The New York School
Poetry, Art, and Friendship in Mid-Century Manhattan
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The New York School
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Evan Kindley
"I defy readers to withstand the romance of the moment Kindley so beautifully describes and to resist the urge to relive it through the New York School Poets’ verse.” —Mary Gabriel, author of Ninth Street Women
New York immediately after WWII: Chelsea lofts were $20 a month and filled with painters; downtown crawled with young veterans and recent grads with artistic ambitions; gay and lesbian city-dwellers lived openly but were still wary of homophobic violence and prosecution. Amid this dazzling mix of grunge and bohemia, John Ashbery, Frank O’Hara, James Schuyler, and Kenneth Koch, four young poets on the rise, found each other.
This quartet formed the core of the New York School of Poets, and they were an integral part of the city’s literary scene at the pinnacle of its prosperity and influence. All around them was a seemingly unending procession of artistic innovations: from action painting to hard bop, Beat poetry to Pop Art. They attended the same parties and exhibitions, drank in the same bars, slept with the same people. They became a collective powered by loyalty, mutual encouragement, and competition. They didn’t reject the establishment so much as they ignored it, seeking to “do something with language / That has never been done before.”
Kindley expertly guides readers through the dorm rooms, editorial offices, gay bars, Pacific war scenes, art galleries, Fire Island summer houses, and squalid Midtown apartments in which the New York School was shaped. Both nostalgic and clear-sighted, The New York School combines biography, cultural history, and literary analysis, and paints a striking group portrait of this coterie, highlighting fame and folly, competition and collaboration, and ultimately, enduring friendship.
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Critic reviews
“In his deeply researched, brilliantly written book, The New York School, Evan Kindley adds a crucial chapter to the story of artistic revolution in mid-twentieth century New York by reminding us that the ferment wasn’t just about paint—it involved words. Words that became poetry of such power they inspired visual artists, composers and, most crucially, younger generations of writers who flocked to New York searching for the proximity that might become revelation. I defy readers to withstand the romance of the moment Kindley so beautifully describes and to resist the urge to relive it through the New York School Poets’ verse.”
—Mary Gabriel, author of Ninth Street Women
“A few years back, in the company of a figure further along in the arts than I was, I asked: ‘So what’s the big deal about the New York School?’ Now I know. Ardent, expert, comradely, light of touch, this book has the qualities of those poets’ best work, and then some.”
—Paul Elie, author of The Life You Save May Be Your Own and The Last Supper
“Evan Kindley’s The New York School manages to feel both expansive and concise. We’re quickly on a first name basis with John Ashbery, Barbara Guest, LeRoi Jones, Kenneth Koch, Frank O’Hara, and James Schuyler—and in the whirling center of their capacious talent, revelry, and rivalry. Tucked within his tender portrait of this close-knit crew, Kindley delivers fresh readings of some of the twentieth century’s best known poems.”
—Prudence Peiffer, author of The Slip: The New York City Street That Changed American Art Forever
“Evan Kindley has, with great economy and insight, written a new history of the New York School by tracing the friendships, marriages, and assorted entanglements that inspired and propelled this unique community of artists. I felt like I was in their rooms and bars, alive alongside them.”
—Dan Nadel, author of Crumb: A Cartoonist’s Life
“Evan Kindley has written the best account of the New York School of Poets yet. It is warm, alert, nuanced, analytic, alive to the cultural intricacies of their lives and works, which were steeped in visual art, French poetry, popular culture, and the hectic social whirl of New York in the middle of the century. They were, as Kindley shows, a true society of poets, something that rarely happens.”
—Lucy Sante, author of Low Life and I Heard Her Call My Name: A Memoir of Transition
—Mary Gabriel, author of Ninth Street Women
“A few years back, in the company of a figure further along in the arts than I was, I asked: ‘So what’s the big deal about the New York School?’ Now I know. Ardent, expert, comradely, light of touch, this book has the qualities of those poets’ best work, and then some.”
—Paul Elie, author of The Life You Save May Be Your Own and The Last Supper
“Evan Kindley’s The New York School manages to feel both expansive and concise. We’re quickly on a first name basis with John Ashbery, Barbara Guest, LeRoi Jones, Kenneth Koch, Frank O’Hara, and James Schuyler—and in the whirling center of their capacious talent, revelry, and rivalry. Tucked within his tender portrait of this close-knit crew, Kindley delivers fresh readings of some of the twentieth century’s best known poems.”
—Prudence Peiffer, author of The Slip: The New York City Street That Changed American Art Forever
“Evan Kindley has, with great economy and insight, written a new history of the New York School by tracing the friendships, marriages, and assorted entanglements that inspired and propelled this unique community of artists. I felt like I was in their rooms and bars, alive alongside them.”
—Dan Nadel, author of Crumb: A Cartoonist’s Life
“Evan Kindley has written the best account of the New York School of Poets yet. It is warm, alert, nuanced, analytic, alive to the cultural intricacies of their lives and works, which were steeped in visual art, French poetry, popular culture, and the hectic social whirl of New York in the middle of the century. They were, as Kindley shows, a true society of poets, something that rarely happens.”
—Lucy Sante, author of Low Life and I Heard Her Call My Name: A Memoir of Transition
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