Love, Joe: The Selected Letters of Joe Brainard
Columbia University Press (ISBN: 9780231203425)
Correspondences, especially when writing with a pen and pencil on stationery paper, are intimate acts between two people. I prefer the letters by Kafka to his fictional stories, and the same goes for William S. Burroughs. If you read a book of letters from a writer you admire, and the correspondence is good, it shows another side of that person. Usually, they leave their guard down, and something is refreshing when you read a writer’s struggle with their art. Rarely would I ever suggest reading a book of letters as the entranceway to that writer’s work or style; it is better to read their fiction/non-fiction/poetry before plunging into the remote and private areas of an author and their friends. I would say the same for Love, Joe: The Selected Letters of Joe Brainard.
Brainard was a key element in the lives and works of New York City-based poets such as Frank O’Hara, John Ashbery, Kenneth Koch, and his long-time lover and friend, Kenward Elmslie. He was a prose writer, poet, and artist who seemed to be a creative punctuation of the social landscape between his era's visual and writing artists, the 1960s—1970s. Without his presence, the writings and art would be there, but it would be a different creature. Like Jean Cocteau’s presence in the French arts, Brainard was equally important. Joe did many book covers for poets of that era, and they were always works of great wit and charm appropriate for that poet’s work. What’s unique about his work is that he was so direct and stripped away any pretense of great literature and art; he was more enjoyable. Through that, the great art soaks through the layers of his work, and he was/is clearly a master.
One of the great books in English is Brainard’s I Remember, which is as close to perfection as it can get. It is a brilliant memoir in which the author starts with "I remember… and after that, it can be a short sentence or a good-sized paragraph, but each section reveals something magical from the past. The book significantly influences other writers and those who are starting to write because it’s a perfect example of a writing exercise. Paul Auster and Georges Perec have called it a masterpiece.
Love, Joe, edited by Daniel Kane, is organized by letters Brainard wrote to key figures in his life. It is not really a timeline, but more oriented to whom he wrote to. An excellent index and name/person glossary at the end of the book make it a must-read. What is frustrating is not being able to read the letters sent to Joe, but perhaps financial and rights issues came into the picture. Still, the correspondence (all one-sided by Joe) is revealing, gossipy, and quite fascinating if you know of that world. It seems by the letters that Brainard was very laid back but always concerned about the quality of his paintings. The lustful letters he wrote to a couple of his lovers are the most entertaining, because they are dirty and romantic at the same time. His reflections of life are casual, even when he writes or comments on his ill health due to AIDS, which is never commented on directly by Brainard. The sad thing is that the book is 345 pages, and when I reached the end, I wanted more.
Love, Joe is going to appeal to fans of his work, the social life of the New York School of Poetry, and the visual artists who were attracted to or attached to that world. I’m a long-time fan of his work, so there is no way that I could dislike the book, but in all honesty, it is best to read I Remember and see the various books on his visual art. An essential figure, so it is great to get into his private headspace and share that space.
Other books on/by Joe Brainard and links:
I recently had an exercise through Ross Gays Mondays are Free on Substack We were asked to write our own I Remember
An anaphora It was hard to dig that deeply into memory Try it and you can see the depth of what Joe Brainerd accomplished A true Proustian challenge
“I Remember” is a wonder to read; another book to check out is The Vermont Notebook with it’s off the wall, wacky “diary” entries by John Ashbery and winsome, pointed illustrations by Brainard. Joe is the undisputed master of the understated.