Harold Norse
Encyclopedia
Harold Norse was an American
writer
who created a body of work using the American idiom of everyday language and images. One of the expatriate
artists of the Beat generation
, Norse was widely published and anthologized.
He received his B.A. from Brooklyn College
in 1938, where he edited the literary magazine. Norse met Chester Kallman
in 1938, and then became a part of W. H. Auden
's "inner circle" when Auden moved to the U.S. in 1939. (Kallman and Auden later became lifelong partners.) However, Norse soon found himself allied with William Carlos Williams
, who rated Norse the 'best poet of [his] generation.' Norse broke with traditional verse forms and embraced a more direct, conversational language. Soon Norse was publishing in Poetry, The Saturday Review and The Paris Review. He got his master's degree in literature from New York University
in 1951. His first book of poems, The Undersea Mountain, was published in 1953.
From 1954-59 Norse 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
from 1959 to 1963. He traveled to Tangier
, where he stayed with Jane
and Paul Bowles
. Returning to America in 1968, Norse arrived in Venice, California, near Charles Bukowski
. He moved to San Francisco in 1972 and lived in the Mission District of San Francisco for the last 35 years of his life.
Memoirs of a Bastard Angel traces Norse's life and literary career with 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
. 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.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
who created a body of work using the American idiom of everyday language and images. One of the expatriate
Expatriate
An expatriate is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country and culture other than that of the person's upbringing...
artists of the Beat generation
Beat generation
The Beat Generation refers to a group of American post-WWII writers who came to prominence in the 1950s, as well as the cultural phenomena that they both documented and inspired...
, Norse was widely published and anthologized.
Life
Born Harold Rosen to an unmarried Lithuanian Jewish immigrant in Brooklyn. In the early 1950s, he came up with the new last name, Norse, by rearranging the letters in RosenHe received his B.A. from Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College is a senior college of the City University of New York, located in Brooklyn, New York, United States.Established in 1930 by the New York City Board of Higher Education, the College had its beginnings as the Downtown Brooklyn branches of Hunter College and the City College of New...
in 1938, where he edited the literary magazine. Norse met Chester Kallman
Chester Kallman
Chester Simon Kallman was an American poet, librettist, and translator, best known for his collaborations with W. H. Auden and Igor Stravinsky.-Life:...
in 1938, and then became a part of W. H. Auden
W. H. Auden
Wystan Hugh Auden , who published as W. H. Auden, was an Anglo-American poet,The first definition of "Anglo-American" in the OED is: "Of, belonging to, or involving both England and America." See also the definition "English in origin or birth, American by settlement or citizenship" in See also...
's "inner circle" when Auden moved to the U.S. in 1939. (Kallman and Auden later became lifelong partners.) However, Norse soon found himself allied with William Carlos Williams
William Carlos Williams
William Carlos Williams was an American poet closely associated with modernism and Imagism. He was also a pediatrician and general practitioner of medicine, having graduated from the University of Pennsylvania...
, who rated Norse the 'best poet of [his] generation.' Norse broke with traditional verse forms and embraced a more direct, conversational language. Soon Norse was publishing in Poetry, The Saturday Review and The Paris Review. He got his master's degree in literature from New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
in 1951. His first book of poems, The Undersea Mountain, was published in 1953.
From 1954-59 Norse lived and wrote in Italy. He penned the experimental cut-up novel Beat Hotel
Beat Hotel
The Beat Hotel was a small, run-down hotel of 42 rooms at 9 Rue Gît-le-Cœur in the Latin Quarter of Paris, notable chiefly as a residence for members of the Beat poetry movement of the mid-20th century -Overview:...
in 1960 while living in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
with William S. Burroughs
William S. Burroughs
William Seward Burroughs II was an American novelist, poet, essayist and spoken word performer. A primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author, he is considered to be "one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the 20th...
, Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
and Gregory Corso
Gregory Corso
Gregory Nunzio Corso was an American poet, youngest of the inner circle of Beat Generation writers...
from 1959 to 1963. He traveled to Tangier
Tangier
Tangier, also Tangiers is a city in northern Morocco with a population of about 700,000 . It lies on the North African coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar where the Mediterranean meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel...
, where he stayed with Jane
Jane Bowles
Jane Bowles, born Jane Sydney Auer , was an American writer and playwright.-Early life:Born into a Jewish family in New York, Jane Bowles spent her childhood in Woodmere, New York, on Long Island. She developed tuberculous arthritis of the knee as a teenager and her mother took her to Switzerland...
and Paul Bowles
Paul Bowles
Paul Frederic Bowles was an American expatriate composer, author, and translator.Following a cultured middle-class upbringing in New York City, during which he displayed a talent for music and writing, Bowles pursued his education at the University of Virginia before making various trips to Paris...
. Returning to America in 1968, Norse arrived in Venice, California, near Charles Bukowski
Charles Bukowski
Henry Charles Bukowski was an American poet, novelist and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural and economic ambience of his home city of Los Angeles...
. He moved to San Francisco in 1972 and lived in the Mission District of San Francisco for the last 35 years of his life.
Memoirs of a Bastard Angel traces Norse's life and literary career with Auden, Christopher Isherwood
Christopher Isherwood
Christopher William Bradshaw Isherwood was an English-American novelist.-Early life and work:Born at Wyberslegh Hall, High Lane, Cheshire in North West England, Isherwood spent his childhood in various towns where his father, a Lieutenant-Colonel in the British Army, was stationed...
, E. E. Cummings
E. E. Cummings
Edward Estlin Cummings , popularly known as E. E. Cummings, with the abbreviated form of his name often written by others in lowercase letters as e.e. cummings , was an American poet, painter, essayist, author, and playwright...
, Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams
Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was an American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater. He also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs...
, William Carlos Williams, James Baldwin
James Baldwin (writer)
James Arthur Baldwin was an American novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and social critic.Baldwin's essays, for instance "Notes of a Native Son" , explore palpable yet unspoken intricacies of racial, sexual, and class distinctions in Western societies, most notably in mid-20th century America,...
, Dylan Thomas
Dylan Thomas
Dylan Marlais Thomas was a Welsh poet and writer, Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 11 January 2008. who wrote exclusively in English. In addition to poetry, he wrote short stories and scripts for film and radio, which he often performed himself...
, William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Lawrence Ferlinghetti is an American poet, painter, liberal activist, and the co-founder of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers...
, Paul Bowles
Paul Bowles
Paul Frederic Bowles was an American expatriate composer, author, and translator.Following a cultured middle-class upbringing in New York City, during which he displayed a talent for music and writing, Bowles pursued his education at the University of Virginia before making various trips to Paris...
, Charles Bukowski
Charles Bukowski
Henry Charles Bukowski was an American poet, novelist and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural and economic ambience of his home city of Los Angeles...
, Robert Graves
Robert Graves
Robert von Ranke Graves 24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985 was an English poet, translator and novelist. During his long life he produced more than 140 works...
and Anaïs Nin
Anaïs Nin
Anaïs Nin was a French-Cuban author, based at first in France and later in the United States, who published her journals, which span more than 60 years, beginning when she was 11 years old and ending shortly before her death, her erotic literature, and short stories...
. With Carnivorous Saint: Gay Poems 1941-1976 Norse became a leading gay liberation
Gay Liberation
Gay liberation is the name used to describe the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender movement of the late 1960s and early to mid 1970s in North America, Western Europe, and Australia and New Zealand...
poet. His collected poems, In the Hub of the Fiery Force, appeared in 2003.
Norse is a two-time NEA
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
grant recipient, and National Poetry Association award winner.
Works
- In the Hub of the Fiery Force, Collected Poems of Harold Norse 1934-2003, New York: Thunder's Mouth Press, 2003
- The American Idiom: A Correspondence, with William Carlos WilliamsWilliam Carlos WilliamsWilliam Carlos Williams was an American poet closely associated with modernism and Imagism. He was also a pediatrician and general practitioner of medicine, having graduated from the University of Pennsylvania...
, San Francisco: Bright Tyger Press, 1990 - Memoirs of a Bastard Angel, preface by James BaldwinJames Baldwin (writer)James Arthur Baldwin was an American novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and social critic.Baldwin's essays, for instance "Notes of a Native Son" , explore palpable yet unspoken intricacies of racial, sexual, and class distinctions in Western societies, most notably in mid-20th century America,...
, New York: William Morrow and CompanyWilliam Morrow and CompanyWilliam Morrow and Company is an American publishing company founded by William Morrow in 1926. The company was acquired by Scott Foresman in 1967, and sold to Hearst Corporation in 1981. It was sold along to the News Corporation in 1999...
, 1989 - The Love Poems 1940-1985, Trumansburg, New York: The Crossing Press, 1986
- Mysteries of Magritte, San Diego: Atticus Press, 1984
- Carnivorous Saint: Gay Poems 1941-1976, San Francisco: Gay Sunshine Press, 1977
- Beat Hotel, German translation by Carl Weissner, Augsburg, Federal Republic of Germany: Maro Verlag, 1975
- Beat Hotel (the English original), San Diego: Atticus Press, 1983
- Beat Hotel, Italian translation by Giulio Saponaro, Italy: Stamperia della Frontiera, 1985
- Hotel Nirvana, San Francisco: City LightsCity LightsCity Lights is a 1931 American silent film and romantic comedy-drama written by, directed by, and starring Charlie Chaplin. It also has the leads Virginia Cherrill and Harry Myers. Although "talking" pictures were on the rise since 1928, City Lights was immediately popular. Today, it is thought of...
, 1974 - Karma Circuit, San Francisco: Panjandrum Press, 1973
- Charles BukowskiCharles BukowskiHenry Charles Bukowski was an American poet, novelist and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural and economic ambience of his home city of Los Angeles...
, Philip LamantiaPhilip LamantiaPhilip Lamantia was an American poet and lecturer. Lamantia's visionary poems were ecstatic, terror-filled, and erotic which explored the subconscious world of dreams and linked it to the experience of daily life.-Biography:...
and Harold Norse, Penguin Modern Poets 13., Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1969 - Karma Circuit, London: Nothing Doing in London, 1966
- The Dancing Beasts, New York: MacmillanMacmillan PublishersMacmillan Publishers Ltd, also known as The Macmillan Group, is a privately held international publishing company owned by Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. It has offices in 41 countries worldwide and operates in more than thirty others.-History:...
, 1962 - The Roman Sonnets of Giuseppe Gioacchino BelliGiuseppe Gioacchino BelliGiuseppe Francesco Antonio Maria Gioachino Raimondo Belli was an Italian poet, famous for his sonnets in Romanesco, the dialect of Rome.- Biography :...
, Jargon 38The Jargon SocietyThe Jargon Society is an independent press founded by the American poet Jonathan Williams. Jargon has published seminal works of the American literary avant-garde, including books by Charles Olson, Louis Zukofsky, Paul Metcalf, James Broughton, and Williams himself, as well as sui generis books of...
, 1960; London, VilliersVilliers-Places:In Canada* Villiers, Ontario, a small settlement near PeterboroughIn France* Villiers, Indre, in the Indre département* Villiers, Vienne, in the Vienne département* Villiers-Adam, in the Val-d'Oise département...
, 1974 - The Undersea Mountain, Denver: Swallow Press, 1953
Anthologies
- New Directions 13, ed. James Laughlin, 1951
- Mentor, New American Library, 1958
- City Lights Journal, ed. L. Ferlinghetti, #1, 1963
- Best Poems of 1968: Borestone Mountain Poetry AwardsBorestone Mountain Poetry AwardsThe Borestone Mountain Poetry Awards was an annual series of poetry anthologies first published in 1949. The poems were selected from those published in a given year in English-language magazines and books; in each volume, individual poems were designated as first, second, or third place in a...
, ed. Hildegarde Flanner, 1969 - 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
- Gay and Lesbian Poetry In Our Time: An Anthology, ed. Carl Morse and Joan Larkin, St. Martin's Press, 1988
- 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
- The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry, ed. Alan Kaufman and S.A. Griffin, Thunder's Mouth Press, 1999
Resources
- The Harold Norse Papers (1934–1980, 8,000 items) are archived at the Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington.
- Harold Norse, James Baldwin, Anais Nin, William S. Burroughs, William Carlos Williams, Paul Carroll, Jack Hirschman, "Harold Norse Special Issue", Olé, No. 5 (Bensenville, IL: Open Skull Press, n.d., 1966?)
External links
- haroldnorse.com, Memorial Web site with poems and photos
- Beat museum: "Harold Norse"
- Biography, with bibliography
- Harold Norse entry at Web site devoted to glbtq culture
- Harold Norse Collection
- L.A. Times Obituary
- N.Y. Times Obituary
- S.F. Chronicle Obituary
- Guardian U.K. Obituary
- Remembering Harold Norse