mere affection but from deep understanding and acceptance, it is an honest portrait — not in the least hagiographic. Previously posted: Pinter’s ‘Art, Truth & Politics’
William S. Burroughs: The Life, the Myth, the Influence
April 25, 2014 + Free and open to the public at The Graduate Center, CUNY, 365 Fifth Ave. (at 34th Street) in Manhattan.+ 10:00 a.m. “Editing Burroughs” — John Bennett and Geoffrey Smith+ 11:00 a.m. “Burroughs and Literary Magazines” — Jed Birmingham, Charles Plymell, and Jan Herman +2:00 p.m. “Biography and Photography” — Barry Miles […]



!['Morose Delectation' by Gerard Bellaart [1981]](https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/morose-delectation-20-1-1981-670-200x200.jpg)

!['Hear Say' by Jan Herman (illustration by Gerard Bellaart) Cold Turkey Press [2014]](https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/HEAR-SAY-12w-italjpeg670-200x200.jpg)

!['It Was' [Cold Turkey Press, 2014]](https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/ASH-AND-WIND-CT-Card-frontback-200x200.jpg)
![Cold Turkey Press: 'The Gloves Came Off' [2014]](https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/THE-GLOVES-CAME-OFF-1a-200x200.jpg)
!['A Book of Glyphs' by Edward Sanders [Granary Books, 2014]](https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/glyphs-book-cover232-200x200.jpg)

!['Reflux' by Malcolm Mc Neill [Apophenia, 2014] (back cover)](https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/reflux-back-cover-200x200.jpg)
![Malcom Ritchie's 'small lines on the great earth' [Longhouse, 2014] (front cover)](https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Malcolm+Ritchie+Cover+1-335-200x200.jpg)
![NELSON ALGREN [foto: Steve Deutch]](https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/ALGREN-BACK-PAGE-image-of-NA-200x200.jpg)
!['Le Docteur Destouches' [Cold Turkey Press, 2014]](https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/le-docteur-destouches-recto_Layout-1-e1401212888141.jpeg)

