An artist associated with the New York School of poets, Joe Brainard (1942-1994) was a wonderful writer whose one-of-a-kind autobiographical work I Remember ("a completely original book" -Edmund White) has had a wide and growing influence. It is joined in this major new retrospective with many other pieces that for the first time present the full range of Brainard's writing in all its deadpan wit, madcap inventiveness, self-revealing frankness, and generosity of spirit. The Collected Writings of Joe Brainard gathers intimate journals, jottings, stories, one-liners, comic strips, mini-essays, and short plays, many of them available until now only as expensive rarities, if at all. "Brainard disarms us with the seemingly tossed- off, spontaneous nature of his writing and his stubborn refusal to accede to the pieties of self-importance," writes Paul Auster in the introduction to this collection. "These little works . . . are not really about anything so much as what it means to be young, that hopeful, anarchic time when all horizons are open to us and the future appears to be without limits." Assembled by the author's longtime friend and biographer Ron Padgett and including fourteen previously unpublished works, here is a fresh and affordable way to rediscover a unique American artist.
The Collected Writings of Joe Brainard
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
From Bookforum
The Collected Writings makes its case—Brainard surely belongs in this canonical series, in no small part because he represents that peculiarly American aspiration to self-mythologize in the face of an otherwise relentlessly quotidian world. But this is done gently, with affection and a profound sense of commonality with his readers. Sounding playful, sometimes naive notes, Brainard nevertheless advances a serious cause. —Albert Mobilio
About the Author
RON PADGETT, editor, is the author of many books of poetry including How To Be Perfect, You Never Know, The Big Something, and Great Balls of Fire, as well as Joe: A Memoir of Joe Brainard.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
Share your thoughts with other customers
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
29 of 29 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
"I remember catching lightning bugs and putting them in a jar with holes in the lid and then letting them out the next day"
March 31, 2012
Format:Hardcover
You get a generosity of content when you buy this edition of Joe Brainard's Collected Writings. It contains a three-page preface by the book's editor Ron Padgett and a ten-page Introduction by novelist Paul Auster. This is followed by over 500 pages of writings interspersed with the author's own drawings and cartoons. Rounding out the book are pages of helpful editorial content: a Chronology; a Note on the Texts; and a Glossary of Names. The names belong to fellow artists, writers, dancers, musicians, associates and collaborators mentioned by the shy-but-gregarious, serious-but-gossipy, solemn and humorous Joe Brainard.
The volume leads off with "I Remember," the autobiographical book Edmund White once labelled "a completely original book" and Paul Auster calls "a modest little gem." There is an undeniable charm and relentless spell to it. Baby Boomer readers especially will be nodding their heads non-stop in recognition:
"I remember putting on sun tan oil and having the sun go away."
"I remember red rubber coin purses that opened like a pair of lips, with a squeeze."
"I remember Christmas cards coming from people my parents forgot to send Christmas cards to."
"I remember wax paper."
I REMEMBER is in print as a pocket-size paperback: Joe Brainard: I Remember. Over the years its simple template has influenced thousands of American students in creative writing classes, jump-starting their imagination. Foreign writers too have followed its trail. One is Édouard Levé, whose Autoportrait is an outpouring of thousands of self-contained, self-referential declarative sentences -- chips off the Brainard block.
And yet "I Remember" fills only the first quarter (pages 3-134) of the Collected Writings volume. The bulk of the book falls into the category of Miscellany. To get a sense of the scope of the nearly 100 pieces, please see the book's Table of Contents -- four pages visible in the Customer Images I've uploaded to this Product Page (located in the upper left of the screen). Truth to tell, these pieces, which range from the hunt for love to the hunt for cigarettes and everything in between, include misses among the hits. An illustrated piece on page 391 entitled "Matches" reads in its entirety: "If I strike say 60 matches a day (and I do) in a year's time that would be --- let me see --- that would be --- I hate math." But the prevailing tone is a winning youthful energy, casual, funny, typically miniaturist (as with his collages). In the 1971 "Bolinas Journal" (reprinted at pages 285-333), he revealed a modest credo: "trying to be honest."
Without doubt this book will appeal to Brainard "completists" -- readers so taken by the delights of "I Remember," that from this intimately personal raconteur, from this easy sharer of confidences, they demand to hear more, more, and more.
The critic Michael Dirda recently observed that while THE COLLECTED WRITINGS "may not be a fully canonical Library of America title," it is still "a superbly engaging bedside book." (To find his review, Google two words: Dirda Brainard.) I agree. After the opening section devoted to the minimalist yet somehow magisterial "I Remember," the book becomes a resource to be dipped into at leisure.
A note to readers who care about books as objects, especially the matter of their binding: Unlike volumes in the main Library of America series which are Smyth sewn (allowing you to open the book wide and bend back the covers without "breaking" or otherwise harming the binding), THE COLLECTED WRITINGS OF JOE BRAINARD is a "Special Publication" that features a different design and production. The trim size is larger (good), but notch binding is used here, a disappointment as it renders the book less elegant than regular LOA volumes.
The volume leads off with "I Remember," the autobiographical book Edmund White once labelled "a completely original book" and Paul Auster calls "a modest little gem." There is an undeniable charm and relentless spell to it. Baby Boomer readers especially will be nodding their heads non-stop in recognition:
"I remember putting on sun tan oil and having the sun go away."
"I remember red rubber coin purses that opened like a pair of lips, with a squeeze."
"I remember Christmas cards coming from people my parents forgot to send Christmas cards to."
"I remember wax paper."
I REMEMBER is in print as a pocket-size paperback: Joe Brainard: I Remember. Over the years its simple template has influenced thousands of American students in creative writing classes, jump-starting their imagination. Foreign writers too have followed its trail. One is Édouard Levé, whose Autoportrait is an outpouring of thousands of self-contained, self-referential declarative sentences -- chips off the Brainard block.
And yet "I Remember" fills only the first quarter (pages 3-134) of the Collected Writings volume. The bulk of the book falls into the category of Miscellany. To get a sense of the scope of the nearly 100 pieces, please see the book's Table of Contents -- four pages visible in the Customer Images I've uploaded to this Product Page (located in the upper left of the screen). Truth to tell, these pieces, which range from the hunt for love to the hunt for cigarettes and everything in between, include misses among the hits. An illustrated piece on page 391 entitled "Matches" reads in its entirety: "If I strike say 60 matches a day (and I do) in a year's time that would be --- let me see --- that would be --- I hate math." But the prevailing tone is a winning youthful energy, casual, funny, typically miniaturist (as with his collages). In the 1971 "Bolinas Journal" (reprinted at pages 285-333), he revealed a modest credo: "trying to be honest."
Without doubt this book will appeal to Brainard "completists" -- readers so taken by the delights of "I Remember," that from this intimately personal raconteur, from this easy sharer of confidences, they demand to hear more, more, and more.
The critic Michael Dirda recently observed that while THE COLLECTED WRITINGS "may not be a fully canonical Library of America title," it is still "a superbly engaging bedside book." (To find his review, Google two words: Dirda Brainard.) I agree. After the opening section devoted to the minimalist yet somehow magisterial "I Remember," the book becomes a resource to be dipped into at leisure.
A note to readers who care about books as objects, especially the matter of their binding: Unlike volumes in the main Library of America series which are Smyth sewn (allowing you to open the book wide and bend back the covers without "breaking" or otherwise harming the binding), THE COLLECTED WRITINGS OF JOE BRAINARD is a "Special Publication" that features a different design and production. The trim size is larger (good), but notch binding is used here, a disappointment as it renders the book less elegant than regular LOA volumes.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By embers
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
The poetry of Joe Brainard changed my life. I became aware of his writing in other collections that included the other New York Poets. Joe Brainard approached the world with the wide open eyes of a child. He also saw how really funny, even silly, the world could seem to be sometimes especially when you attended to certain details in the right order of unimportance or insignificance. Having, at last, this collection of his work in one place pleases me beyond measure ! For those of you who enjoy the craft of those special poets who become expert in a loving irreverence for the world, this is writing you will cherish.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Joe Brainard (1942-1994) was born in Salem, Arkansas and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma. An artist, poet, and theater set designer he moved to New York City at age 19. There, he joined the community of New York School poets and painters who would later become his artistic collaborators, including Frank O'Hara, Ted Berrigan, John Ashbery, and Ron Padgett. One of Brainard's most frequent collaborators was his longtime partner, the writer Kenward Elmslie.
Brainard s honored here by the esteemed writer Paul Auster and his works form his life are arranged by his fellow poet Ron Padgett. This huge volume has nearly everything Brainard created - except for that ineffable joie de vivre that surrounded him. This book is important in that it does give us so much more than the two works for which he is most remembered - `I Remember' from 1975 and The Nancy Book 2008. Much of what fills the pages of this tome will not register with everyone - it takes a certain state of mind to be able to appreciate just how silly and simple he saw the world and share in some of those tongue in cheek moments never meant to be great art. But it is fun to pick and choose some of his `remembrances' such as the following:
I remember my first erections. I thought I had some terrible disease or something.
I remember the only time I ever saw my mother cry. I was eating apricot pie.
I remember when my father would say "Keep your hands out from under the covers" as he said goodnight. But he said it in a nice way.
I remember when I thought that if you did anything bad, policemen would put you in jail.
I remember when polio was the worst thing in the world.
I remember the first time I met Frank O'Hara. He was walking down Second Avenue. It was a cool early Spring evening but he was wearing only a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. And blue jeans. And moccasins. I remember that he seemed very sissy to me. Very theatrical. Decadent. I remember that I liked him instantly.
Or some of his more brief poems:
WHY I AM A PAINTER
One reason I'm a painter is because I'm not a movie star.
CONCEIT
To tell you the truth, I don't think I'm as conceited as I have the right to be.
MY BIGGEST FEAR
My biggest fear is that some morning I'm going to wake up to find that I don't like myself anymore.
WHY I LEAVE MY SHIRT OPEN
Many years ago Joe LeSueur made the mistake of telling me I have a terrific stomach.
Or for those who prefer longer ones:
LIFE
When I stop and think about what it's all about I do come up with some answers, but they don't help very much.
I think it is safe to say that life is pretty mysterious. And hard.
Life is short. I know that much. That life is short. And that it's important to keep reminding oneself of it. That life is short. Just because it is. I suspect that each of us is going to wake up some morning to suddenly find ourselves old men (or women) without knowing how we got that way. Wondering where it all went. Regretting all the things we didn't do. So I think that the sooner we realize that life is short the better off we are.
Now, to get down to the basics. There are 24 hours a day. There is you and there are other people. The idea is to fill these 24 hours as best one can. With love and fun. Or things that are interesting. Or what have you. Other people are most important. Art is rewarding. Books and movies are good fillers, and the most reliable.
Now you know that life is not so simple as I am making it sound. We are all a bit f****d up, and here lies the problem. To try and get rid of the f****d up parts, so we can just relax and be ourselves. For what time we have left.
And Brainard didn't live long but he offered one of the best of the many epitaphs written about him: 'What's important is that I'm a painter and a writer. Queer. Insecure about my looks. And I need to please people too much. I work very hard. I'd give my right arm to be madly in love. (Well, my left.) And I'm optimistic about tomorrow. (Optimistic about myself, not about the world.) I'm crazy about people. Not very intelligent. But smart. I want too much. What I want most is to open up. I keep trying.'
Joe Brainard was an original and he is irreplaceable. Enjoy! Grady Harp, March 13
Brainard s honored here by the esteemed writer Paul Auster and his works form his life are arranged by his fellow poet Ron Padgett. This huge volume has nearly everything Brainard created - except for that ineffable joie de vivre that surrounded him. This book is important in that it does give us so much more than the two works for which he is most remembered - `I Remember' from 1975 and The Nancy Book 2008. Much of what fills the pages of this tome will not register with everyone - it takes a certain state of mind to be able to appreciate just how silly and simple he saw the world and share in some of those tongue in cheek moments never meant to be great art. But it is fun to pick and choose some of his `remembrances' such as the following:
I remember my first erections. I thought I had some terrible disease or something.
I remember the only time I ever saw my mother cry. I was eating apricot pie.
I remember when my father would say "Keep your hands out from under the covers" as he said goodnight. But he said it in a nice way.
I remember when I thought that if you did anything bad, policemen would put you in jail.
I remember when polio was the worst thing in the world.
I remember the first time I met Frank O'Hara. He was walking down Second Avenue. It was a cool early Spring evening but he was wearing only a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. And blue jeans. And moccasins. I remember that he seemed very sissy to me. Very theatrical. Decadent. I remember that I liked him instantly.
Or some of his more brief poems:
WHY I AM A PAINTER
One reason I'm a painter is because I'm not a movie star.
CONCEIT
To tell you the truth, I don't think I'm as conceited as I have the right to be.
MY BIGGEST FEAR
My biggest fear is that some morning I'm going to wake up to find that I don't like myself anymore.
WHY I LEAVE MY SHIRT OPEN
Many years ago Joe LeSueur made the mistake of telling me I have a terrific stomach.
Or for those who prefer longer ones:
LIFE
When I stop and think about what it's all about I do come up with some answers, but they don't help very much.
I think it is safe to say that life is pretty mysterious. And hard.
Life is short. I know that much. That life is short. And that it's important to keep reminding oneself of it. That life is short. Just because it is. I suspect that each of us is going to wake up some morning to suddenly find ourselves old men (or women) without knowing how we got that way. Wondering where it all went. Regretting all the things we didn't do. So I think that the sooner we realize that life is short the better off we are.
Now, to get down to the basics. There are 24 hours a day. There is you and there are other people. The idea is to fill these 24 hours as best one can. With love and fun. Or things that are interesting. Or what have you. Other people are most important. Art is rewarding. Books and movies are good fillers, and the most reliable.
Now you know that life is not so simple as I am making it sound. We are all a bit f****d up, and here lies the problem. To try and get rid of the f****d up parts, so we can just relax and be ourselves. For what time we have left.
And Brainard didn't live long but he offered one of the best of the many epitaphs written about him: 'What's important is that I'm a painter and a writer. Queer. Insecure about my looks. And I need to please people too much. I work very hard. I'd give my right arm to be madly in love. (Well, my left.) And I'm optimistic about tomorrow. (Optimistic about myself, not about the world.) I'm crazy about people. Not very intelligent. But smart. I want too much. What I want most is to open up. I keep trying.'
Joe Brainard was an original and he is irreplaceable. Enjoy! Grady Harp, March 13
Most Recent Customer Reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not what I expected
Too juvenile. Reads more like it was written by a sixth grader. Content boring. Overwritten, in a juvenile way. On the p,us side, it is varied, but not very compelling.
Published 1 month ago by Kathleen Waring
3.0 out of 5 stars
I REMEMBER section is fun, but the rest - tedious, even boring
THE COLLECTED WRITINGS OF JOE BRAINARD is packaged in a very handsome edition by The Library of America. But it can get a bit tedious if you try to read his stuff all at once. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Timothy J. Bazzett
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Listmania!
|
|
