De Kooning’s Bicycle: Artists and Writers in the Hamptons

by Robert Long, Grover Gardner (Narrated by)

Some of the twentieth century's most important artists and writers--from Jackson Pollock to Saul Steinberg, Fairfield Porter to Jean Stafford--lived and worked on the East End of Long Island. The home they made there would affect their creative work for years to come. Pollock found there a connection to nature that inspired some of the most significant painting of our time. James Schuyler and Frank O'Hara found companionship and raw material for their poems on South Main Street and the city train. Willem de Kooning rode his bike every day to Gardiner's Bay, where the light informed every brushstroke he put to canvas from the early 1960s on. Through searching, lyrical vignettes, critic and poet Robert Long mixes storytelling with history to recreate these lives and events that shaped American art and literature.

Genres: Art, History, Nonfiction

Audio CD

First published November 16, 2005

Reviews

[Rustin Larson]

I am on my fifth reading of this book. I can't get enough of it like I can't get enough of Vonnegut's Bluebeard. The locale is the same between the two, and the two books inform each other in a strange way, in my mind at least, like cross-pollinating plants.

[Mike Murray]

Interesting book for someone familiar with the Springs/East Hamptons area and the artists that lived and worked there. Gives me a reason to look up their work and study up on them.

[Molly]

I listened to the audiobook version of this one while I tooled around in my car running errands & such here in Alaska. While it's very green here in the summertime and, hopefully, very sunny, there's not much beachy-ness to be had so this book felt like a summer vacation, what with all the talk of the Hamptons & the light & the sand & the ocean & all the picturesque scenery, way back before the area was "The Hamptons" packed full of filthy rich Paltrows & Diddys. I liked the format of the book -- short essays, very lyrical & descriptive. I also loved the subjects of the book because not only do I love artists and writers and the works they create, I'm also intrigued by all the details of their lives -- their houses & studios & offices & typewriters & brushes & paint colors & clothes, etc etc etc. The book was a little slow at the end, I thought, but it was short & sweet & all in all, it was right up my alley.

[Marcia]

I was fascinated with the history and description of the Hamptons. I am interested in many of the people mentioned but became very frustrated with the author's style. His descriptive language seemed very affected and he acted as though he knew the thoughts of the people he discussed. He also had the habit of calling everyone "he" or "she" and I often listened for a long time before I could figure out who the subject of the chapter was. Did all of these folks actually drink continually? I know that alchohol was part of the life style and was a serious illness for many (Pollack died because of it, after all) but wasn't there more to their lives?

[Chris Schneider]

I'm not invested in knowing about the Hamptons, but I did want to learn a bit more about De Kooning and Jackson Pollack. And I did. Plus a little more. Nothing Earth-shattering, but I did feel is helped broaden my understanding of two of America's most significant artists.

[Arty]

boring bullshit

[Joyce]

Intrigued by the intertwining history of long island, art and personal lives and relationships of the artists

[Leeleewells]

pretty much...

[Josh Peters]

Now I want to read more about Pollock and the De Koonings.

[Richard Rowland]

Well written. The Hamptons back in the day.

[Mejix]

It's hard to believe that you could make an awful book of a rich fascinating subject but this guy did it, this a real stinker of a book.