Harold Norse

Harold Norse (born July 6, 1916, in New York City) is an American writer, who has created a body of work using the American idiom of everyday language and images. One of the expatriate artists of the Beat generation, Norse has been widely published and anthologized.

Life

Norse became a part of W. H. Auden's "inner circle" at the age of 22, but soon found himself allied with William Carlos Williams, who rated Norse the 'best poet of [his] generation.' From 1954-59 he lived and wrote in Italy. He penned the experimental cut-up novel "Beat Hotel" in 1960 while living in Paris with William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg and Gregory Corso. He returned to live in the U.S. in 1969.

"Memoirs of a Bastard Angel" traces Norse's life and literary career with W. H. Auden, Christopher Isherwood, E. E. Cummings, Tennessee Williams, William Carlos Williams, James Baldwin, Dylan Thomas, William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Paul Bowles, Charles Bukowski, Robert Graves and Anaïs Nin. [ [http://www.sfweekly.com/2000-11-08/news/the-return-of-the-bastard-angel/1 "The Return of the Bastard Angel" by Mark Athitakis, SF Weekly, November 8, 2000] ] With "Carnivorous Saint: Gay Poems 1941-1976" Norse became a leading gay liberation poet. His collected poems, "In the Hub of the Fiery Force", appeared in 2003.

Norse is a two-time NEA grant recipient, and National Poetry Association award winner. Norse received a B.A. from Brooklyn College (1938) and an M.A. from New York University (1951).

He has lived in the Mission District of San Francisco for the last 35 years.

Works

* "In the Hub of the Fiery Force, Collected Poems of Harold Norse 1934-2003" (New York: Thunder's Mouth Press, 2003) ISBN 1-56025-520-X

* "The American Idiom: A Correspondence," with William Carlos Williams (San Francisco: Bright Tyger Press, 1990) ISBN 0-944378-79-X

* "Memoirs of a Bastard Angel," preface by James Baldwin (New York: William Morrow and Company, 1989) ISBN 0-688-06704-2

* "Carnivorous Saint: Gay Poems 1941-1976" (San Francisco: Gay Sunshine Press, 1977) ISBN 0-917342-55-0

* "Beat Hotel" German tr. Maro Verlag, Augsburg, West Germany (1975); (in original English), Atticus Press (1983),
Preface by William S. Burroughs; Italian tr. Giulio Saponaro, Stamperia della Frontiera, Caneggio, Switzerland (1985).

* "Hotel Nirvana" (San Francisco: City Lights, 1974) ISBN 0872860787

* Charles Bukowski, Philip Lamantia and Harold Norse, "Penguin Modern Poets 13." (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1969)

* "The Dancing Beasts" (New York: Macmillan, 1962)

* "The Roman Sonnets of Giuseppe Gioacchino Belli," Preface by William Carlos Williams and Introduction by Alberto Moravia, Highlands, NC, Jargon 38 (1960); London, Villiers (1974); Van Nuys, CA, Perivale, 1974

* "The Undersea Mountain" (Denver: Swallow Press, 1953)

Anthologies

*"New Directions" 13, ed. James Laughlin, 1951
*"New World Writing" 13, ed. Reed Whittemore
*"Mentor", New American Library, 1958
*"City Lights Journal", ed. L. Ferlinghetti, #1, 1963
*"#4" 1978
*"Best Poems of 1968: Borestone Mountain Poetry Awards", ed. Hildegarde Flanner, 1969
*"Poems from Italy, translations", ed. William Jay Smith, Crowell, 1972
*"City Lights Anthology", ed. Ferlinghetti, City Lights 1974
*"A Geography of Poets", ed. Edward Field, Bantam 1979
*"The Penguin Book of Homosexual Verse", ed. Stephen Coote, Penguin 1983
*"An Ear to the Ground", ed. Harris & Aguero, University of Chicago Press, 1989
*"Big Sky Mind: Buddhism & the Beat Generation", ed. Carole Tonkinson, Riverhead Books, NY, 1995
*"City Lights Pocket Poets Anthology", City Lights, 1995
*"Mondadori" (in Italian), 1997.

ee also

* W. H. Auden
* James Baldwin
* William Carlos Williams
* Beat Generation

Resources

* The Harold Norse Papers are archived at the Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington. [ [http://www.indiana.edu/~liblilly/lilly/mss/html/norse.html Norse Mss. 1934-1980, Lilly Library Manuscript Collections] ]

References

External links

* [http://www.thebeatmuseum.org/norse_bio.html Beat museum: "Harold Norse"]
* [http://www.beatmuseum.org/norse/haroldnorse.html Biography, with bibliography]
* [http://www.lib.uconn.edu/DoddCenter/ASC/findaids/Norse/MSS20010027.html Harold Norse Collection]
* [http://mpetrelis.blogspot.com/2008/03/queer-beat-poet-harold-norses-north_11.html Queer Beat Poet Harold Norse's North Beach Reading on March 16, 2008]