Peter Anton Orlovsky (July 8, 1933 - May 30, 2010)[1] was an American poet. Orlovsky was in a lifelong openly gay relationship with Beat Generation poet Allen Ginsberg.[2]
Peter Orlovsky (1933-2010), right, with Allen Ginsberg, 1978. Photo by Herbert Rusche. Licensed under Creative Commons, courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
Life[]
Youth and education[]
Orlovsky was born in the Lower East Side of New York City, the son of Katherine (née Schwarten) and Oleg Orlovsky, a Russian immigrant.[3]
He was raised in poverty and was forced to drop out of Newtown High School in his senior year so he could support his impoverished family. After many odd jobs, he began working as an orderly at Creedmoor State Mental Hospital, known today as Creedmoor Psychiatric Center.
In 1953 Orlovsky was drafted into the United States Army for the Korean War at the age of 19. Army psychiatrists ordered his transfer off the front to work as a medic in a San Francisco hospital.
Career[]
Orlovsky met Ginsberg while working as a model for painter Robert La Vigne in San Francisco in December 1954. Prior to meeting Ginsberg, Orlovsky had made no deliberate attempts at becoming a poet.[4]
With Ginsberg's encouragement, Orlovsky began writing in 1957 while the pair were living in Paris. Accompanied by other beat writers, Orlovsky traveled extensively for several years throughout the Middle East, Northern Africa, India, and Europe. Orlovsky was Ginsberg's lover in an open relationship until Ginsberg's death in 1997.[2]
His work appeared in The New American Poetry, 1945–1960 (1960) and The Beatitude Anthology (1965), as well as the literary magazines Yugen and Outsider.
Orlovsky appeared in 3 films: Andy Warhol's Couch (1965) and 2 films by photographer Robert Frank, Me and My Brother (1969) (a film documenting his brother Julius Orlovsky's mental illness) and One Hour (C'est Vrai) (a 60 minute one-take video made for French television in 1992).
In 1974, Orlovsky joined the faculty of the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado, teaching poetry. His gentleness and kindness was opposite to Ginsberg's coldness. At the Jack Kerouac Conference in Boulder, 1983, Ginsberg booed and raised thumbs down to a large audience when poet Hedwig Gorski introduced her verse-drama Booby, Mama at the Midnight Reading of Younger Poets. Orlovsky apologized to her later while picking up styrofoam cups for the trash after the event.[5]
In May 2010, friends reported that Orlovsky, who had been battling lung cancer for several months, was moved from his home in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, to the Vermont Respite House in Williston. He died there on May 30, 2010, age 76.
Recognition[]
In 1979 he received a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to continue his creative endeavors.
Publications[]
Poetry[]
- Dear Allen: Ship will land Jan. 23, 58. Buffalo, NY: Intrepid Press, 1971.
- Lepers Cry. New York: Lepers Book Shop, 1972.
- Clean Asshole Poems & Smiling Vegetable Songs: Poems, 1957-1977. San Francisco: City Lights, 1978; Orono, ME: Northern Lights, 1993.
- Straight Hearts' Delight: Love Poems and Selected Letters (with Allen Ginsberg) (1980)
- Dick Tracy's Gelber Hut und andere Gedichte (German translation) (1984)
Non-fiction[]
- A Life in Words: Intimate chronicles of a Beat writer (edited by Bill Morgan). Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers, 2014.
Collected editions[]
- Straight Hearts' Delight: Love poems and selected letters, 1947-1980 (with Allen Ginsberg; edited by Winston Leyland). San Francisco: Gay Sunshine Press, 1980.
Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.[6]
Peter Orlovsky reading a poem (Rare footage)
See also[]
References[]
- The Portable Beat Reader (edited by Ann Charters). New York: Penguin Books, 1992. ISBN 0-670-83885-3
Fonds[]
- Peter Orlovksy Papers at the Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Columbia University
- Peter Orlovsky's papers at the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin
Notes[]
- ↑ May 31, 2010 (May 31, 2010). "Peter Orlovsky, poet and partner of Allen Ginsberg, has died". Latimesblogs.latimes.com. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2010/05/peter-orlovsky-poet-and-partner-to-allen-ginsberg-has-died.html. Retrieved 2010-06-03.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Peter Orlovsky, poet and partner of Allen Ginsberg, has died". LA Times. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2010/05/peter-orlovsky-poet-and-partner-to-allen-ginsberg-has-died.html. Retrieved 2011-02-02.
- ↑ Tytell, John (1999). Paradise outlaws: remembering the beats. W. Morrow. p. 30. ISBN 0688164439.
- ↑ "Peter Orlovsky: An Inventory of His Papers at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center". University of Texas. http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/uthrc/00103/hrc-00103.html. Retrieved 2011-02-02.
- ↑ "Wild and Deadly Categories: Poetry of Hedwig Gorski," The Guardian, London, 27 October 2005.
- ↑ Search results = au:Peter Orlovsky, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Jan. 3, 2015.
External links[]
- Poems
- Audio / video
- Peter Orlovsky at YouTube
- Peter Orlovsky at Amazon.com
- About
- New York Times obituary
- Obituary in The Independent by Marcus Williamson
- Peter Orlovsky obituary at The Guardian
- Anne Waldman's words on Peter Orlovsky's death at Patti Smith's website
- "Tharmas: The physical poetry of Peter Orlovsky" at Exquisite Corpse
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