Star

by Michael McClure, Michael MacClure

Poetry collection by Michael McClure.

Genres: Poetry

124 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1970

About the author

Michael McClure (born October 20, 1932 in Marysville, Kansas) is an American poet, playwright, songwriter, and novelist. After moving to San Francisco as a young man, he found fame as one of the five poets (including Allen Ginsberg) who read at the famous San Francisco Six Gallery reading in 1955 rendered in barely fictionalized terms in Jack Kerouac's Dharma Bums. He soon became a key member of the Beat Generation and is immortalized as "Pat McLear" in Kerouac's Big Sur.

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Includes some of McClure’s “mad sonnets” (which do not rhyme, and are not always 14 lines long, but are usually divided into three parts); poems employing the “beast language” employed in McClure’s Ghost Tantras; and “The Sermons of Jean Harlow and the Curses of Billy the Kid,” a poetic dialog between two characters from his popular dramatic work The Beard; a Play .

Acquired 1986
The Word, Montreal, Quebec

[Brian · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was a bit disappointed in this collection. I suppose it's best to stick to McClure's plays rather than poems. It was worthwhile for catching a bit of the San Francisco in the 60s an 70s vibe, though.