On Electric Banana, William S Burroughs writes: “The Electric Banana by Mary Beach is a unique auditory experience the actual found sounds of language as it mutters half a street sign repetitive argument overheard conversations bits of pop songs in millions of minds like some gigantic octopus with myriad tentacles…”
Read Jan Herman on this posthumous collection – “A Book That Brings Her Back Alive”
Mary Beach, writer, translator, painter.
In Charles Plymell‘s considered opinion, (not entirely unbiased, since Mary was his mother-in-law, but accurate nonetheless), (& notwithstanding critical neglect),
“One of the first women in the ranks of the avant-garde”.
Mary Beach and Claude Pelieu (they were married in 1975) were inseparable
No only life partners but prolific creative partners over many decades.
They met in Paris in the early 1960s, then moved to San Francisco (where, encouraged by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, aside from continuing with their own art, they published the fabled Beach Books, in conjunction with City Lights
(an imprint of memorable titles, notably, Carl Solomon’s Mishaps Perhaps , Bob Kaufman’s Golden Sardine, and most notably, the first American edition, in 1968, of the classic “Cut-Ups“ text, Minutes to Go).
In the late ’60s they lived in the Chelsea Hotel, where they befriended many of the hotel’s luminaries (among them the Smith duo, both Patti and Harry!). From New York, they moved on to London, then back to the United States, finally settling in upstate New York (first in Cooperstown, then in the nearby small town of Norwich). And at each stop, (indeed throughout their lives), while they doggedly pursued their art they simultaneously connected with fellow artists and writers who, themselves, were engaged and committed to the most daring experimentation.
Claude sadly passed away on Christmas Eve, 2002, four days after his 68th birthday. For several years, previously he’d been fighting circulatory problems caused by diabetes
Mary passed away, just three years years later, January 2006, aged 86
Her friend, Pierre Joris (they first met at the Chelsea), provides this comprehensive obituary note, which remains an essential read – see here
Hammond Guthrie adds the memories of Jan Herman and Udo Breger –
Plenty more to say about Mary (and Claude) but that’ll do for a beginning.