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Joe: A Memoir of Joe Brainard: A Memoir of Joe Brainard Paperback – Illustrated, October 1, 2004

by Ron Padgett (Author)

9 ratings

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“When someone we love dies, most of us do something to keep them from completely vanishing. We summon up memories of them, we talk about them, we visit their graves, we treasure photographs of them, we dream about them, and we cry, and for those brief moments they are in some way with us. But when my friend Joe Brainard died, I knew I was going to have to do something beyond all these.”

So begins Ron Padgett’s warm, conversational memoir—the unlikely and true story of two childhood friends, one straight and one gay, who grew up in 1950s Oklahoma, surprised their families by moving to New York City in search of art and poetry, and became a part of the dynamic community of artists and writers whose work continues to shape American culture.

Much of this intimate memoir is told in Joe’s own direct and unforgettable voice. Dozens of letters, journal entries, poems, photographs, and artworks create a stirring portrait of the times—one that illuminates not only Joe Brainard’s life and art, but the influence that his kindness and insight had on the lives of his contemporaries, including Alex Katz, Andy Warhol, Frank O’ Hara, Joe LeSueur, Anne Waldman, John Ashbery, Kenward Elmslie, and countless other friends, lovers, and admirers.

As Ron Padgett generously shares his memories, he allows us all to get to know Joe Brainard, a truly great person who just happened to be a brilliant artist and poet. Above all, Joe is a gentle reminder that love, life, and art matter every second.

Poet Ron Padgett, the son of an Oklahoma bootlegger, grew up in Tulsa where he met Joe Brainard at the age of 6. His recent books include the memoir, Oklahoma Tough: My Father, King of the Tulsa Bootleggers and the collection of poems You Never Know.

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Print length

280 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Coffee House Press
Publication date

October 1, 2004
Dimensions

6 x 1.1 x 9 inches
ISBN-10

1566891590
ISBN-13

978-1566891592

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Part biography, part memoir, Ron Padgett's "Joe" is a deeply moving and tender portrait of one of the most original artists and writers who ever graced the New York scene. Ten years after Joe Brainard's death, we need this book to remember the man who remembered everything, who followed his own unique path into the hearts of those who loved and continue to love his work. And who better to tell this story than poet Ron Padgett, Brainard's fellow Tulsan and lifelong friend? The book he has written is a precious gift to all of us."--Paul Auster

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Coffee House Press
Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 1, 2004
Edition ‏ : ‎ Illustrated
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Print length ‏ : ‎ 280 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1566891590
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1566891592
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.25 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.1 x 9 inches
Best Sellers Rank: #429,559 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #507 in Biographies of Artists, Architects & Photographers (Books)
- #1,230 in Literary Criticism & Theory
- #1,673 in Author Biographies
Customer Reviews:
9 ratings

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Ron Padgett

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Ron Padgett grew up in Tulsa and has lived mostly in New York City since 1960. Among his many honors are a Guggenheim Fellowship, the American Academy of Arts and Letters poetry award, the Shelley Memorial Award, and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. Padgett’s How Longwas Pulitzer Prize finalist in poetry and his Collected Poems won the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America and the Los Angeles Times prize for the best poetry book of 2013. In addition to being a poet, he is also the translator of Guillaume Apollinaire, Pierre Reverdy, and Blaise Cendrars. His own work has been translated into eighteen languages.

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Paul Dresman
An American Original
Reviewed in the United States on October 3, 2012
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Ron Padgett's biography of his life-long friend Joe Brainard is a real treat for someone like myself. I encountered this group of poets in the l960s in obscure lit mags such as Mother and thoroughly enjoyed their cosmopolitan American expression that was nevertheless grounded in our weird American psyche. Some of the collaborations with poets such as Ted Berrigan and the second-generation of New York School poets (a myriad of names) were fire-storms of improvisatory poetics.
But Padgett's book is a great chronicle of all the New York poets and painters as they related to Brainard--including the original school of O'Hara and Ashbery, et al. Brainard himself had an amazing life that ranged from the alienating strictures of Tulsa, Oklahoma to the courageous years inside the New York art scene, years that were tremendously promising and simultaneously dangerous with drugs, infighting, self-doubts. Padgett's enduring friendship with Brainard results in a biography that is honest and enlightening. I sometimes felt like I was at at once reliving the photographs of that chilling book of Oklahoma speed-freak photos (Tulsa--the hipsters will know) along the warmth and trials of companionship through thick and thin. Brainard was a most disarmingly poignant artist and poet (I Remember) that could make a straight like me love a gay man--just as Padgett, his biographer, does. A true 20th Century saga that brings joy and tears, carefully and completely rendered. Thank you, Mr. Padgett. The new Library of America edition of Joe Brainard is the boon companion to this book. Back-to-back home runs.

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Guttersnipe Das
So much love and tenderness came into her face and her voice ...
Reviewed in the United States on September 16, 2016
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
A year or two ago, I sat with my teacher, Bobbie Louise Hawkins, as she spoke of her friend, Joe Brainard. So much love and tenderness came into her face and her voice as she spoke. “You two would have loved each other,” she said, with real frustration, as if he’d stepped out of the room just before I arrived. She spoke of his kindness, humor, generosity and directness -- all qualities found abundantly in this book.

Bless Ron Padgett for recognizing he had to write this book. This is a book that had to happen -- and it did. How perfectly appropriate that the book is direct, soft-spoken, a little curmudgeonly, even occasionally awkward -- it’s the real thing, a life of Joe Brainard from the perspective of his straight best friend. Brainard is well on his way to being canonized -- thanks in great part to “The Collected Writings” -- also masterminded by Ron Padgett. If you love the work of Joe Brainard, get this book, and save it for a day when you are running low on hope for love and hope and art.

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NY Times Book Critic
Hard to find a better book about two friends
Reviewed in the United States on May 21, 2019
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
Worth buying as you'll want to re-read sections over and over. In Padgett, hard to find a more sensitive friend. When Brainard's "Collected Writings" was published, the New School also did a tribute to him (with Padgett among the speakers) and it's well worth watching too. Edmund White's anecdote of a date they went on is very sweet.

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Charles S. Houser
Celebrating a lifelong friendship
Reviewed in the United States on August 17, 2020
Format: Hardcover
I first became interested in the poetry of Ron Padgett when I watched the movie “Paterson” about a poetry-writing bus driver and learned from the movie’s closing credits that the beautiful and simple poems that the main character writes (and the film helpfully displays on screen for the audience to savor) we’re actually written by Padgett. As I purchased and read collections of Padgett’s poetry I realized he was part of a group of writers and artists that I was aware of individually and many of whom I liked (not New York School exactly, but certainly overlapping with them and sharing that group’s dual interest in the visual arts and personal, experimental writing. Padgett’s memoir includes interesting observations about a number of this crowd, including Bill Berksen, Ted Berrigan, James Schuyler, Pat Mitchell Padgett, Kenward Elmslie, Frank O’Hara, Joe LeSoeur, Anne Waldman, Alex and Ada Katz, Dick Gallup, and John Ashberry.

The person from this group who excited me most, however, was the subject of this memoir, the gay artist Joe Brainard. Padgett and Brainard met at age six in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where both men continued to have family connections after they themselves moved to New York City in the early 60s to pursue their artistic dreams. This memoir is exceptional in that it is a record of a friendship of kindred souls that continued for 45 years until Joe’s death in 1993. Though Padgett acknowledges there were periods when the two did not see one another frequently, this was due to life circumstances (such as the demands put on him by family life or artistic opportunities Brainard needed to pursue), never due to a falling out. The memoir is affectionate and intimate with no suggestion that there were scores that needed settling. But it is also frank and honest. Padgett and his wife Pat were not judgmental about Brainard’s gay lifestyle, though they seemed to have their own opinions about which of Joe’s lovers suited him best.

Padgett’s admiration for Brainard as artist and man pervades the memoir. And yet his admiration does not make him timid about offering explanations about things people continue to wonder about, such as: What motivated Brainard as an artist (and writer)? What were Brainard’s own assesments of his talents? How did Joe’s amphetamine use affect his art and relationships? Why did Brainard step away from art-making? When did Joe realize he had HIV/AIDS? In one of the final chapters Padgett speaks about the designation some have put upon his friend, “Saint Joe.” Brainard certainly was kind, humble, lived simply, was generous when he had it to give, and always sought to appreciate the moment and physical reality. Joe may not have been a saint, but these descriptors clearly identify him as a true empath to use today’s parlance. To get a sense of what Joe Brainard was like as an artist, man, and friend, I recommend that, beside reading Padgett’s memoir, you also read “The Collected Writings of Joe Brainard,” edited by (you guessed it) Ron Padgett.

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