AUTHOR CITY: born in Providence, Rhode Island
AUTHOR/CONTRIBUTOR BIO(S):
From a biography of Ted Berrigan written by Joe Brainard in 1967: “Ted Berrigan was born in Providence, R.I., on November 15th, 1934… He was raised a Catholic and is mostly Irish. In 1954 e entered the Army and in 1957 he got out. He got his B.A. from the University of Tulsa in 1959. He completed his M.A. work at the same school. His poetry has appeared in so many magazines that it is impossible to name them. He is a real poet, 24 hours a day, and a wonderful person.” Ted Berrigan (1934 – 1983) was and remains a legend. Joe Brainard (1942-1994) grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma. At the age of 16 Joe got to know two fellow classmates who, like him, felt somewhat marginalized: poets Ron Padgett and Dick Gallup. Through them he met two graduate students at the University of Tulsa, the poet Ted Berrigan and Patricia Mitchell, who would prove to be lifelong friends. Still in high school, Brainard, Padgett, and Gallup producedThe White Dove Review, an art and literary magazine. Joe's drawings, collages, assemblages, and paintings are in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum, the Whitney Museum, the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Yale University Art Museum, and the Joe Brainard Archive at the University of California, San Diego, as well as in many private and corporate collections. His work is now represented by the Tibor de Nagy Gallery.
DESCRIPTION:
First printed in 1979 using letterpress and handbinding, this second printing is limited to 999 copies and is a digital facsimile of that first edition, 7 inches tall by 5 inches wide (except for updates to the colophon and copyright pages). "Train Ride, subtitled 'February 18th, 1971: for Joe [Brainard]' is a long poem in the tradition of Herodotus, Goethe, Laurence Sterne, Agatha Christie, & Blaise Cendrars — a poem of the travails & pleasures of travel, truly of the late 20th century in that its verbal events are more internal than external: ‘Out the Window / is / Out to Lunch!!’ — one of the results of the developments of industrial capitalism initiated by steam engine and rail-way ... Thus we have a great deal of hypothetical & remembered fucking, money, friendship — 'amistad' — and, indeed throughout, witty & precise meditation on the act of writing itself. The persona that emerges is the 'poet in the state of surprise' (Apollinaire), a saintly yet human figure, addressing us with wonderful Peruvian frankness: ‘I'd be a terrific Senator / because I'd love it’ ... The ‘Our Friends’ section is a marvelous catalog of prominence... One could go on cataloging the delights of the ride: one would be wiser to simply urge all who can run & read to take it, with Ted Berrigan, a Great Companion." --Anselm Hollo
PUB DATE: 15 November 2019
ANTICIPATED ARRIVAL DATE AT SPD: 15 December 2019
PUBLISHER: Vehicle Editions
GENRE: poetry
ISBN: 978-0-931428-210
BINDING: perfectbound softcover
PAGE COUNT: 96
PRICE: $12
300dpi cover image named with the book's ISBN number (without dashes)
