Amorous Nightmares of Delay (PAJ Books) [Paperback]

Professor Frank O'Hara (Author)

Book Description

Series: PAJ Books | Publication Date: February 26, 1997

This volume brings together twenty-four of O'Hara's plays, from one-act dramas to brief "eclogues."While several were produced in New York and Cambridge, Massachusetts, most are intended as poetic works cast in dramatic form. With his interest in camp, collage, and dramatic and verse forms, O'Hara created characters that range from classical figures (Daphnis and Chloe) to historical personalities (Benjamin Franklin and a thinly disguised General MacArthur) to his own contemporaries (Jackson Pollack, Ted Berrigan, and others). Like collections of his poetry, Amorous Nightmares of Delay captures the irreverent voice and joyful lyricism of one of America's great authors. An introduction by O'Hara's longtime friend Joe LeSueur places the works in the context of New York's extraordinary art and literary scene of the 1950s and early 1960s.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"After reading these unconventional works, one might conclude that Frank couldn't have had much interest in the kind of plays that appeal to large audiences. Which means, now that I think of it, he would have been in the company of every other poet I've known over the years. Not that I'm reproaching them; I think it's easy to see why poets might not like popular theater."--'from the Introduction by Joe LeSueur'

Book Description

With his interest in camp, collage, and dramatic and verse forms, O'Hara created characters that range from classical figures to historical personalities to his own contemporaries. This volume brings together twenty-four of O'Hara's plays, from one-act dramas to brief "eclogues."

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 230 pages
• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press (February 26, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801855292
• ISBN-13: 978-0801855290
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,965,299 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Frank O'Hara (1926-1966) was one of the most original and influential American poets of the twentieth century. Although he grew up in Grafton, Massachusetts, O'Hara developed into the quintessential poet of mid-century Manhattan; soon after his arrival in New York in 1951 he evolved a new kind of urban poetry that brilliantly captures the heady excitements of a golden period in the city's artistic life. O'Hara's style exudes an insistent, seductive glamour; his mercurial poems, at once open-ended and startlingly immediate, radiate an insouciant confidence that has lost none of its freshness over the decades. O'Hara was at the heart of a vibrant artistic circle that embraced fellow New York School poets John Ashbery, Barbara Guest, Kenneth Koch, and James Schuyler, as well as experimental painters such as Willem de Kooning, Larry Rivers, and Jasper Johns. Their achievements are movingly celebrated in many of his poems, while at the same time he paid loving tribute to popular idols such as James Dean and Lana Turner.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars experimental theater with a sense of humor, May 26, 2000

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"javits2000" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Amorous Nightmares of Delay (PAJ Books) (Paperback)

Much like his poems, Frank O'Hara's plays are hit-or-miss. Most of them were clearly written in a matter of minutes, and never intended for production. Many are simply inside jokes about his group of friends. But the good plays have no equal in the experimental theater of the 50's and 60's. "The General Returns From One Place to Another," one of the few in this collection that was actually produced, is a hilarious piece about a MacArthur-like figure who enacts dramatic returns to Pacific islands where no one has ever heard of him. Most of the other plays are more like surrealist poems in dialogue form. For aficionados of O'Hara, this is a necessary companion to his _Collected Poems_.