The New York School of poetry has long merited a blog or three of its own, and in Locus Solus, edited and written by Andrew Epstein, we who follow the lives and words of Ashbery, Koch, O'Hara, Schuyler and all the great others affiliated with them, we have a superb resource. The name of the blog is taken from the remarkable novel by Raymond Roussel, whom Ashbery and Koch and Trevor Winkfield have done so much to promote to an initially indifferent public. The title has a further ring inasmuch as Ashbery, who toyed with the idea of writing a dissertation on Roussel, grew up in Sodus, New York, a fact not lost upon the editors of Locus Solus, one of the two greatest avant-garde literary magazines of the early 1960s. The editors -- Ashbery, Koch, schuyler, and Harry Mathews -- sometimes called it "Locus Sodus" in their playful transatlantic correspondence.
Here is a splendid piece Andrew Epstein posted about Karin Roffman's superb biography of JA's early years. I'll quote a paragraph or three below. -- DL
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~ The book includes a few more details about Auden and Ashbery that were new to me: six years later, Auden would of course choose Ashbery’s manuscript for the Yale Younger Poets Prize (passing over Frank O’Hara’s manuscript in the process), an award which led to the publication of Ashbery’s first book. That much is known, but apparently it was Auden “who insisted he pick a title from one of the poems in the volume, and thought Some Trees best, a decision about which John was ambivalent.” Ashbery informed Roffman in an interview that he “had included his best experimental poems in the manuscript, but Auden removed any poem that had objectionable language, including ‘White’ (because of ‘masturbation’) and “Lieutenant Primrose” (because of ‘farting’). Ashbery accepted all Auden’s changes, but he privately objected.”
Also, as is well-known, Ashbery wasn’t crazy about the begrudging introduction Auden wrote for Some Trees. Roffman suggests Ashbery’s displeasure may have gotten back to Auden himself, who — she reports for the first time — once told a friend that Ashbery was “‘the most ambitious person’ he had ever known,” which, given Auden’s circle of acquaintances, is saying something…
This is just a glimpse of the many gems of literary gossip and new insights that abound in this biography. As I said in my review, “The Songs We Know Best offers up a feast of new details, documents and colorful anecdotes that will be foundational for any future understanding of Ashbery.” >>>
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