Elijah Thrush

Abstract This chapter concerns the publication and reception of Purdy’s high-camp allegorical novel, I Am Elijah Thrush (1972). It was partly inspired by Paul Swan and the black poet and painter John Carlis. With this Firbankian novel, Purdy regretted leaving FSG because Doubleday did not seem to know how to handle it. Gordon Lish, fiction editor at Esquire, was persuaded to publish nearly the entire novel. While Paul Bowles and Virgil Thomson loved it, the New York Times gave a negative review. Purdy became closer to composer Richard Hundley, his companion who spurred him to write more poetry, leading to the book The Running Sun. In 1972, Purdy was interviewed for Andy Warhol’s Interview magazine by the queer street artist and designer Stephen Varble, who became a friend and played a role in a radio performance of the novel, in which his friend Hermione Gingold played a starring role.