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Rick Harsch

Goodreads Author

Born

in Denver, Colo

Website

https://rickharsch.wordpress.com/

Influences

from Rabelais to Kafka to Borges to Joyce to Antunes to Arlt to Onetti ...more

Member Since

October 2015

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Publisher, chief editor of corona\samizdat press; Izola, Slovenia....www.corona\samizdat press; rick.harsch@gmail.com
The Manifold Destiny of Eddie Vegas, a novel;
and
Walk Like a Duck, a Season of Little League Baseball in Italy
As of April 24, 2020, these two books are available in a world edition from corona/samizdat, as explained in the following youtube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4JUl...

I have finished a two volume anthological novel, The Assassination of Olof Palme, a an anthological novel, which involves the contributions of at least 50 writers from about 20 countries, and extracts the fungus of the Reagan years, montagerates the murderous manners of secretive Nato/CIA folk in Post WWII Europe, particularly in Italy and Fra ...more

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Rick Harsch’s books

Average rating: 4.33 · 330 ratings · 126 reviews · 21 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Manifold Destiny of Eddie Vegas 4.38 avg rating — 94 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Skulls of Istria 4.59 avg rating — 41 ratings — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Driftless Zone: Or, A Novel Concerning The Selective Outmigration From Small Cities 3.73 avg rating — 40 ratings — published 1997 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Voices after Evelyn 4.03 avg rating — 33 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Periplus of Spur Tank Road 4.61 avg rating — 18 ratings — published 2022	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Arjun and the Good Snake, being an ophidiological account of six weeks in India without alcohol 4.50 avg rating — 14 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Driftless Trilogy 4.43 avg rating — 14 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Assassination of Olof Palme, an anthological novel, vol. 1 4.69 avg rating — 13 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Billy Verite 4.15 avg rating — 13 ratings — published 1998 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Circumnavigation through Maritime History 4.50 avg rating — 8 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Rick Harsch's Blog

Over-sized results from a Slovene small, English language literary press: corona\samizdat books

Rooted in Izola, Slovenia, corona\samizdat is a non-profit literary press that began on April 24, 2020, and has already managed to publish 30 high quality books. C\S combines a receptive attitude to new and/or little known writers with a knack for finding lost classics, and persists with the philosophy that each book must be as well-made as possible…in case it’s the last. We’ve also brought ba

Series by Rick Harsch

The Driftless Trilogy (3 books)
by

Rick Harsch (Goodreads Author)

3.85 avg rating — 61 ratings

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Rick Harsch is currently reading

Across My Big Brass Bed

by Gary Amdahl

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Feb 19, 2023 08:16AM

Rick Harsch is currently reading

The Seven Madmen The Flamethrowers

by Roberto Arlt

bookshelves: currently-reading

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Rick Harsch said: " This is one of the few greatest books of the 20th century.

Unfortunately I have to use this space to reply to 'Gil', who wrote:
"Washed-up narcissist Richard Harsch expects people to believe this is the first edition to combine the two halves of The Fl This is one of the few greatest books of the 20th century.

Unfortunately I have to use this space to reply to 'Gil', who wrote:
"Washed-up narcissist Richard Harsch expects people to believe this is the first edition to combine the two halves of The Flamethrowers yet that edition came out from River Boat Books a year ago, and the quality is much better than this bottom-dollar pocket book. Do yourself a favor and pick this up instead: https://riverboatbooks.com/?page_id=381."

Washed-up is an unfortunate description of a narcissist, as is the use of such denigration for someone celebrating a writer not himself, in this case Roberto Arlt. Regarding the first edition to combine two halves (of the Flamethrowers? That is one half, the second, the other being The Seven Madmen). The press referred to has a book called Madmen in Revolt, which is not a book that Roberto Arlt ever wrote. Calling his book by that name would be as perplexing and misguided as if I published Moby Dick and instead called it Big Ed or Wild Whales of Yore. As a publisher I find it a simple matter to respect the authors' choices for the titles of their books. Further, that book used, without permission, my own writing for introductions to the Flamethrowers, and was put together without the knowledge of the translator, Larry Riley, of the Flamethrowers. Our complete edition of Arlt's books was something I have been working toward for years, had the imprimatur of both translators, and includes a range of front matter, most importantly from two Colombian authors who helped us reproduce the book as closely as possible to what is traditional in South America and, most importantly, to what Arlt wrote and arranged.
I have not held that book in my hands, so I won't speak to its print quality, but any reader of corona\samizdat books knows that our books are of high quality and that this 'bottom-dollar pocket book' is a beautifully made full-size paperback with french flaps, and not a pocket book. I wish it had been bottom-dollar, for then I could have afforded to print many more of them, as they are selling quite well.
Most important, this book was put together with care and respect for Roberto Arlt, one of the greatest of 20th century writers, and with the sheepish cooperation of River Boat Books, the chief editor of which recognized that what he had done was underhanded and sent me all the files I needed, such as Naomi Lindstrom's great translation of The Seven Madmen. He also said he would remove my introductions from his book. Finally, no book called Madmen in Revolt was ever written by Roberto Arlt, and no aficionado of Arlt would buy such a book.

As for Gil, who does not allow responses to his comments, I challenge him to describe the nature of my washing up so that I can correct him on particulars. I am indeed washed up, beached, careened...a man without a country, a hat without a head, a haircut posing as a man (thanks to Woody Allen for that one), and absolutely finished as a potential contributory to all things good in society. ...more "

Mar 29, 2023 09:46AM · see review

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Rick Harsch is now friends with Jean Paul
May 05, 2025 08:33PM · like
Rick Harsch rated a book it was amazing my family cookbook by ellie harsch by Ellie Harsch	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
My mother wrote this book. What other rating would I give it?
Mar 13, 2025 07:54AM · 10 likes · like · see review
Rick Harsch rated a book it was amazing The Club of True Creators by Milan Tripković	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
If Moby Dick is a five star book, this one is not, but the pleasure is gave me is worth five stars. I have been lobbying for more humor in literature lately (MD is funny; Brothers Karamazov is funny--why can't metafiction be funny more often? Pynchon ...more
Mar 26, 2024 12:26PM · 8 likes · like · see review

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Quotes by Rick Harsch (?)

“What I'm saying is by the time Veronica Slade reached the bar, having dismissed whoever it was wandered into her path, wandered solo up to the bar, rogue siren, her ass a ship's hull riveted by a tavern full of eyeballs -- like that one? -- by the time she got to the bar, Mitzie's conquest was gone to take a leak, leaving a single vacant stool -- next to Mitzie Skumsrud.”
― Rick Harsch, Voices after Evelyn

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Rick’s Quotes

“In the nature of things a priesthood is always demoralizing.”
― S. Radhakrishnan

1 likes

“Q: Why write about slavery? Haven’t we had enough stories about slavery? Why do we need another one?

A: I could have written about upper middle class white people who feel sad sometimes, but there’s a lot of competition.”
― Colson Whitehead

70 likes

“Thanks to impermanence, everything is possible. Life itself is possible. If a grain of corn is not impermanent, it can never be transformed into a stalk of corn. If the stalk were not impermanent, it could never provide us with the ear of corn we eat.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, No Death, No Fear: Comforting Wisdom for Life

tags: mindfulness

7 likes

“When I'm sometimes asked when will there be enough [women on the Supreme Court] and I say, 'When there are nine,' people are shocked. But there'd been nine men, and nobody's ever raised a question about that.”
― Ruth Bader Ginsburg

274 likes

“You’ve been wandering about Juarez like a zombie in a though experiment, an experiment in collective guilt, where the zombie is shown the morgue-slab photos, and responds by saying “I’m truly sorry”, and making out a check to Amnesty International, or Nuestra Hijas de Regreso a Casa, or maybe Save the Children or Habitat for Humanity, and then sealing the whole deal by forging his own signature. What’s that you say? You didn’t know it was forged? No wonder the authorities are beginning to get suspicious. We’re sorry to be the ones to break this to you, but the violence that man is doing to his home is not some sort of thought experiment, and the last thing on earth the world needs now is yet another anonymous onlooker, trying to get the picture; our drawing isn’t a drawing exactly, it’s more of a kind of framing device, and you, mon frère, so slow to get the picture, are not only under suspicion, but about to be framed. We didn’t exactly select you at random, and you’re not precisely The Viewer in the abstract sense, and we’re not about to give you a bird’s eye view of anything, or a view of Juarez from high atop a smelting stack; we’re about to put you back exactly where you belong, wearing Douchebag’s shoes, in the middle of the picture, because while Douchebag isn’t you in any literal sense, you appear to be standing in Douchebag shoes, and Douchebag, unfortunately, is now your problem.”
― Jim Gauer, Novel Explosives

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