Island
The moment one says it is a moment
of perfection, it is something less
of perfection, it is something less
An Invitation to a Group of Noble Dames
Alice Toklas survived for twenty years after the death of Gertrude Stein, a period that began in loneliness and ended in loneliness. In between she made a sufficiently full life …
The Visitors
When I was twenty-five I went to London with my then fiancé, to visit his grandmother. Dorothy Tiffany Burlingham was the youngest daughter of artist Louis Comfort Tiffany. She left …
1977
Once upon a time — or as the French say, il était une fois — I spent a summer in Paris as the guest of a friend of my father’s. I had …
Berlin: The City and The Court
While the Emperor is, by nature, simple and self-effacing, the Empress is complicated and makes her presence felt.
November 1952
Maria, our new housekeeper, who was working for the Leslie Fiedlers in Forio, phoned yesterday afternoon from Rome and we went to meet her at Frascati. She nearly talked my …
To John Ashbery
We made it here, which is about as much as I can say for the trip. I’m afraid FP is emotionally unable to think of a drive as anything but another Dunkirk. In New London I did manage, by dint of taking Bruno for a quick trot, to peek into an …
Phoebe 2002: An Essay in Verse
The high point of Simon and Schuster’s massive publicity campaign
for Jacqueline Susann’s second “torrid roman à clef potboiler,”
The Love Machine, was a party given for 500 booksellers at the
1969 ABA convention is Washington, D.C. …
The Shape of a City, translated by Ingeborg M. Kohn
The shape of a city, as we all know, changes more rapidly than the heart of a mortal. However it often happens that before being discarded, left behind to become …
Lunch Break
Upon my arrival in the city I slammed my mattress down on the ground and tried to fall asleep, but the screeching of the elevated trains kept me awake, so …
Overheard
“Worship as many as you can see, and more will appear.” – Peter Sheffer
“You seem to be in dire need of romance.”
“In trying to corner the last pea on my plate” …
Dear Aunt Sally,
Dear Aunt Sally,
(H.S.H. the prince Jann of Winshatz-Lundberg-‘Sandburg’-Gluxberg):
This ties off a loose end of our business, I do hope you enjoy it. It is yours. The paper one will come …
Italy – First Impressions
Outside
the airport
where the sun
blazes, a brief
but startling
intro to how
temperatures
would rise
during
the day,
freeze in
the morning,
then roast in
the afternoon.
A jacket’s a
burden, no
if’s and’s and
but’s or ways
around it.
Up the hill
where the school
was a car
blasted …
Notes before a trip
At this time I have five cats; Bodice, Susie, Spooky, Holly and Mrs. Brown. Brenda Eddy at Main Street Feed, Durham 349-0410 is the best person to contact for help …
The Crazed Pig of Conques
Edgar Oliver’s short performance of The Crazed Pig of Conques is here recorded as part of a live radio show, “Where have you been?” hosted by Brooklyn, NY artist Jeff Stark, …
