Harold Norse is the author of 12 volumes of poetry and a novel, Beat Hotel. His selected poems, Hotel Nirvana, was a National Book Award nominee in 1974. His numerous grants include one from the National Endowment for the Arts. He lives in San Francisco. Of his writing, Christopher Street said: "Norse's work is one of the foundations of a post-World War II tradition that includes the prose art of John Rechy and Jean Genet." Anis Nin wrote "I enjoyed the Memoirs tremendously... So well written so honest.. The Memoirs are a live and powerful". Of his latest volume, Love Poems, Booklist wrote: "A major work of gay literature". Library Journal concurred "An elder statesman of homoerotic verse, making this volume an important addition to poetry collections". And James Baldwin wrote: "If light ever enters the hearts of men, Harold Norse will be one of those who have helped to set it there.

Over the past decade or so, The Beats have become white hot...so much so imitators have come crawling out of the woodwork with their own bad poetry or semi-autobiographical tales of the East Village.

Make no mistake about it: Harold Norse is the real thing...and more. From Barry Miles's book, The Beat Hotel: "...for a brief period -- from just after the publication of Howl in 1957 until the building was sold in 1963 -- it was home to Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Brion Gysin, Peter Orlovsky, Harold Norse, and a host of other luminaries of the Beat Generation."

Norse was there -- no only as witness -- but, much more importantly, particpant. And he wrote. Here's one of my favorite parts of the book:

"In February 1960, before moving into the Beat Hotel, I began doing ink drawings and cut-up poetry at the Hotel Univers on rue St. Grégoire de Tours next door to Edouard Roditi. He had often put me up at number 8 where, he said, Théodore de Banville had rented a room for Rimbaud.

Shortly after I moved into the Beat Hotel in April, I wrote Sniffing Keyholes, a sex/dope scene between a muscular black youth called Melo and a blond Russian princess called Z.Z. It was my first narrative cut-up. I felt I had broken through semantic and psychological barriers; hashish and opium helped with the aleatory process.

My experience of breaking new ground alarmed and exhilarated me. For awhile I believed I had lost my reason but didn’t consider it a great loss—the mind works in mysterious ways. Actually, word, image, and perception come together in a simultaneous jumble, not, as grammar and logic would have us believe, in a linear structure. I telescoped language in word clusters in a way James Joyce had pioneered, but with this difference: I allowed the element of chance to determine novel and surprising configurations of language. John Cage had done it in music, Pollock in painting. When I showed it to Brion Gysin he raved, “You’ve done something new! It’s a gas! Bill must see this right away.”

Bill Burroughs came down to my room. “Well, Harold, Brion says you’ve written a very funny cut-up. I’d love to see it.” In his fedora and topcoat he sat at the edge of my bed reading the piece, exploding in little sniffs and snorts, his equivalent of lusty guffaws. “This is marvelous,” he said, looking up. “You must show it to Girodias.” Maurice Girodias, owner of Olympia Press, had published Naked Lunch; his father had published Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer. But I wasn’t so sure he’d go mad about a few typewritten pages of cut-up. Burroughs disagreed. “I’m calling him right away to get you an appointment.”

A day or two later I trekked over to the office a few blocks away on the rue St. Séverin. I was right. Girodias read it and thought it similar to Burroughs. He wanted to see more but didn’t sound enthusiastic. “He missed the point,” snorted Burroughs. “He rejected Naked Lunch the first time it was offered to him.”

Poetry (Norse is one of Ferlinghetti's "Pocket Poets"), cut-up, essays, important correspondence (his letters to William Carlos Williams have been published, and soon to be are his letters to Charles Bukowski) and, most recently, this memoir; it's a fascinating look into the life of a writer who can't be pigeonholed into any category, whether it's Beat, Gay, or Counterculture. Norse is more than any label the critics will try and stick on his forehead. If you ask me, he's one of the 20th century's most overlooked writers, and with the paperback edition of this fine work, maybe His Day is just around the corner.

This book was very interesting and i enjoyed the courage of a young black man to stand up for his rights.

In Egypt, I met an extraordinary American.
"I was born in New York, but have only lived in pockets of it. In Paris, I lived in all parts of the city - on the Right Bank and on the Left, among the bourgeoisie and among les miserables, and knew all kinds of people from pimps and prostitutes in Pigalle to Egyptian bankers in Nueilly. This may sound unprincipled or even obscurely immoral: I found it healthy. I love to talk to people, all kinds of people, and almost everyone, as I hope we still know, loves a man who loves to listen," he said.
"The perpetual dealing with people very different from myself caused a shattering in me of preconceptions I scarcely knew I held. This reassessment, which can be very painful, is also very valuable."
His name is Mr. Baldwin, and I cherish this new acquaintance because his ideas have had such profound impact on my views of Egypt. I wanted to know the people, but as I reach out for them, sometimes, I'm shocked by what I see. I see people sleeping on the concrete patios along the Nile - many of them have migrated from the farmlands because they can make more money for their families if they work in Cairo. But desert nights can be bitter cold in January, and it cuts my heart. Yet, Mr. Baldwin's message is well heeded. The same problems of inner city growth that come with development in Egypt also came with development in Britain one hundred years ago. American inner city schools and slums still reflect this challenge.
Would I have walked into the slums of Chicago if I were there? Would I have strolled through the southwest side of Kansas City or east St. Louis? Would I have walked into the anti-developing city blocks of L.A. if I were in America? Of course not. So why is it that traveling abroad opens my eyes to poverty in America? Why couldn't I see it when I was there? I don't know why this happens, but James Baldwin was right - absolutely right when he said that this reassessment, which can be very painful is also very valuable.
I have been told that the housing shortage in Egypt provided the impetus for many people to move into the spacious mausoleums in the old city graveyard. The international visitors call it, "The City of the Dead," and tourists go there and gawk at poverty creating a makeshift freak show out of human suffering. Then I learned that the housing shortage in Los Angeles provided the impetus for many people to move into mausoleums, but no one goes to gawk at them. In fact, there seems to be a kind of American denial that such things could ever happen in the land of milk and honey.
As I hear of people talking about human rights violations in Egypt, I think of the title of James Baldwin's book: Nobody Knows My Name. I think of James Byrd who was dragged to death behind a pickup truck. I think of the threats of millennium violence that frightened black American families so much that they bought guns and stayed home for the New Year. I think of the tiny city in Texas who voted Spanish as their city's official language and then received death threats from all over the nation. Of course, if you asked any American about human rights violations, they would tell you that this is something that happens in China or Africa. It's a painful realization that it might happen in MY country. Growing up in the American school system, I came to idolize Abraham Lincoln's courage and George Washington's integrity. The universal ideas of human value and dignity that we believe to be inalienable are not, as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. so wisely told us, being applied universally in our country. These facts go against the ideals and values of our nation - they don't support the concepts of the free and the brave.
"It is a complex fate to be an American," Henry James observed. James Baldwin awakened me to that complexity in a way so subtle, so gentle and yet, so powerfully painful.
He awakened me to the hard realities of the American people, most of whom will never read or digest his work. They would dismiss him. But his vision is not to be dismissed. His writing illustrates that the responsibility of this future lies in the hands of blind people. People who refuse to see American neighborhoods and American people for what they really are. We can't improve until we accept the starting point. This lofty ideal of what we should be and blind obstinacy to what we are is killing us.
"Europe has what we do not have yet," Baldwin said. "A sense of the mysterious and inexorable limits of life, a sense, in a word, of tragedy. And we have what they sorely need: a new sense of life's possibilities."
Egypt has what we do not yet have - a clear and present sense of unity - an admiration for sacrifice for the whole of the group - the nuclear family, the extended family, the community. And we have absolutely nothing that Egypt needs, except, if you ask the younger generation: Nike shoes. In fact, this is precisely what Egyptians do not need. They do not need the destructive, greed-inspiring and greed-glorifying economic development of the West.

"In this endeavor to wed the vision of the Old World with that of the New, it is the writer, not the statesman, who is our strongest arm. Though we do not wholly believe it yet, the interior life is a real life, and the intangible dreams of people have tangible effect on the world." - James Baldwin

People who already like Baldwin will not have to be sold on a volume that contains all his essays. This is an incredible resource to have. My only quibble is that the book is not indexed. With a Nobel laureate as an editor, one would expect such a rudimentary tool. Those who have heard about Baldwin's powerful prose but who are afraid that they will be bored should cast aside those doubts. This collection is easily readable from cover to cover. Essays on equality for black Americans are not simply of historical interest as Baldwin displays in such essays his basically humanistic philosophy which can apply universally. Get your notebook out to take down all his fabulous quotes. Okay, now buy the book!

This book is very confusing for teenager but once you get into the book one can see how good it really is. Baldwin brings up thought prokving points. His essays are well developed.

I am the original editor of "Notes of a Native Son," which Baldwin, in his foreword to the last edition during his lifetime, said that I forced him to write. It is not widely enough known that a distinguished board appointed by the Modern Library selected "Notes of a Native Son" as #19 of the top 100 Books of the Century.

This book stands out in my mind as one of the most inspiring that I've ever read. Baldwin exposes himself so freely, and what is revealed is a real, flawed, but ultimately very wise human being. His writing style is clear and evocative, chock full of great quotables. Read it!

This book was a delight to read and the author, James Baldwin, went to great depths to research his subject matter. The biography of Brigadier General Micah Jenkins went hand in hand with the story of the 5th South Carolina Volunteers and the Palmetto Sharpshooters. I found that the maps provided were detailed and easy to follow and helped the reader to follow the narrative of that particular event or action the author was describing. I did notice that there was a different point of view as to who was at fault for the Confederate failure during the battle of Lookout Mountain fought during October 28-29 1863. In this book the author places the blame upon Brigadier General Evander M. Law, (pages 233-241). In Wiley Sword's account of this incident in his book 'Mountains Touched with Fire' (pages 134-144), he places the blame more towards Micah Jenkins. But either way, he was a gifted leader and a brave man and one who shared a similiar fate to many leaders who lead from the front during the Civil War. Overall a well researched and presented book covering the many battles of this man and these units.

You have chanced upon the reviews of one of the best of all the Civil War Biographies! In fact, if it wern't for Robertson's bio on Stonewall this would top them all. Although Jenkins' is little known outside of South Carolina his exploits were no less awesome then some of the better known generals from the South. Micah fought in some of the most ferocious battles of the Civil War, and always led from the front. Near my house in Columbia is a museum where you can see his broken sword and jacket pierced by numerous bullets that he wore during the Seven Days' Battle around Richmond. This battle is particularly interesting and extremely well described. This book will not bore and is not overwhelmingly biased as some Civil War books tend to be, but it is a joy to read and will definitely be a great addition to anyone's library!

"Giovanni's Room" by James Baldwin is a beautiful novel about the struggling sexuality of a young American expatriate, David.

David is living in Paris, and while there, he meets Hella. David is quite determined to live a "normal" life, with wife, kids and all. But while Hella is away in Spain ("to consider David's proposal") David has an affair with the handsome Italian bartender, Giovanni.

Although the time setting of this novel is in the 1950's, "Giovanni's Room" is a timeless novel, and anyone regardless of time-period, can easily identify with the different characters.

Once I started reading this book, I found it almost impossible to put it down. Actually, I finished it in one long day...

In the 1950'ies it wasn't easy to be neither gay nor black. The author James Baldwin was both. I think he was immensely brave to write "Giovanni's room", especially since he did so, in a time when it was hard to be either one, black or gay. Some of the other reviewers said that "if you are not paying a lot of attention you probably wouldn't even know that the book is about homosexuality" - not to be disrespectful, although Baldwin's writing technique in this book is impressive, I have a hard time understanding how one could possibly avoid picking up that the book is about homosexuality...

Anyway, I think that "Giovanni's Room" is one of James Baldwin's best works, and I highly recommend the book!

Everything about this book made my mind spin in awe. The story, uniquely told through fluid "flashbacks"; the characters, especially the narrator; and the prose, that sang like poetry (and I am not a poetry person) were all placed perfectly in place.

This is the first novel from Baldwin I have read, and it will definately not be the last. I can't remember ever reading a book where it is told not through flashbacks, but through memories tempted by anticipation of an event yet to come. I love that. It's not just a cold recollection, it's as though each scene was tinted with David's emotions about himself and about what will happen to Giovanni.

At first, I was waiting for Hella's part to become apparent, but then I saw that she isn't what David is thinking about as he awaits the dawn. (Hey, sometimes I'm a little slow.) This could have easily been just a long inner monologue within one character, but it contributes the fascination and entertainment of a story.

Wonderful. This is how I would like to be able to write when I grow up.

This is without a doubt one of the best literary works I have ever read! "Giovanni's Room" is all about a young American expatriate named David who finds himself torn between his fiancee Hella and an Italian bartender named Giovanni. They carry on a love affair but when Hella returns from a trip in Spain, everything starts spiraling out of control in a whirlwind of powerful and excruciating emotion. James Baldwin does an excellent job of presenting this passionate yet painful story in the form of a narrative. The character development is superb, so much so that one believes the characters really do exist. This is a poignant and compelling story that will definitely leave an impression on you. Reading this novel, one really experiences the pleasure, the pain, the loneliness and the suffering these characters experience and endure. This is a powerful work of literary art that gives the readers insight into the emotions that come with being in love and the struggle to find one's identity amidst confusion and self-loathing. The story takes place in 1950's Paris and you'll really feel like you're there as James Baldwin's writing is so descriptive you'll be able to see all the little nuances and minute details. "Giovanni's Room" is a solid testament to James Baldwin's remarkable talent and profound insight. This story would make an excellent addition to any library! Also a great place to start if you're just discovering the genius of James Baldwin. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Langston Hughes wrote, "Folks, I'm telling you/Living is hard/Birthing is mean/So get yourselves/a little loving/in between." Hughes's poem kind of captures If Beale Street Could Talk.

The novel is told by Tish, a nineteen-year-old African American in Harlem in the 1970's. She is deeply in love with Fonny and is pregnant by him, but just about everything has gone wrong for the couple. Fonny is in jail because he has been falsely accussed of rape because he is black. Fonny, Tish, and Tish's family (plus Fonny's father) all love each other, and the family rallies behind Fonny to get him free. They must steal to raise money and even go on a trip to Puerto Rico to confront the woman accussing Fonny.

The characterizations in the novel are marvelous, and the storytelling is superb. Baldwin tells If Beale Street Could Talk in the most beautiful prose. It is almost musical. I also love his many allusions to music. If Beale Street Could Talk is an outstanding novel which can stand with almost any of the twentieth century. It can really be an important novel for teaching young adults about racism and the power of love between a family. If Beale Street Could Talk is a true classic.

There isn't enough that I can say about "If Beale Street Could Talk." It was one of the most captivating, loving, and pure novels ever written. I was moved by the love of Tish and Fonny, how their love grew naturally from childhood and blossomed into adulthood. That love transcends the prison which Fonny can't escape; that same love will set him free. I also appreciated the strong bond of Tish's family and Fonny's father, who work tirelessly to help this young man out of prison. It's refreshing to see a Black family come together in a dire time of need. This was a excellent novel for all Black readers and especially for all others who want to understand the Black experience.

I've read all but four of James Baldwin's books. This one is the best!I can't do the book any justice. I don't feel I can stress to any one who enjoys James Baldwin enough...READ THIS BOOK!You will find it quite difficult too put the book down. From start to finish you'll be totally wrapped up in the characters stength,love,and devotion! A must read!!!!If you've never read anything by James Baldwin before,read this book.If you have read other books by James and didn't like them,please,give Beale Street a shot!

Baldwin offers the most unique insight to race and sexuality in America ever offered the reading public. This book is a must-read for anyone with half a brain (those without, like the customer who thought it "pollutes the mind" with its sexual themes, will do best to stick to John Grisham and Tom Clancy. Fight through the dreary first chapters and let yourself be sucked in by the rich characters' inexplicable humanism.

I can only echo the praise of several other of the reviewers here. This has always been my favorite of all Baldwin's novels, one that literally saved my life at the time I first read it. My deep empathy with the pain the characters were undergoing (so like what I myself was feeling at the time) and the gratitude I felt for the fact that they were SO eloquent in being able to verbalize that pain made this book an indelible a part of my life. In the years since my first exposure to it, I have read and re-read it innumerable times and it never fails to have a profound effect on me. As close to Dostoyevsky as any American novel has ever come, in my opinion. No distancing irony -- it's a book that believes deeply and asks you to feel deeply (the ultimate crime, it seems, in these post-modern times when you're never supposed to be caught actually CARING about anything). There's no way I could recommend it highly enough.

This book is one of the finest pieces of literature I have read. Baldwin makes his characters come alive in a truly profound way exposing the underlying motivations for their actions. It made me look introspectively at the way in which I treat others and the reasons for my actions. A book not to be read with a light heart. The 400+ pages will fly by.

I received this book when I was 18 from my best friend. I recently lent it out and never received it back. I am now 33 and a single working mother of five wonderful children. This book, along with "The Quiet Answer", provides my solitude, my motivation, and my inner peace. When the world is falling apart, I seek Hugh Prather's words of wisdom to guide me into his peacefullness. Thank you for such a beautiful work of art.

I love this book. I've recommended it to friends that have read it, then turned around and purchased a copy for everyone they knew. Hugh Prather's notes in this book make you question conformance to "standards" imposed by society and other people. It makes you look at yourself and decide to decide yourself who you are and who you want to be. I highly recommend this book. It affected me deeply as a teenager, and I still keep it by my bed to flip through when I'm feeling down

This book brings clarity to our thoughts, and bridges the gap between the grey world of uncertainty we live in and the black and white world we would want to live in ... or at least some of us. It's nice to stumble across such illuminating guides along this path of life that don't necessarily provide answers, but light the way to an inner discovery, that unto itself, illuminates all answers. I am constantly awed by the immeasurability of his clarity.

If you're a searcher, this is a book you'd probably like to read.

In book six of her autobiography series, "A Song Flung Up to Heaven",Maya Angelou vividly recounts the many memorable occurrences taking place between the years of 1964 through 1968. Angelou's first hand experience of the riot in Watts invokes images of the burning frustrations of the people of that area and time. The opportunities of working alongside historic figures such as Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. were short lived and a sour subject of intense pain for her.

Maya tells of her trip from Africa to Los Angeles and then to
New York. During this time she experiences the absence of her son, who stayed in Africa to continue his education, and the lost love of her African spouse. With the help of family and friends Maya gains the strength to rise again. The story ends at the beginning of her first book in this bio series.

In this reader's opinion, a song flung up to heaven is a silent prayer for the strength to go on in this life, and the prayer always returns with the needed relief through the thoughtfulness of those around us. The joy of this book was listening to the author read it in her own voice through recorded books.

A Song Flung Up To Heaven is a continuation of the experiences of Maya Angelou. If you've read any of her previous memoirs, you will know that Dr. Angelou has lead and continues to led a rich and full life - something that cannot be covered in one or two books.

This sixth memoir starts with Dr. Angelou's return to the U.S. from Ghana, West Africa. It ends with the time she was about to write her first memoir, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings. In between, the book is filled with her encounters with various people and her experience during some disturbing times in American history - the murder of Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King, and the Watts riots in California.

I most enjoyed reading about my favorite personalities from Dr. Angelou's past memoirs - Vus Make, her handsome, intelligent, charismatic African husband; Bailey Johnson, her older, caring big brother; Guy Johnson, her intelligent, independent son and Vivian Baxter, her smart mother.

Reading Dr. Angelou's continued memoir is like sitting with an old, trusted and respected friend; there's a treasured feeling as you listen to her stories as they come one after the other.

Fafa Demasio

"A Song Flung Up to Heaven" is the continuation of Maya Angelou's series of autobiographical narratives. This volume opens in the mid 1960s as Angelou returns to the United States from Africa with the intention of working with Malcolm X. The narrative follows Maya's life in Hawaii, California, and New York.

Maya reflects on her work as a stage performer and aspiring writer, and reminisces about her relationships with her son, her mother, and her friends. The book is really fascinating as it tells of her relationships and encounters with many noteworthy people: Martin Luther King Jr., Nichelle Nichols, Rosa Guy, and others. The author paints a particularly warm and moving portrait of the great writer and activist James Baldwin.

"Song" continues to explore many of the important themes of her other books, such as the relationship between Africans and African-Americans. Angelou does a good job of capturing intimate human relationships and placing them in the context of great movements in history. The book also looks at the genesis of her celebrated book "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings."

This is a well-written, very engaging book; I read all 212 pages in literally a single evening. I recommend as companion texts to this wonderful book the following: the previous volumes of Angelou's autobiography, the essays of James Baldwin, the autobiography of Malcolm X, Audre Lorde's "Zami," and any good collection of King's essays and speeches.