Don't Touch the Poet: The Life and Times of Joel Oppenheimer [Paperback]

Lyman Gilmore (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1999

Literary Nonfiction. Biography. Poetry. "The first biographers of any artist have an unenviable job. With subjects still alive or recently deceased, the smoke screens of family and friends and the passions and intrigues of the times hold sway, obscuring the subject. Lyman Gilmore has done an admirable job of balancing views about the recently deceased Joel Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer achieved a modicum of fame early, appearing in the seminal Dick Allen anthology-New American Poetry-(1960). His listing there as a Black Mountain poet defined Oppenheimer's life. People expected a hard-drinking, free-thinking, sexually liberated counterculture figure. Oppenheimer lived up to those expectations.Gilmore, however, goes beyond facade to show a man obsessed with magic, routine, and lists. A man poet jealous of his career. A man dedicated to networking. This Oppenheimer managed to become first director of the St. Mark's Poetry Project and an organizer of the first 'Writers in the Schools' program. Gilmore admirably balances the contradictions between the free-wheeling bohemian and the careerist. The jury is still out on the importance of Oppenheimer's work. Yet for a very human view of the Black Mountain and Greenwich Village poetry world of the '50s and '60s, this book ranks toward the top"--Independent Publisher.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Given his alcoholism, agoraphobia, compulsiveness, and tendency towards magical thinking, especially when it came to his favorite baseball team (The Mets), poet Joel Oppenheimer would seem the perfect target for a pathography. Gilmore, a hypnotherapist and colleague of Oppenheimer's at New England College, eschews this path in favor of a detailed and balanced portrait of the poet as seen through the eyes of family and friends. Oppenheimer's inner life is charted through analyses of selected poems. Gilmore's work is strongest on Oppenheimer's childhood, his time at Black Mountain College, and his struggle to achieve poetic recognition in Greenwich Village in the 1950s and 1960s; his 15 years as a columnist for the Village Voice are less fully explored. This serviceable biography is recommended for most larger literature collections.?Willaim Gargan, Brooklyn Coll. Lib., CUNY
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

The first biographers of any artist have an unenviable job. With subjects still alive or recently deceased, the smoke screens of family and friends and the passions and intrigues of the times hold sway, obscuring the subject. Lyman Gilmore has done an admirable job of balancing views about the recently deceased Joel Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer achieved a modicum of fame early, appearing in the seminal Dick Allen anthology-New American Poetry-(1960). His listing there as a Black Mountain poet defined Oppenheimer's life. People expected a hard-drinking, free-thinking, sexually liberated counterculture figure. Oppenheimer lived up to those expectations.Gilmore, however, goes beyond facade to show a man obsessed with magic, routine, and lists. A man poet jealous of his career. A man dedicated to networking. This Oppenheimer managed to become first director of the St. Mark's Poetry Project and an organizer of the first "Writers in the Schools" program. Gilmore admirably balances the contradictions between the free-wheeling bohemian and the careerist. The jury is still out on the importance of Oppenheimer's work. Yet for a very human view of the Black Mountain and Greenwich Village poetry world of the '50s and '60s, this book ranks toward the top. -- From Independent Publisher --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Talisman House (April 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1883689635
• ISBN-13: 978-1883689636
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,068,929 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A pleasure to know him, July 8, 2002

By 

Frank Dwyer (Newburyport, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Don't Touch the Poet: The Life and Times of Joel Oppenheimer (Paperback)

I really enjoyed this book. As a 1987 graduate of New England College, I had Joel as a teacher and an advisor, and most importantly as a friend. (and a fellow Mets fan!)
Joel helped me to transform from a disjointed, disorganized and immature college freshman to a more focused and interested writer.
The book shed light on his life and reminded me of a few stories he told me in my four years of knowing him.
I can vividly remember sitting in his smoke filled office arguing over my lack of attention to my studies...:)
What a great guy, I sure wish he was still here with us.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Read, December 14, 2002

By 

M. Hori "Jesse Glass" (Urayasu, Chiba Japan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Don't Touch the Poet: The Life and Times of Joel Oppenheimer (Paperback)

This is by far one of the best biographies of a contemporary poet I've ever read. Gilmore gives us Oppenheimer the drinker, chain-smoker, cuckold, cocksman, lover, friend, good-guy, wise-man, and master of the directly stated, simply worded, poem. Oppenheimer comes across as a person who was--somehow--more than the sum of his parts. That "somehow" was his gift for living close to the bone, surviving break-ups and bouts with the bottle, and ultimately writing well. No hagiography (as so many paeons to the Beats turn out to be), Don't Touch the Poet allows us to hear from enemies and not-so-impressed-ex-wives as well as life-long friends. The end result is similar to Boswell's portrait of Dr. Johnson holding forth in his dressing gown: at one and the same time a bit off-putting, yet somewhat charming, wholly fascinating, and, one feels, totally true to life.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "every spring he saw we see still", August 19, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Don't Touch the Poet: The Life and Times of Joel Oppenheimer : A Biography (Hardcover)

As good a biography as we are likely to get of Joel Oppenheimer and perhaps the only one. Joel's earlier years are especially well researched and told. The absence of Amiri Baraka's voice is a pity.

The book would have benefited with more input from Pete Hamill, Sam Abrams and a few others. Also, a few of Joel's more notable students are silent: Tom Weatherly; and Bob Rixon, who has been telling lovely anecdotes about Joel for years over WFMU in New York.

Which is maybe a complaint that the book is too short at 246 pages. But Gilmore writes with devotion and leaves us with the belief that "every spring he saw we see still"

Fine work.