Discover the works of Joe Brainard, whose quirky style earned him a reputation as a “recognizable American phenomenon” and “oddball classicist”—with a foreword by 4321 author Paul Auster (John Ashbery) An artist associated with the New York School of poets, Joe Brainard (1942-1994) was a wonderful writer whose one-of-a-kind autobiographical work I Remember has had a wide and growing influence. It is joined in this major new retrospective with many other pieces that for the first time present the full range of Brainard's writing in all its deadpan wit, madcap inventiveness, self-revealing frankness, and generosity of spirit. The Collected Writings of Joe Brainard gathers intimate journals, jottings, stories, one-liners, comic strips, mini-essays, and short plays, many of them available until now only as expensive rarities, if at all. “Brainard disarms us with the seemingly tossed-off, spontaneous nature of his writing and his stubborn refusal to accede to the pieties of self-importance,” writes Paul Auster in the introduction to this collection. “These little works . . . are not really about anything so much as what it means to be young, that hopeful, anarchic time when all horizons are open to us and the future appears to be without limits.” Assembled by the author’s longtime friend and biographer Ron Padgett and including fourteen previously unpublished works, here is a fresh and affordable way to rediscover a unique American artist.

Discover the works of Joe Brainard, whose quirky style earned him a reputation as a “recognizable American phenomenon” and “oddball classicist”—with a foreword by 4321 author Paul Auster (John Ashbery) An artist associated with the New York School of poets, Joe Brainard (1942-1994) was a wonderful writer whose one-of-a-kind autobiographical work I Remember has had a wide and growing influence. It is joined in this major new retrospective with many other pieces that for the first time present the full range of Brainard's writing in all its deadpan wit, madcap inventiveness, self-revealing frankness, and generosity of spirit. The Collected Writings of Joe Brainard gathers intimate journals, jottings, stories, one-liners, comic strips, mini-essays, and short plays, many of them available until now only as expensive rarities, if at all. “Brainard disarms us with the seemingly tossed-off, spontaneous nature of his writing and his stubborn refusal to accede to the pieties of self-importance,” writes Paul Auster in the introduction to this collection. “These little works . . . are not really about anything so much as what it means to be young, that hopeful, anarchic time when all horizons are open to us and the future appears to be without limits.” Assembled by the author’s longtime friend and biographer Ron Padgett and including fourteen previously unpublished works, here is a fresh and affordable way to rediscover a unique American artist.

From 1963 to 1978 Joe Brainard (author of I REMEMBER) created more than 100 works of art that appropriated the classic comic strip character Nancy and sent her into an astonishing variety of spaces, all electrified by the incongruity of her presence. Whether inserted into hypothetical situations, dispatched on erotic adventures, or seemingly rendered by the hands of artists as varied as Leonardo da Vinci, R. Crumb, Larry Rivers, and Willem de Kooning, Brainard's Nancy revels in as well as transcends her two-dimensionality. Together these works accumulate into a sophisticated, complex work of great wit, equal parts surprise and subtlety.The Nancy Book is the first published collection of Brainard's Nancy texts, drawings, collages and paintings (with nearly eighty full page reproductions), including collaborations with luminary New York School poets such as Frank O?Hara and Ted Berrigan, an essay by Ann Lauterbach that illuminates, with critical and poetic acumen, the complexity of Brainard's transformation of Nancy.OEvery page of this book will make you smile or laugh'not with recognition but with startled joy. Joe Brainard took an unchanging icon of the American norm and inserted her into countless fashionable or scandalous contexts, subtly metamorphosing something that seemed eternal into absurdly contemporary forms. He is as funny as only a philosopher can be.O Edmund White.OJoe Brainard's pursuit of the once ubiquitous fuzzy-haired pest Nancy chronicled one of the great love-hate relationships in American popular culture. It's wonderful to have it all between the covers of a book.O John Ashbery

Artwork by Joe Brainard. Edited by Ron Padgett.

Essays by John Ashbery, Constance Lewallen, Carter Ratcliff. Foreword by Kevin E. Consey.

"This is Ron Padgett's memoir - the unlikely and true story of two childhood friends, one straight and one gay, who grew up in 1950s Oklahoma, surprised their families by moving to New York City in search of art and poetry, and became part of a dynamic community of artists and writers whose work continues to shape American culture." "Much of this intimate memoir is told in Joe Brainard's own direct and unforgettable voice. Dozens of letters, journal entries, poems, photographs, and artworks create a stirring portrait of the times - one that illuminates not only Brainard's life and art, but also the lives and work of his many friends, including Frank O'Hara, Alex Katz, Anne Waldman, Ted Berrigan, Fairfield Porter, Edwin Denby, Rudy Burckhardt, and Kenward Elmslie." --Book Jacket.

Fifty years of poems and wry insight celebrating one of the most dynamic careers in twentieth century American poetry.