Larry Fagin, poet, editor, teacher, long-time leading member of the so-called “New York School” of poetry, died yesterday. He was 79 years old.
An important co-worker with Allen at Naropa (and, coincidentally, upstairs neighbour in his 12th Street tenement in Manhattan), he was, (though not himself a Buddhist), alongside fellow St Marks poet, Anne Waldman, one of the key figures in the initial years of that on-going experiment. Allen himself was quite unequivocal – “I don’t know of a better editor and teacher of poetry and prose than Fagin”, he once declared.
Larry’s early teaching there can be sampled here, here, here, and here.
His early Naropa readings – in 1977 with Jack Collom, in 1978 with Dick Gallup. in 1980 with Janine Pommy Vega and David Meltzer are well worth hearing.
More essential audio and video can be heard (and viewed) here
and, notably, here
and here (Larry Fagin and Mitch Highfill, 2014 at the DIA Foundation)
Porter Fox on Larry – “The Glass Filter” – can be accessed here. Don’t miss also Larry’s always-lively contributions to Porter’s Nowhere magazine
Also not-to-be-missed Larry ‘s 2011 New York Times profile
I’ll Be Seeing You Poems 1962-1976 (now woefully out-of-print) came out from Ron Padgett (& others) Full Court Press (publishers also of Allen’s First Blues)
More recently, Kyle Schlesinger’s Cuneiform Press issued Complete Fragments
Samples of Larry’s poetry can also be read here and here
A bibliograpy’s here (we’d note, in passing his life-long collaboration with visual artists, notably Trevor Winkfield)
and here’s his portrait by life-long friend and collaborator, George Schneeman
One of his singular (and many) editorial accomplishments, Clark Coolidge’s Selected Poems 1982-1986 recently appeared from Station Hill Press – see here
Mention should also be made of Neon in Daylight – New York School Painters and Poets, his invluable assistance given to editor-compiler, Jenni Quilter.
The eclectic, the erudite Larry – here’s his list of neglected texts prepared for Ron Silliman
The West Coast Larry – We haven’t even begun to mention his connection to Jack Spicer
and who’s that sitting just below Allen and Lew Welch in Larry Keenan’s iconic photo of a 1965 City Lights gathering?
We mourn the passing of a singular figure