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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 Assembled by the author's longtime friend and biographer Ron Padgett and including fourteen previously unpublished works, here is a fresh and affordable way to rediscover a unique American artist Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright -- Publication Support -- Contents -- Editor's Preface by Ron Padgett -- Introduction by Paul Auster -- I Remember -- Self-Portrait -- Self-Portrait on Christmas Night -- Back in Tulsa Again -- Saturday July 21st 1962 -- Diary Aug. 4th-15th -- The China Sea -- Picnic or Yonder Comes the Blue -- A True Story -- I Like ["A happy glory to sky!"] -- I Like ["I Joe"] -- The People -- Andy Warhol: Andy Do It -- The Man -- Marge -- Johnny -- Nancy ["It was coffee time"] -- Nancy ["Nancy was always handing me"] -- May Dye -- Colgate Dental Cream -- Brunswick Stew -- Sick Art -- Sunday, July the 30th, 1964 -- Saturday, December the 11th, 1965 -- Van Gogh -- People of the World: Relax! -- Ron Padgett -- January 26th, 1967 -- Pat -- August 29th, 1967 -- Jamaica 1968 -- What Is Money? -- Little-Known Facts about People -- Diary 1969 -- Diary 1969 (Continued) -- Sex -- A Special Diary -- Some Drawings of Some Notes to Myself -- Death -- Autobiography -- Some Train Notes -- Diary 1970-71 -- December 22, 1970 -- 1970 -- Queer Bars -- Art -- Short Story -- Life ["When I stop and think"] -- Rim of the Desert -- How to Be Alone Again -- Bolinas Journal -- Wednesday, July 7th, 1971 -- Selections from "Vermont Journal: 1971 -- Fear -- White Spots -- My Favorite Quotations -- Selections from "Self-Portrait: 1971 -- From N.Y.C. Journals: 1971-1972 -- Friday, June 16th, 1972 -- Tuesday, July 11th, 1972 -- What I Did This Summer -- Washington D.C. Journal 1972 -- The Gay Way -- Matches -- Self-Portrait (As a Writer) If I Was Old and Fat and Wore Hats -- Dirty Prose -- Fantastic Dream I Had Last Night! -- If -- The Friendly Way -- The Friendly Way (Continued) -- If I Was God -- Ponder This -- Grandmother -- Night -- Neck -- 30 One-Liners -- The Cigarette Book -- Poem ["Sometimes"] -- No Story -- Journals -- Before I Die -- Right Now
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