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American poet
Marvin Cohen
Born (1931-07-06 ) July 6, 1931 (age 92) Brooklyn, New York, USAOccupation
Essayist
novelist
playwright
poet
humorist
Language English Years active 1960–present Notable works The Self-Devoted Friend (1967), The Monday Rhetoric of the Love Club and Other Parables (1973), Baseball the Beautiful: Decoding the Diamond (1974), Others, Including Morstive Sternbump (1976)
marvincohen.net
Marvin Cohen (born July 6, 1931) is an American essayist, novelist, playwright, poet, humorist, and
surrealist . He is the author of nine published books, two of which were published by
New Directions Publishing , and several plays. His shorter writings — stories, parables, allegories, and essays — have appeared in more than 80 publications, including
The New Yorker ,
The New York Times ,
The Village Voice ,
The Nation ,
Harper's Bazaar ,
Vogue ,
Fiction ,
The Hudson Review ,
Quarterly Review of Literature ,
Transatlantic Review and
New Directions annuals.
[1] His 1980 play The Don Juan and the Non-Don Juan was first performed at the
New York Shakespeare Festival as part of the Poets at the Public Series. Staged readings of the play have featured actors
Richard Dreyfuss ,
Keith Carradine ,
Wallace Shawn ,
Jill Eikenberry ,
Larry Pine , and
Mimi Kennedy .
[2]
Life and career
Cohen was born in
Brooklyn ,
New York City . He has described himself as one who has "risen from lower-class background to lower-class foreground." He studied art at
Cooper Union but left college to focus on writing. He supported himself with a series of odd jobs including mink farmer and merchant seaman.
[3] Although not typically associated with the
Beat Generation , his first published piece appeared in The Beat Scene (Corinth Books, 1960) along with works by
Jack Kerouac ,
Allen Ginsberg ,
Gregory Corso , and
Lawrence Ferlinghetti . Cohen also taught
creative writing at
The New School , the
City College of New York ,
C.W. Post of Long Island University , and
Adelphi University . He is married and currently lives with his wife in
New York City .
Works
Books
The Self-Devoted Friend (1967) New Directions Publishing/Rapp & Whiting
Dialogues (1967) Turret Books
The Monday Rhetoric of the Love Club and Other Parables (1973) New Directions Publishing/Rapp & Whiting
Baseball the Beautiful: Decoding the Diamond (1974) Links Books
Fables at Life's Expense (1975) Serendipity Books
Others, Including Morstive Sternbump (1976) Bobbs-Merrill Company
The Inconvenience of Living (1977) Urizen Books
How the Snake Emerged from the Bamboo Pole but Man Emerged from Both (1978) Oasis Books / Earthgrip Press
Aesthetics in Life and Art (1982) Gull Books
How to Outthink a Wall: An Anthology (2016) Verbivoracious Press
Others, Including Morstive Sternbump: 40th Anniversary Edition (2016) Tough Poets Press
The Self-Devoted Friend: 50th Anniversary Edition (2017) Tough Poets Press
Baseball as Metaphysics (2017) Tough Poets Press
Five Fictions (2018) Tough Poets Press
Inside the World: As Al Lehman (2018) Sagging Meniscus Press
Women, and Tom Gervasi (2018) Sagging Meniscus Press
Run Out of Prose (2018) Sagging Meniscus Press
Sadness Corrected: New Poems & Dialogues (2019) Sagging Meniscus Press
Life's Tumultuous Party: Reduced to its Essential Partycycles (2020) Sagging Meniscus Press
Plays on Words (2020) Tough Poets Press
Conversations and Versifications (2021) Tough Poets Press
Questions to Ask Before Proceeding (2021) Tough Poets Press
The Hard Life of a Stone and Other Thoughts (2021) Sagging Meniscus Press
Booboo Roi (2021) Sagging Meniscus Press
Plays
The Don Juan and the Non-Don Juan (1980)
Reasonable Resignation (1981)
Necessary Ends (1982)
Anti-Nuclear Love (or Love Unfairly Tested) (1982)
Phonies (1982)
Spiritualistically Predestined Judy, Yes, But Which One? (1982)
Topsy-Turvy (1985)
Notes
^ "Marvin Cohen Joins Carriage House Series". Record-News . Westfield, NJ. April 20, 2007.
^ Papp, Joseph, ed. (1986). Plays from the New York Shakespeare Festival . New York, NY: Broadway Play Publishing. p. 2.
^ De Lacy, Justine (September 6–7, 1980). "Marvin Cohen's Surrealist Humor". International Herald Tribune . Paris.
External links
marvincohen.net
New Directions Publishing Company - Marvin Cohen
Reader's Almanac, December 24, 1976 Marvin Cohen discusses his sixth book and first novel, Others, Including Morstive Sternbump. Interview with Walter James Miller, WNYC-FM, New York Public Radio.
Reader's Almanac, February 6, 1978 Marvin Cohen talks about his book The Inconvenience of Living. Interview with Walter James Miller, WNYC-FM, New York Public Radio.
Village Voice, November 23, 2016 Surreal Genius: Why Onetime Literary Hotshot Marvin Cohen Deserves Another Look
Fiction Writers Review, June 12, 2017 The Drumbeat of Society: An Interview with Marvin Cohen