Harold Norse (July 6, 1916, New York City – June 8, 2009, San Francisco) was an American writer who created a body of work using the American idiom of everyday language and images. One of the expatriate artists of the Beat generation, Norse was widely published and anthologized.

Life

Born Harold Rosen to an unmarried Lithuanian Jewish immigrant in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. In the early 1950s, he came up with the new last name, Norse, by rearranging the letters in Rosen. He received his B.A. from Brooklyn College in 1938, where he edited the literary magazine. Norse met

Chester Kallman Chester Simon Kallman (January 7, 1921 – January 18, 1975) was an American poet, librettist, and translator, best known for collaborating with W. H. Auden on opera librettos for Igor Stravinsky and other composers. Life Kallman was born in ...

in 1938, and then became a part of

W. H. Auden Wystan Hugh Auden (; 21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) was a British-American poet. Auden's poetry was noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in ...

's "inner circle" when Auden moved to the U.S. in 1939. (Kallman and Auden later became lifelong partners.) However, Norse soon found himself allied with

William Carlos Williams William Carlos Williams (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963) was an American poet, writer, and physician closely associated with modernism and imagism. In addition to his writing, Williams had a long career as a physician practicing both pedia ...

, who rated Norse the 'best poet of isgeneration.' Norse broke with traditional verse forms and embraced a more direct, conversational language. Soon Norse was publishing in ''Poetry,'' ''The Saturday Review'' and ''The Paris Review.'' He got his master's degree in literature from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

in 1951. His first book of poems, ''The Undersea Mountain'', was published in 1953. From 1954 to 1959 Norse lived and wrote in Italy. He penned the experimental cut-up novel '' Beat Hotel'' in 1960 while living in Paris with

William S. Burroughs William Seward Burroughs II (; February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) was an American writer and visual artist, widely considered a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodern author who influenced popular cultur ...

Allen Ginsberg Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Gener ...

and

Gregory Corso Gregory Nunzio Corso (March 26, 1930 – January 17, 2001) was an American poet and a key member of the Beat movement. He was the youngest of the inner circle of Beat Generation writers (with Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William S. Burrou ...

from 1959 to 1963. He traveled to

Tangier Tangier ( ; ; ar, طنجة, Ṭanja) is a city in northwestern Morocco. It is on the Moroccan coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel. The town is the capi ...

, where he stayed with Jane and

Paul Bowles Paul Frederic Bowles (; December 30, 1910November 18, 1999) was an American expatriate composer, author, and translator. He became associated with the Moroccan city of Tangier, where he settled in 1947 and lived for 52 years to the end of his ...

. Returning to America in 1968, Norse arrived in

Venice, California Venice is a neighborhood of the city of Los Angeles within the Westside region of Los Angeles County, California. Venice was founded by Abbot Kinney in 1905 as a seaside resort town. It was an independent city until 1926, when it was annexed by ...

, near

Charles Bukowski Henry Charles Bukowski ( ; born Heinrich Karl Bukowski, ; August 16, 1920 – March 9, 1994) was a German-American poet, novelist, and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural, and economic ambience of his adopted ...

. He moved to San Francisco in 1972 and lived in the

Mission District The Mission District (Spanish: ''Distrito de la Misión''), commonly known as The Mission (Spanish: ''La Misión''), is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California. One of the oldest neighborhoods in San Francisco, the Mission District's name is ...

of San Francisco for the last 35 years of his life. ''Memoirs of a Bastard Angel'' traces Norse's life and literary career with Auden, Christopher Isherwood,

E. E. Cummings Edward Estlin Cummings, who was also known as E. E. Cummings, e. e. cummings and e e cummings (October 14, 1894 - September 3, 1962), was an American poet, painter, essayist, author and playwright. He wrote approximately 2,900 poems, two autobi ...

Tennessee Williams Thomas Lanier Williams III (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), known by his pen name Tennessee Williams, was an American playwright and screenwriter. Along with contemporaries Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the thr ...

, William Carlos Williams, James Baldwin, Dylan Thomas, William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg,

Lawrence Ferlinghetti Lawrence Monsanto Ferlinghetti (March 24, 1919 – February 22, 2021) was an American poet, painter, social activist, and co-founder of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers. The author of poetry, translations, fiction, theatre, art criticism, an ...

, Robert Graves and Anaïs Nin. With ''Carnivorous Saint: Gay Poems 1941–1976'' Norse became a leading

gay liberation The gay liberation movement was a social and political movement of the late 1960s through the mid-1980s that urged lesbians and gay men to engage in radical direct action, and to counter societal shame with gay pride.Hoffman, 2007, pp.xi-xiii ...

poet. His collected poems, ''In the Hub of the Fiery Force'', appeared in 2003. Norse is a two-time NEA grant recipient, and National Poetry Association award winner. Norse was gay and his poetry reflected his sexuality.

Works

* ''The Undersea Mountain'', Denver: Swallow Press, 1953 * ''The Roman Sonnets of

Giuseppe Gioachino Belli Giuseppe Francesco Antonio Maria Gioachino Raimondo Belli (7 September 1791 – 21 December 1863) was an Italian poet, famous for his sonnets in Romanesco, the dialect of Rome. Biography Giuseppe Francesco Antonio Maria Gioachino Raimondo Bell ...

,'' Highlands, North Carolina: Jargon 38, 1960 * ''The Dancing Beasts'', New York: Macmillan, 1962 * ''Karma Circuit'', London: Nothing Doing in London, 1966 * ''Penguin Modern Poets 13'',

Philip Lamantia Philip Lamantia (October 23, 1927 – March 7, 2005) was an American poet and lecturer. His poems were often visionary, ecstatic, terror-filled, and erotic, exploring the subconscious world of dreams and linking it to daily experiences, while s ...

and Harold Norse, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1969 * ''Bastard Angel Magazine'', Issue #1, Edited by Harold Norse, San Francisco, Spring 1972 * ''Karma Circuit'', San Francisco: Panjandrum Press, 1973 * ''Bastard Angel Magazine'', Issue #2, Edited by Harold Norse, San Francisco, Spring 1974 * ''Hotel Nirvana'', San Francisco: City Lights, 1974 *''I See America Daily'', San Francisco: Mother's Hen, 1974 * ''Bastard Angel Magazine'', Issue #3, Edited by Harold Norse, San Francisco, Fall 1974 * ''Beat Hotel'', German translation by Carl Weissner, Augsburg, Federal Republic of Germany: Maro Verlag, 1975, 1995 * ''Carnivorous Saint: Gay Poems 1941–1976'', San Francisco: Gay Sunshine Press, 1977 * ''Beat Hotel'' (the English original), San Diego: Atticus Press, 1983 * ''Mysteries of Magritte'', San Diego: Atticus Press, 1984 * ''Beat Hotel'', Italian translation by Giulio Saponaro, Italy: Stamperia della Frontiera, 1985 * ''The Love Poems 1940–1985'', Trumansburg, NY: The Crossing Press, 1986 * ''Memoirs of a Bastard Angel'', preface by James Baldwin, New York:

William Morrow and Company William Morrow and Company is an American publishing company founded by William Morrow in 1926. The company was acquired by Scott Foresman in 1967, sold to Hearst Corporation in 1981, and sold to News Corporation (now News Corp) in 1999. ...

, 1989 * ''The American Idiom: A Correspondence'', with

, San Francisco: Bright Tyger Press, 1990 * ''In the Hub of the Fiery Force, Collected Poems of Harold Norse 1934–2003'', New York: Thunder's Mouth Press, 2003 * ''I Am Going to Fly Through Glass: The Selected Poems of Harold Norse'', edited by Todd Swindell, Greenfield, MA: Talisman House, 2014 * ''Karmakreis'', German translation of ''Karma Circuit'' by Ralf Zühlke, Wenzendorf: Stadtlichter Presse, 2016

Anthologies

*''New Directions'' 13, ed. James Laughlin, 1951 *''Mentor'', New American Library, 1958 *''City Lights Journal'', ed. L. Ferlinghetti, #1, 1963 *'' Best Poems of 1968: Borestone Mountain Poetry Awards'', ed. Hildegarde Flanner, 1969 *''City Lights Anthology'', ed. Ferlinghetti, City Lights 1974 *''A Geography of Poets'', ed. Edward Field, Bantam 1979 *'' The Penguin Book of Homosexual Verse'', ed. Stephen Coote, Penguin 1983 *''Gay and Lesbian Poetry in Our Time: An Anthology'', ed. Carl Morse and Joan Larkin, St. Martin's Press, 1988 *''An Ear to the Ground'', ed. Harris & Aguero, University of Chicago Press, 1989 *''Big Sky Mind: Buddhism & the Beat Generation'', ed. Carole Tonkinson, Riverhead Books, NY, 1995 *''City Lights Pocket Poets Anthology'', City Lights, 1995 *''The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry'', ed. Alan Kaufman and S.A. Griffin, Thunder's Mouth Press, 1999

Resources

* The Harold Norse Papers (1934–1980, 8,000 items) are archived at the Lilly Library,

Indiana University, Bloomington Indiana University Bloomington (IU Bloomington, Indiana University, IU, or simply Indiana) is a public research university in Bloomington, Indiana. It is the flagship campus of Indiana University and, with over 40,000 students, its largest campu ...

. Norse Mss. 1934–1980, Lilly Library Manuscript Collections
/ref> * Harold Norse, James Baldwin, Anais Nin, William S. Burroughs, William Carlos Williams, Paul Carroll, Jack Hirschman, "Harold Norse Special Issue", ''Olé,'' No. 5 (Bensenville, IL: Open Skull Press, n.d., 1966?)

References

External links

haroldnorse.com, Memorial Web site with poems and photos
*
L.A. Times ObituaryS.F. Chronicle ObituaryGuardian U.K. ObituaryRemembering Harold Norse
{{DEFAULTSORT:Norse, Harold Brooklyn College alumni New York University alumni Writers from Brooklyn American gay writers Beat Generation writers American expatriates in France American expatriates in Italy American expatriates in Morocco American people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent Outlaw poets LGBT Jews American LGBT poets Jewish American poets 1916 births 2009 deaths 20th-century American Jews 21st-century American Jews 20th-century LGBT people