The New Olympia Reader [Paperback]

Murice Girodias (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1993

From the beginning, Evergreen was known as the magazine with the daringly offbeat angle--on people, art, politics, and living. This illustrated anthology includes what the editors have chosen as among the best and most representative works the magazine published over the first decade of its existence.

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

A rich selection of articles, stories, book extracts, poems, plays, cartoons, and covers from the first decade of America's premier avant-garde magazine of the 50's and 60's (Evergreen Review lasted until 1973, but its importance as an iconoclastic voice waned with the arising of the 60's countercultural movement). The array of writers and work published by founding editor Rosset was staggering: Reprinted here from Evergreen Review's first year alone are--to name just a few entries--original short stories by Samuel Beckett and Jack Kerouac (with his ``October in the Railroad Earth'' predating the publication of On the Road); Allen Ginsberg's Howl (previously published only as a pamphlet that'd been seized by customs officials); a selection from Lawrence Ferlinghetti's A Coney Island of the Mind; and a long passage from Alexander Trocchi's Cain's Book. Though much of the material has by now shown up in other books, numerous items (including the marvelous covers- -e.g., the classic one from 1966 of a heavily bearded Ginsberg cavorting in a sport coat and Uncle Sam top hat--and several reprinted comic strips--notably, Michael O'Donoghue's The Adventure of Phoebe Zeit-geist)--are here saved from oblivion. To see them all together is not only to take a stimulating walk down Memory Lane but to remember how much influence and prophetic insight a daring literary magazine with high standards can have. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Barney Rosset is the former owner of Grove Press, and publisher and editor-in-chief of the now online edition of Evergreen Review. He led a successful legal battle to publish the uncensored version of D. H. Lawrence’s novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover, and later was the American publisher of Henry Miller’s controversial novel Tropic of Cancer. The right to publish and distribute Miller’s novel in the United States was affirmed by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1964, in a landmark ruling for free speech and the First Amendment. He lives in Manhattan. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 891 pages
• Publisher: Blue Moon Books (September 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1562010468
• ISBN-13: 978-1562010461
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,625,267 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Voices From The Underground., February 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Evergreen Review Reader 1957-1966 (Paperback)

A collection of substantial literary material from one of the best voices of dissidence & nonconformism;gems that howl,speak & whisper from the side of literatures remorseless tongue.Personal faves here are the excerpt from Alexander Trocchi's novel "Cains Book";Octavio Paz's essay;Robert Coover's "The Square Shooter & The Saint";Ginsberg's "Howl" of course;Kerouac's "October In The Railroad Earth",the interview on Louis-Ferdinand Celine;& many more.Not only is this good reading material to ingest differentiating one from the usual academic blah that turn a lot off to literature;it also familiarizes oneself to a lot of talented & great authors that one may not be aware of if not for this impressive book.

2 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ...a valentine gift, belated ..., March 28, 2010

By 

Patrick J. Richardson (Philadlephia PA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The New Olympia Reader (Paperback)

I bought this book of mid-century erotica for a gal was getting to know... she already had it, and hated having to search through boring bits to find the bits she really liked. So, I bought her an extra copy she could cut down (with a knife) into the a "just the hits" version.
The book arrived a bit after the desired Valentine weekend, but it was a well received first gift at the beginning of our courtship. ... through she ultimately stopped seeing me after a few (thrilling) weeks.

As for the book. It's not bad, from what I've read.
I've only perused those pages she excised and left around my bed.