George Bacovia (1881-1957) and Dimitrie Stelaru (1917-1971) represent two generations in the long line of Romanian Francophile Symbolists. Although both Bacovia and Stelaru took inspiration from Edgar Allan Poe and the French Symbolists and were also touched by early-Expressionism, the two countrymen were miles apart in upbringing, cultural background, character…
“… Joan Vollmer’s memory has long been framed within the narrative of the troubled five-year common-law marriage to the writer William S. Burroughs… her accidental death at her husband’s hand is unforgettable, the most enduring event of her short life. The shooting made her life a taboo topic for those who knew her well and a subject of fascination for those who did not. But the shooting tells us nothing about the 28 years of Joan’s life that preceded it… Joan Vollmer was extraordinary. The dean of her college knew it. Burroughs knew it. We knew it, too…”
Heinrich Nowak’s tale Die Sonnenseuche (The Sun Scourge) was first published in 1915 in the expressionist magazine Die weißen Blätter from Leipzig. Inspired by reports of an exceptional and life-threatening heatwave in the USA, the apocalyptic tale remained virtually unnoticed until it was re-published as a book in 1920…
In the late 1950s in Paris, at the famed Beat Hotel – 9 rue Gît-le-Coeur – writer Roger Knoebber was living amongst a community of creative people, including the core of what became known as the Beat Generation – Burroughs, Corso, Ginsberg, and others. In this bohemian center of exploration Roger became intimate friends with the artist, writer and mystic Brion Gysin…