One of America's most distinguished independent artists/intellectuals, Richard Kostelanetz, has written a prescient volume that uses, as a starting point, the philosopher Robin Collingwood's notion that "the historian and the novelist have much in common, for both attempt to define the largest lines of historical development." Aside from the introduction and conclusion, which were specifically written for this publication, these insightful chapters on four outstanding African-American novelists were composed and appeared in journals in the late 1960s. Kostelanetz saw the writing on the wall and told readers about it more than twenty years ago. In his analysis of the novels written by pioneering Black novelists James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938), W. E. B. Du Bois (1868-1963), Richard Wright (1908-1960), and Ralph Ellison (1914-), Kostelanetz culls their political meanings and interprets experience suggestive of political meanings. Kostelanetz places these meanings into a chronological framework that transforms the book from a political or literary history into a history of ideas in literature. This painstaking analysis of fiction--to deduce themes that are then interpreted as intellectual history--is an original scholarly approach to these novels. After presenting a typology of political alternatives for African-America, Kostelanetz looks at the work of writer/diplomat/editor James Weldon Johnson, whose groundbreaking novel, Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, appeared in 1912. Chapter three analyzes the novels of writer/editor/teacher W. E. B. Du Bois, whose work promoted greater understanding of African-Americans. Richard Wright, hailed as the most eloquent spokesman forAfrican-Americans of his generation upon publication of his powerful first novel, Native Son, is considered in the following chapter. Chapter five is devoted to Ralph Ellison whose first novel, The Invisible Man, won the National Book Award and achieved prominence as a primary text on the experience of Blacks in America. This close reading of fiction for political implications closes with an appendix of two essays also written in the 1960s about the figures and issues discussed in this study. The novels treated here retain a kind of "eye-witness account from the front" immediacy that, combined with Kostelanetz's enduring insights, will make Politics in the African-American Novel an important addition to courses in American history, African-American politics, or African-American literature. Informed general readers will also find much to ponder in this book.

For more than five decades, BB King has been the consummate Blues performer. His unique guitar playing, powerful vocals and repertoire of songs have taken him from Mississippi to worldwide renown. Published to coincide with his 80th birthday, this extensively revised edition includes 18 interviews. In this comprehensive volume, the best articles, interviews and reviews about BB King's life and career have been gathered. Learn how he made his mark as a disc jockey in Memphis; trace his early tours and recordings; see him be swept up in the blues revival; and finally, enjoy his fame as the greatest living exponent of the blues style.

This essential reader includes Thomson's essays on making a living as a musician; his articles on classic composers; his relation to his contemporaries; his articles on newcomers in the music world, including John Cage and Pierre Boulez; his autobiographical writings and commentary on his own works.

Twenty-five years after the publication of A Dictionary of the Avant-Gardes, the distinguished critic and arts historian Richard Kostelanetz returns to his favorite subject for a third edition. Rewriting earlier entries, adding hundreds of new ones, Kostelanetz provides intelligence and information unavailable anywhere else, no less in print than online, about a wealth of subjects and individuals. Focused upon what is truly innovative and excellent, he ranges widely with insight and surprise, including appreciations of artistic athletes such as Muhammad Ali, Johan Cruyff, and the Harlem Globetrotters and such collective creations as Las Vegas and his native New York City. Continuing the traditions of cheeky high-style Dictionarysts, honoring Samuel Johnson and Nicolas Slonimsky (both with individual entries), Kostelanetz offers a "reference book" to be enjoyed not only in bits and chunks, but continuously as one of the dozen books someone would take if they planned to be stranded on a desert isle.

The literary legacy of Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) consists of numerous works in which the traditional restraints of language are abandoned for spontaneous and surprising expression. Her writings challenge the reader, yet also offer an inviting liberation, and because of this they have not only endured but proven highly influential. The Gertrude Stein Reader collects fifty one of Stein's poems, stories, portraits, and plays, along with excerpts from Matisse, Picasso, and Gertrude Stein with Two Shorter Stories; A Book Concluding with As a Wife Has a Cow, A Love Story; Geography and Plays; An Acquaintance with a Description; and Useful Knowledge. The extensive introduction provides a brief biography and explains the impact her work had on subsequent writers and artists.

For this American edition of his legendary arts dictionary of information and opinion, the distinguished critic and arts historian Richard Kostelanetz has selected from the fuller third edition his entries on North Americans, including Canadians, Mexicans, and resident immigrants. Typically, he provides intelligence unavailable anywhere else, no less in print than online, about a wealth of subjects and individuals. Focused upon what is truly innovative and excellent, Kostelanetz also ranges widely with insight and surprise, including appreciations of artistic athletes such as Muhammad Ali and the Harlem Globetrotters, and such collective creations as Las Vegas and his native New York City. Continuing the traditions of cheeky high-style Dictionarysts, honoring Ambrose Bierce and Nicolas Slonimsky (both with individual entries), Kostelanetz offers a "reference book" to be treasured not only in bits and chunks, but continuously as one of the ten books someone would take if they planned to be stranded on a desert isle.

Contents:
Preface Epigraphs 1. Autobiography 2. Precursors 3. His Own Music (to 1970) 4. His Own Music (after 1970) 5. His Performances 6. His Writings 7. Radio and Audiotape 8. Visual Arts 9. Dance 10. Successors 11. Esthetics 12. Pedagogy 13. Social Philosophy 14. Coda Index

This essential reader includes Thomson's essays on making a living as a musician; his articles on classic composers; his relation to his contemporaries; his articles on newcomers in the music world, including John Cage and Pierre Boulez; his autobiographical writings and commentary on his own works.

Aaron Copland is one of America's best-known composers and writers on twentieth century music. This volume brings together for the first time the best of his published essays on music, with previously unpublished material from his diaries, letters, and writings to present a complete picture of Copland as a cultural critic.

During the 1960s and 1970s in New York City, young artists exploited an industrial wasteland to create spacious studios where they lived and worked, redefining the Manhattan area just south of Houston Street. Its use fueled not by city planning schemes but by word-of-mouth recommendations, the area soon grew to become a world-class center for artistic creation indeed, the largest urban artists' colony ever in America, let alone the world.
Richard Kostelanetz's Artists' SoHo not only examines why the artists came and how they accomplished what they did but also delves into the lives and works of some of the most creative personalities who lived there during that period, including Nam June Paik, Robert Wilson, Meredith Monk, Richard Foreman, Hannah Wilke, George Macuinas, and Alan Suicide. Gallerists followed the artists in fashioning themselves, their homes, their buildings, and even their streets into transiently prominent exhibition and performance spaces.
SoHo pioneer Richard Kostelanetz's extensively researched intimate history is framed within a personal memoir that unearths myriad perspectives: social and cultural history, the changing rules for residency and ownership, the ethos of the community, the physical layouts of the lofts, the types of art produced, venues that opened and closed, the daily rhythm, and the gradual invasion of "new people." Artists' SoHo also explores how and why this fertile bohemia couldn't last forever. As wealthier people paid higher prices, galleries left, younger artists settled elsewhere, and the neighborhood became a "SoHo Mall" of trendy stores and restaurants.
Compelling and often humorous, Artists' SoHo provides an analysis of a remarkable neighborhood that transformed the art and culture of New York City over the past five decades.

Visual Poetry. Concrete Poetry. Concrete Fiction. WORDWORkS collects from Richard Kostelanetz's vast and varied experiments in concrete and visual writing. Covering his early typographic compositions, the Duets, Trios and Choruses series, his surprisingly readable concrete number sequences, as well as word pieces composed for video and holography, each section is prefaced by a short illuminating statement concerning the process involved and the cultural lessons behind it.

For this American edition of his legendary arts dictionary of information and opinion, the distinguished critic and arts historian Richard Kostelanetz has selected from the fuller third edition his entries on North Americans, including Canadians, Mexicans, and resident immigrants. Typically, he provides intelligence unavailable anywhere else, no less in print than online, about a wealth of subjects and individuals. Focused upon what is truly innovative and excellent, Kostelanetz also ranges widely with insight and surprise, including appreciations of artistic athletes such as Muhammad Ali and the Harlem Globetrotters, and such collective creations as Las Vegas and his native New York City. Continuing the traditions of cheeky high-style Dictionarysts, honoring Ambrose Bierce and Nicolas Slonimsky (both with individual entries), Kostelanetz offers a "reference book" to be treasured not only in bits and chunks, but continuously as one of the ten books someone would take if they planned to be stranded on a desert isle.

For a concise edition of his legendary arts dictionary of information and opinion, the distinguished critic and arts historian Richard Kostelanetz selects entries from the 2018 third edition. Typically he provides intelligence unavailable anywhere else, no less in print than online, about a wealth of subjects and individuals. Focused upon what is truly innovative and excellent, Kostelanetz also ranges widely with insight and surprise, including appreciations of artistic athletes such as Muhammad Ali and the Harlem Globetrotters and such collective creations as Las Vegas and his native New York City. Continuing the traditions of cheeky high-style Dictionarysts, honoring Ambrose Bierce and Samuel Johnson (both with individual entries), Kostelanetz offers a "reference book" to be enjoyed, not only in bits and chunks but continuously as one of the ten books someone would take if he or she planned to be stranded on a desert isle.

Twenty-five years after the publication of A Dictionary of the Avant-Gardes, the distinguished critic and arts historian Richard Kostelanetz returns to his favorite subject for a third edition. Rewriting earlier entries, adding hundreds of new ones, Kostelanetz provides intelligence and information unavailable anywhere else, no less in print than online, about a wealth of subjects and individuals. Focused upon what is truly innovative and excellent, he ranges widely with insight and surprise, including appreciations of artistic athletes such as Muhammad Ali, Johan Cruyff, and the Harlem Globetrotters and such collective creations as Las Vegas and his native New York City. Continuing the traditions of cheeky high-style Dictionarysts, honoring Samuel Johnson and Nicolas Slonimsky (both with individual entries), Kostelanetz offers a "reference book" to be enjoyed not only in bits and chunks, but continuously as one of the dozen books someone would take if they planned to be stranded on a desert isle.

As a poet, Cummings was a pioneer not only in linguistic and typographic inventions, but also in sound and concrete poetry. But his prose is no less experimental; he wrote memoirs, essays, and fiction that are constantly provocative and often radically experimental. To read the avant-garde Cummings is to read a writer who consistently broke with established norms, "never to rest and never to have: only to grow." To not read the avant-garde Cummings is to not read Cummings.

First Person Intense is a collection of first-person writing in a variety of styles - although "style" may be the wrong word for the integrity of the writing. First person writing means that someone is speaking directly to you, not crafting a story for your entertainment. And that's the power of first-person "intense," a face-out manner of writing that abandons much of the traditional structure of fiction (the arc of the narrative, omniscient viewpoint, dialogue, character development, denouement, beginning, middle, and end) and nonfiction (which often seems to be written by nobody or a committee, carefully refraining from bias or personal opinion). This anthology was originally published in 1978, and was popular with creative writing classes as well as the general market, as a study in writing with honesty, authentic voices speaking without the mask of characterization. This second printing retains most of the original pieces, including a Vietnam vet's powerful stories, a voyage across America in search of meaning, a prison letter, an excerpt from an as yet unpublished Charles Bukowski novel (by permission of the publisher), the admission by Fielding Dawson of first ambitions to be a writer (a young man wishing to be complicated). A few additions include a schizophrenic, a Peace Corps teacher, a story from junior high. None of these are perfect - perfection is not sought in real first-person writing - but all give plenty of taste of personality, vulnerability, openness. If you like, you can call this a "school of writing." First Person Intense was originally assigned an ISBN number by Mudborn Press. After the dissolution of that partnership in 1981, one of the partners, Sasha Newborn, established a new publishing operation, Bandanna Books. Although the original ISBN number is retained for the reprint of FPI, this book is now available only from Bandanna Books. A publication akin in spirit to FPI is Berlin (www.createspace.com/4329110), a bilingual anthology, guest edited by Mitch Cohen, who lived in the divided city of Berlin in the 1970s and 80s, gathering stories and poems from East Berlin and West Berlin. An inside look at a place of high art and high tension. A new chapter in publishing direct works has opened with TimeWell, an online litmag that mixes up contemporaries with classics. Subscribe at www.timewellsp.net, or submit stories or poems.

For a concise edition of his legendary arts dictionary of information and opinion, the distinguished critic and arts historian Richard Kostelanetz selects entries from the 2018 third edition. Typically he provides intelligence unavailable anywhere else, no less in print than online, about a wealth of subjects and individuals. Focused upon what is truly innovative and excellent, Kostelanetz also ranges widely with insight and surprise, including appreciations of artistic athletes such as Muhammad Ali and the Harlem Globetrotters and such collective creations as Las Vegas and his native New York City. Continuing the traditions of cheeky high-style Dictionarysts, honoring Ambrose Bierce and Samuel Johnson (both with individual entries), Kostelanetz offers a "reference book" to be enjoyed, not only in bits and chunks but continuously as one of the ten books someone would take if he or she planned to be stranded on a desert isle.

Poetry. Having already established his poetry among the most inventive ever, the distinguished man of avant-garde letters Richard Kostelanetz realizes further radically formal steps in THREE POEMS. Each is a sequence of one-word texts continuously interleaved with the others in an unprecedented way, in sum offering an unprecedented reading experience. The book concludes with Kostelanetz's visual essay "Poetry I Shall Not Make." For work of this kind he has earned individual entries in the Readers Guide to Twentieth-Century Writers, Contemporary Poets, and Britannica.com, among other highly selective directories."I sense the strength of the narrative (and there are many narratives throughout) to be elastic or plastic: how the reader molds it in his/her/my/your mind."--John Robert Colombo

Poetry. Long concerned with poetic invention, the indisputably avant-garde writer Richard Kostelanetz has recently been discovering new language forms not with words but within words. This new collection of his, RECIRCUITS, is one of several efforts in this direction. From the great linguist Roman Jakobson he takes this classic appreciation: "Poetry has from the earliest times engaged in play with suffixes; but only in modern poetry, and particularly in Xlebnikov, has this device become conscious, and as it were legitimate." The constraint informing this collection is that the addition or subtraction of a single letter recircuits the semantic stream. For this book he presents complementary texts--the first, copies of the handwritten pages he prepared for Francesco Conz's Ezra Pound Project (Verona, Italy) depending upon the addition of suffixes; the second, many of the same sequences reversed to discover recircuits revealed through subtraction. These poems cannot be translated, because they exploit possibilities unique to English.