121 A Portrait of the Poet as a Young Man – John Ashbery’s Early Years (with Karin Roffman)

The History of Literature

Jacke Wilson

Arts, History, Books

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 6 December 2017

⏱️ 68 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode, author Karin Roffman joins Jacke for a conversation about her literary biography of John Ashbery, one of America’s greatest twentieth-century poets. In naming Songs We Know Best: John Ashbery’s Early Life as one of its Notable Books of the Year, The New York Times noted “this first full-fledged biography of the poet is full of rich and fascinating detail.” Mike Palindrome, President of the Literature Supporters Club, also makes a cameo appearance to explain why Ashbery is one of his favorite poets. Help support the show at patreon.com/literature. Learn more about the show at historyofliterature.com. Contact the host at jackewilsonauthor@gmail.com. FOR A LIMITED TIME: Special holiday news! Now for a limited time, you can purchase History of Literature swag (mugs, tote bags, and “virtual coffees” for Jacke) at historyofliterature.com/shop. Get yours today! *** This show is a part of the Podglomerate network, a company that produces, distributes, and monetizes podcasts. We encourage you to visit the website and sign up for our newsletter for more information about our shows, launches, and events. For more information on how The Podglomerate treats data, please see our Privacy Policy. Since you're listening to The History of Literature, we'd like to suggest you also try other Podglomerate shows surrounding literature, history, and storytelling like Storybound, Micheaux Mission, and The History of Standup. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The History of Literature Podcast is a member of the Podglamorate Network and LIT Hub Radio.
0:07.0	Hello, I'm Jack Wilson.
0:12.0	Welcome to the History of Literature. Okay, let's get started. We have a great episode today.
0:33.0	Karen Rothman is here.
0:35.0	Karen is the author of a new book called The Things We Know Best,
0:39.0	John Ashbury's Early Life,
0:41.0	which the New York Times has called one of the most notable books of 2017.
0:47.0	Noting, quote, this first full-fledged biography of the poet is full of rich and fascinating detail."
0:55.0	End quote. I completely agree.
0:58.0	John Ashbury is of course one of the greatest poets in the English language of the 20th century.
1:04.0	Mike Pallandrome, our old friend, is going to stop by very quickly to make the case that he is, in fact, the
1:10.9	greatest poet.
1:11.9	It's one of Mike's favorites anyway, and Mike will tell us why.
1:16.7	Then we have an interview with Karen Rothman, who explains how she went from being too anxious
1:21.2	to call John Ashbury to becoming his friend and confidant, to the moment
1:27.8	when he handed her four of his journals, which had never before been made public to her fascinating journey into his life story.
1:37.0	Along the way, she learned some things about the poet's life that she told him for the first time,
1:41.0	which is a pretty interesting place for a
1:44.2	biographer to be. We'll talk about all of that. It's a wonderful book. He's a
1:49.1	wonderful poet and his early life, or maybe I should say tracing his early life, seeing the influences and people and events that ended up transmuted by his talent and his genius and his art, the way his life made its way into his art,
2:06.4	it's a privilege to have this kind of close-up view.
2:11.2	So we'll get there in a minute. Let's start with an email.
	...

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