My obituary of the Beat poet Harold Norse appears in today's Independent, you can find it here. I probably should have found a better way to describe Naked Lunch, which is one of the great American novels, but I've written an essay on its 50th anniversary, and that will appear here soon.It's difficult to trace Norse's life without making him sound like a literary Zelig, but if you look at haroldnorse.com you'll find a series of photos which suggest that he was an object of desire for generations of poets. My experience of Norse's writing was less intimate, but I recall that Penguin poets volume, which I picked up when I first visited England in 1972, and it was one of my favourites; I carried it around with me while hitching through the Highlands in a very cold January 1973--Norse indeed.
Hi, I enjoyed your obituary (I wrote the one for the Guardian). You mention the letters to Bukowski, which I agree are superb but was suprised that you discussed them as they are not in print--and sadly unlikely to be published. Best, Douglas
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment...but the fact that Fly Like A Bat Out Of Print is out of print to me seems all the more reason to mention it: copies may well pop up if anyone wants to search hard enough for them, and maybe the mention helps someone consider bringing them back...you never know
ReplyDeleteHi Michael (sorry for popping up as anonymous by the way--which isn't intentional). My point is that Fly Like a Bat has never been in print. It's ready to go (I have a copy) but hasn't been published at all. I'm pretty sure about this as talked to Harold about this and to people who helped run his affairs. I agree that it's good to mention works that encourage people to search for but in this case the volume has yet to be published at all (although it should be--and your mention might help). Best, Douglas
ReplyDeleteThat's interesting: it's listed as being published in March 2002, and has its isbn and Ive seen reference to its being available for a short time, but the lack of copies and library listings would make sense if it never did appear, and would make them truly remarkable
ReplyDeleteI believe it was set to be published (the copy I have looks ready) and it was listed with publishers (I've also seen an ISBN) but never came out. A shame as it's a good read (and Harold's letters outshine CB).
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like what happened but makes no sense as it seems just the kind of book Thunder's Mouth relished, and as you say, a fascinating mix: I suspect Buk would relish the chance to be taken seriously within the American idiom as opposed to within the persona of the drunken brawling etc etc
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