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In Memory of My Feelings
Between 1952, when Frank O'Hara published his first collection of poems, and his death, in 1966, at the early age of forty, he became recognized as a quintessential American poet whose vernacular phrasing, both worldly and lyrical, beautifully told of the urban life of his generation. In addition to the contribution he made to American literature, O'Hara was a vital figure in the New York cultural scene and spent many years working at The Museum of Modern Art, where, having begun by taking a job selling postcards on the admissions desk, he ultimately became an associate curator in the Department of Painting and Sculpture. And when he unexpectedly died, in an accident on the beach at Fire Island, New York, he was deeply mourned by the Museum's staff and by the New York art world.
In Memory of My Feelings was published by the Museum in 1967 to honor its late curator. The book was edited by the poet Bill Berkson, who had been a close friend of O'Hara's and was then a guest editor in the Museum's Department of Publications. Berkson invited 30 artists who had known O'Hara, ranging from Willem to Kooning to Claes Oldenburg, from Joan Mitchell to Jasper Johns, to produce works to accompany his poems. The book was issued in a limited edition as a set of folded sheets held loose in a cloth-and-board folio that was itself contained in a slipcase. Now, for the first time, it Museum has republished In Memory of My Feelings in a conventionally bound edition, and with a newly designed paper jacket instead of a slipcase. In every other way, however, this book is an exact facsimile of the edition of 1967.
In Memory of My Feelings was published by the Museum in 1967 to honor its late curator. The book was edited by the poet Bill Berkson, who had been a close friend of O'Hara's and was then a guest editor in the Museum's Department of Publications. Berkson invited 30 artists who had known O'Hara, ranging from Willem to Kooning to Claes Oldenburg, from Joan Mitchell to Jasper Johns, to produce works to accompany his poems. The book was issued in a limited edition as a set of folded sheets held loose in a cloth-and-board folio that was itself contained in a slipcase. Now, for the first time, it Museum has republished In Memory of My Feelings in a conventionally bound edition, and with a newly designed paper jacket instead of a slipcase. In every other way, however, this book is an exact facsimile of the edition of 1967.
224 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1967
361 people want to read
About the author
Frank O'Hara
122 books703 followersCollections of American poet Francis Russell O'Hara include
Meditations in an Emergency
(1957) and
Lunch Poems
(1964); playfulness, irony, sophistication, and a shared interest in the visual arts mark works of the New York School, an active group that included O'Hara during the 1950s and 1960s.
Parents reared O'Hara in Grafton, Massachusetts. O'Hara served in the south Pacific and Japan as a sonar man on the destroyer United States Ship Nicholas during World War II.
With the funding, made available to veterans, he attended Harvard University and roomed with artist-writer Edward Gorey. He majored in music and composed some works despite his irregular attendance was and his disparate interests. Visual art and contemporary music, his first love, heavily influenced O'Hara, a fine piano player all his life; he suddenly played swathes of Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff when visiting new partners, often to their shock.
At Harvard, O'Hara met John Ashbery and began publishing poems in the Harvard Advocate. Despite his love for music, O'Hara changed his major and graduated from Harvard in 1950 with a degree in English.
He then attended graduate school at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. At Michigan, he won a Hopwood award and received his Master of Arts in English literature 1951. In that autumn, O'Hara moved into an apartment in city of New York with Joe LeSueur, his roommate and sometimes his lover for the next 11 years. Known throughout his life for his extreme sociability, passion, and warmth, O'Hara had hundreds of friends and lovers throughout his life, many from the New York art and poetry worlds. Soon after he arrived in New York, the Museum of Modern Art employed him at the front desk, and he began to write seriously.
O'Hara, active in the art world, working as a reviewer for Art News, and in 1960 was made Assistant Curator of Painting and Sculpture Exhibitions for the Museum of Modern Art. He was also friends with artists like Willem de Kooning, Norman Bluhm, Larry Rivers, and Joan Mitchell. O'Hara died in an accident on Fire Island in which he was struck and seriously injured by a man speeding in a beach vehicle during the early morning hours of July 24, 1966. He died the next day of a ruptured liver at the age of 40 and was buried in the Green River Cemetery on Long Island.
Parents reared O'Hara in Grafton, Massachusetts. O'Hara served in the south Pacific and Japan as a sonar man on the destroyer United States Ship Nicholas during World War II.
With the funding, made available to veterans, he attended Harvard University and roomed with artist-writer Edward Gorey. He majored in music and composed some works despite his irregular attendance was and his disparate interests. Visual art and contemporary music, his first love, heavily influenced O'Hara, a fine piano player all his life; he suddenly played swathes of Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff when visiting new partners, often to their shock.
At Harvard, O'Hara met John Ashbery and began publishing poems in the Harvard Advocate. Despite his love for music, O'Hara changed his major and graduated from Harvard in 1950 with a degree in English.
He then attended graduate school at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. At Michigan, he won a Hopwood award and received his Master of Arts in English literature 1951. In that autumn, O'Hara moved into an apartment in city of New York with Joe LeSueur, his roommate and sometimes his lover for the next 11 years. Known throughout his life for his extreme sociability, passion, and warmth, O'Hara had hundreds of friends and lovers throughout his life, many from the New York art and poetry worlds. Soon after he arrived in New York, the Museum of Modern Art employed him at the front desk, and he began to write seriously.
O'Hara, active in the art world, working as a reviewer for Art News, and in 1960 was made Assistant Curator of Painting and Sculpture Exhibitions for the Museum of Modern Art. He was also friends with artists like Willem de Kooning, Norman Bluhm, Larry Rivers, and Joan Mitchell. O'Hara died in an accident on Fire Island in which he was struck and seriously injured by a man speeding in a beach vehicle during the early morning hours of July 24, 1966. He died the next day of a ruptured liver at the age of 40 and was buried in the Green River Cemetery on Long Island.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
November 21, 2023
“if you don’t eat me I’ll have to eat myself” I love you “For the Chinese New Year & for Bill Berkson” I gotta reread lunch poems asap
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August 4, 2021O’Hara på svenska! :
” Hans berättar
om sin fars liv i Sverige, det låter som Grace Hartigans
målning Sverige”
” Hans berättar
om sin fars liv i Sverige, det låter som Grace Hartigans
målning Sverige”
February 10, 2016
I was fortunate enough to get a copy of the first edition of this, still at the original price, when I was in college.
It's a wonderful selection of thirty of O'Hara's best, and best-known, poems, each of which is illustrated by sweet prints in sepia and/or black by visual artists who were active in New York City in the mid-1960s. Some of these artists are not so well known these days, but few of the artists from that time and place who went on to become famous are missing. Artists include: Joe Brainard, Elaine de Kooning, Willem de Kooning, Niki de Saint Phalle, Helen Frankenthaler, Philip Guston, Grace Hartigan, Al Held, Jasper Johns, Alex Katz, Lee Krassner, Alfred Leslie, Roy Lichtenstein, Joan Mitchell, Robert Motherwell, Barnett Newman, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg, Larry Rivers and about a dozen more.
The original, with unbound sheets collected in a slipcase as a memorial for O'Hara, who died at the age of 40, is a gorgeous and unusual museum publication, especially for the late 1960s. The more recent reprint is still pretty great despite being published in a more traditional bound format.
It's a wonderful selection of thirty of O'Hara's best, and best-known, poems, each of which is illustrated by sweet prints in sepia and/or black by visual artists who were active in New York City in the mid-1960s. Some of these artists are not so well known these days, but few of the artists from that time and place who went on to become famous are missing. Artists include: Joe Brainard, Elaine de Kooning, Willem de Kooning, Niki de Saint Phalle, Helen Frankenthaler, Philip Guston, Grace Hartigan, Al Held, Jasper Johns, Alex Katz, Lee Krassner, Alfred Leslie, Roy Lichtenstein, Joan Mitchell, Robert Motherwell, Barnett Newman, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg, Larry Rivers and about a dozen more.
The original, with unbound sheets collected in a slipcase as a memorial for O'Hara, who died at the age of 40, is a gorgeous and unusual museum publication, especially for the late 1960s. The more recent reprint is still pretty great despite being published in a more traditional bound format.
September 19, 2008
It's mostly the layout of this book that I object to. This is a reprint of what must have been gorgeous limited edition. The art is no longer a tribute to O'Hara, but secondary illustration. The nearly blank attribution pages are irritating as hell. BUT because it's Frank O'Hara, I can't quite step away from this one.
June 6, 2014
A nice antidote to to basically everything that makes me bored to tears with MoMA, histories of the period, and academic art history in general. Spend a day with this book and enrich your entire existence. Oh to have an original edition of this....
November 16, 2008
This is truly a beautifully thought out book which by design and concept honors the creativity of Frank O'Hara.
July 26, 2016
the bars are for rabbits
who wish to outlive the men
who wish to outlive the men
December 10, 2015
En stor 3'er.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews