!['The Adding Machine' by William S. Burroughs, with a New Introduction by James Grauerholz [Grove Press, 2013]](https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/adding-machine-cover-e1387553187260.jpg)
I see that Grove Press has just put out a spanking new edition of The Adding Machine by William S. Burroughs. I also see it has what Grove calls on the front cover a “new” introduction by James Gauerholz, the numero uno keeper of the righteous Burroughs flame. Since there never was an old introduction, […]
Nelson Algren on Frank Lloyd Wright
This is Algren reading his poem “On the Heart It Don’t Matter How You Spell It.” It’s from a 1972 recording. Frank Lloyd Wright was the saint of American architecture. He liked steel buildings, stone buildings, tall buildings, low buildings. He liked new buildings and old buildings. He like dry buildings and damp buildings. He […]
Terkel Reads from ‘Chicago: City on the Make’
I’ve been going through all my old Nelson Algren files to give to Colin Asher. He recently landed a contract to write Algren’s biography for Norton — that’s W.W. Norton & Co. (one of the last big indie publishers, and a great one, too). My files include all sorts of primary documents, among them a […]
‘Every Crumb Can Become a Piece of Cake’
Here are a couple of Hanne Lippard’s vocal tone poems. She combines a voice and accent to kill for with a witty, whimsical sense of humor. The words and the way she says them are a kick.
A Thanksgiving Team: Burroughs & Mustill, Redux
A Straight Up tradition continues. William S. Burroughs’s words of gratitude on Thanksgiving Day paired with a couple of collages by Norman O. Mustill. Look and listen. It’s delish . . . Thanks for the wild turkey and the passenger pigeons, destined to be shit out through wholesome American guts — thanks for a Continent […]
Prick Up Your Ears for Hanne Lippard
Click to listen.
Paris Bookfair Focuses on New Practices in Art
14 Rue Bonaparte, from Nov. 14 to 17. Open to the general public. Free admission. Postscript: Nov. 23 — The bookfair was jammed. Very impressive. The lecture hall was a19th-century amphitheater in back of the main hall.
Einstein’s Brain
Words by Heathcote Williams. Narration and montage by Alan Cox.
Some Notes Toward ‘Death in Paris’
Not long ago Walter Hartmann sent me photos of several Moleskin notebooks that our cherished friend Carl Weissner left behind when he died. They’re captivating. Many of the handwritten notes made their way into Death in Paris, Carl’s bravura novel about a serial killer. “It is not quite natural for a guy around 50 who’s […]
Harold Norse: ‘Take a Chance In The Void’
Via sloowtapes: During the early ’60s Harold Norse was living in Paris at 9 rue Git-le-Coeur, later known as the Beat Hotel. Also living there were William Burroughs, Brion Gysin, Gregory Corso, and Sinclair Beiles. All of them experimented with cut prose, a form of collage applied to texts and audiotapes. Norse made the technique […]
Gay ‘Kit’ Marlowe: Poet, Spy, Elizabethan Proto-punk
LATEST UPDATE: Sept. 1 — “Killing Kit” is to be staged in a London try out. The production opens at The Cockpit on Sept. 21. FURTHER UPDATE: Feb. 15 — The reading came off well, I’m told. Somebody in The Cockpit audience tweeted: “Beautiful, meaty, dangerous Elizabethan play for today’s Elizabethans. Real writing. Great night.” […]
New From Cold Turkey: ‘Pricelessly Outrageous’
!['Le Regard d'Autrui' by Carl Weissner [Cold Turkey Press, 2013]](https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Le-Regard-DAutruifrontcover360.jpg)
When Carl Weissner died, unexpectedly, he was only 71. “Le Regard d’Autrui,” now published for the first time, posthumously, by Cold Turkey Press, was written in English. Why in English and why with a French title are unclear. What is clear, however, is that the tale shows him to have been a master storyteller as […]
Algren Actually Had Some Hope for Kerouac, at First
![Nelson Algren's review of 'On the Road' [Chicago Sun-Times, Sept. 8,1957]](https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/ALGREN-on-ON-THE-ROAD240.jpg)
Anyone interested in Nelson Algren’s opinion of Jack Kerouac would get the impression from an item I posted several years ago that he was less than enamoured of him. Which would be accurate. After all, the item — about Algren’s indelible review of Kerouac’s 1965 novel Desolation Angels — was titled “The Beats Left Algren […]
Two Poe Shows — One at the Morgan, One on Paper
Not being a Poe man myself, I asked a friend who happens to be an avid Poe man, how he would describe him. His reply — “The best writer, the best bad writer, America ever produced” — was pretty much a capsule preview of Charles McGrath’s excellent feature in this morning’s NY Times about the […]
Heathcote Williams: ‘My Dad and My Uncle’
![Royal Artillery gun crews and Howitzers WWI at Lydd [Bill Hyde collection].](https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/My-Dad-and-My-Uncle-howitzer-1-.jpg)
Words by Heathcote Williams. Narration and montage by Alan Cox. Written upon learning that WWI centenary Remembrance plans are to be given £50 million by the UK government.— BBC News, 11 October 2012 My Dad and my Uncle were in World War One. At least they were in it, but not in it: Conscripted but […]
Get Your Megadeath ‘Fun Stuff’ Here
Words by Heathcote Williams. Narration and montage by Alan Cox. The National Atomic Museum ‘Hiroshima bomb earrings for sale’ Katherine Butler and Fiona Bell, London: The Independent, 6 August, 1999 In the National Atomic Museum At Albuquerque, New Mexico, You can buy souvenirs of ‘Little Boy’, The bomb that demolished Hiroshima, And of ‘Fat Man’, […]
Nanos Valaoritis: On Language and Poetry
At 92 / Nanos in his element / his element the world / his world the words / his words a philosopher’s. Here’s a poem of his — “Endless Crucifixion” — from the late-20th century. This is from the entry about him in Wikipedia: Nanos Valaoritis (Greek: Νάνος Βαλαωρίτης; born July 5, 1921) is one […]