City Poet - The Life and Times of Frank O'Hara

The definitive biography of Frank O''Hara, one of the greatest American poets of the twentieth century, the magnetic literary figure at the center of New York''s cultural life during the 1950s and 1960s. City Poet captures the excitement and promise of mid-twentieth-century New York in the years when it became the epicenter of the art world, and illuminates the poet and artist at its heart. Brad Gooch traces Frank O''Hara''s life from his parochial Catholic childhood to World War II, through his years at Harvard and New York. He brilliantly portrays O''Hara in in his element, surrounded by a circle of writers and artists who would transform America''s cultural landscape: Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, Helen Frankenthaler, Jackson Pollock, Gregory Corso, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, LeRoi Jones, and John Ashbery. Gooch brings into focus the artistry and influence of a life "of guts and wit and style and passion" (Luc Sante) that was tragically abbreviated in 1966 when O''Hara, just forty and at the height of his creativity, was hit and killed by a jeep on the beach at Fire Island--a death that marked the end of an exceptional career and a remarkable era. City Poet is illustrated with 55 black and white photographs.

About the author

Brad Gooch is a poet, novelist, and biographer whose previous ten books include Radiant: The Life and Line of Keith Haring, Flannery: A Life of Flannery O’Connor, which was a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and a New York Times bestseller; City Poet: The Life and Times of Frank O’Hara; Godtalk: Travels in Spiritual America; and the memoir Smash Cut. He is the recipient of National Endowment for the Humanities and Guggenheim fellowships, and lives in New York City.

Product details

• Authors: Brad Gooch
• Publisher: Harper Perennial USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 13.05.2014
• EAN: 9780062303417
• ISBN: 978-0-06-230341-7
• No. of pages: 576
• Dimensions: 135 mm x 203 mm x 23 mm
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature > Letters, diaries; Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; HISTORY: WORLD, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY: Literary Figures, LITERARY CRITICISM: American / General, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY: Historical, HISTORY: United States / 20th Century, LITERARY CRITICISM: Poetry, LITERARY CRITICISM: Books & Reading, HISTORY: Essays, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY: LGBTQ+, POETRY: MEMOIR & BIOGRAPHY