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Harold Norse and the Perils of Literary Obscurity
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Why are some authors destined to linger in the public mind while others must languish, doomed if not to oblivion then at least to a sort of “second-thought” status? This paper investigates the question of literary obscurity through a discussion of the Beat poet Harold Norse. Despite writing over a dozen books, being in all the right places at all the right times, and enjoying the company of poetic luminaries William Carlos Williams and W.H. Auden (among others), this gay icon’s literary fortunes seemed to have waned. Why is Norse not more well-known? This chapter evaluates the various theories proffered for Norse’s waning afterlife, using Norse as a test case to discuss the question of why we remember some writers (both Beat and non-Beat) and not others.
Title: Harold Norse and the Perils of Literary Obscurity
Description:
Why are some authors destined to linger in the public mind while others must languish, doomed if not to oblivion then at least to a sort of “second-thought” status? This paper investigates the question of literary obscurity through a discussion of the Beat poet Harold Norse.
Despite writing over a dozen books, being in all the right places at all the right times, and enjoying the company of poetic luminaries William Carlos Williams and W.
H.
Auden (among others), this gay icon’s literary fortunes seemed to have waned.
Why is Norse not more well-known? This chapter evaluates the various theories proffered for Norse’s waning afterlife, using Norse as a test case to discuss the question of why we remember some writers (both Beat and non-Beat) and not others.
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