Virtual Event – Ted Berrigan Celebration

Magic City Books is proud to celebrate the release of Get the Money!: Collected Prose (1961-1983) by Ted Berrigan, published by City Lights Books with a virtual event featuring editors Edmund Berrigan, Anselm Berrigan and Nick Sturm who will be joined by the poets Grant Jenkins and Cassandra Gillig.

Ted Berrigan (1934-1983) was a leading force behind the second-generation New York School. In the late ’50s on the G.I. Bill, he enrolled in the University of Tulsa where he earned a B.A. and M.A. During this period he met his younger poetic and artistic comrades Ron Padgett, Dick Gallup, and Joe Brainard, all four of whom moved to New York City.

“Get the Money!” was Ted Berrigan’s mantra for the paid writing gigs he took on in support of his career as a poet. This long-awaited collection of his essential prose draws upon the many essays, reviews, introductions, and other texts he produced for hire, as well as material from his journals, travelogues, and assorted, unclassifiable creative texts. Get the Money! documents Berrigan’s innovative poetics and techniques, as well as the creative milieu of poets–centered around New York’s Poetry Project–for whom he served as both nurturer and catalyst. 

This free event will take place on the Zoom platform and Facebook Live on Thursday September 15 at 7:00 pm CT. You can register in advance for the event at: https://magiccitybooks.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_vwHKQh8hR-CzHK8je53FPw.

After registering you will receive a confirmation email with details on how to join the event on September 15.

Get the Money! will be published by City Lights Books on September 20. You can pre-order a copy from Magic City Books in the store or at: https://magiccitybooks.square.site/product/get-the-money-/845.

About Get the Money!

A monumental event in American poetry, Get the Money! brings together the essential prose writings of iconic New York School poet Ted Berrigan.

“Ted Berrigan was a leader of the New York School; his crazy energy embodied that movement and the city itself.”–John Ashbery, author of Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror

“Get the Money!” was Ted Berrigan’s mantra for the paid writing gigs he took on in support of his career as a poet. This long-awaited collection of his essential prose draws upon the many essays, reviews, introductions, and other texts he produced for hire, as well as material from his journals, travelogues, and assorted, unclassifiable creative texts. Get the Money! documents Berrigan’s innovative poetics and techniques, as well as the creative milieu of poets–centered around New York’s Poetry Project–for whom he served as both nurturer and catalyst. Highlights include his journals from the ’60s, depicting his early poetic discoveries and bohemian activities in New York; the previously unpublished “Some Notes About ‘C, ‘” an account of his mimeo magazine that serves as a de facto memoir of the early days of the second-generation New York School; a moving and prescient obituary, “Frank O’Hara Dead at 40”; book “reviews” consisting of poems entirely collaged from lines in the book; art reviews of friends and collaborators like Joe Brainard, George Schneeman, and Jane Freilicher; and his notorious “Interviews” with John Cage and John Ashbery, both of which were completely fabricated. Get the Money! provides a view into the development of Berrigan’s aesthetics in real time, as he captures the heady excitement of the era and champions the poets and artists he loves.

Among the most significant American poets of the later 20th century, Ted Berrigan (1934-1983) was a leading force behind the second-generation New York School. Born in Providence, RI, Berrigan attended various local schools, then enlisted in the Army and was stationed in Korea in the aftermath of the Korean War. In the late ’50s on the G.I. Bill, he enrolled in the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma, where he earned a B.A. and M.A. During this period he met his younger poetic and artistic comrades Ron Padgett, Dick Gallup, and Joe Brainard, all four of whom moved to New York City. In the early ’60s, he was married to the poet Sandy Berrigan, with whom he had two children, David and Kate. He later married the poet Alice Notley and, after periods in Buffalo, Chicago, New York, Bolinas, London, and Essex, settled with her and their sons, Anselm and Edmund, in New York City, where they eventually all became fixtures of the scene around St. Mark’s Poetry Project. Berrigan published a magazine, C, in the 60s, and individual volumes by poets under the imprint C Press. His books of poetry include The Sonnets (1964, 1967, 1982, 2000), now published by Penguin, Collected Poems (2007) and Selected Poems (2011), both published by the University of California.

Anselm Berrigan was born in Chicago and grew up in New York City. He has published many books of poetry, including Free Cell (2009), a volume in the City Lights Spotlight Poetry Series. His most recent book is Pregrets (Black Square Editions, 2021). He is the poetry editor for The Brooklyn Rail, and editor of What Is Poetry? (Just Kidding, I Know You Know): Interviews from The Poetry Project Newsletter 1983-2009. From 2003-2007 he was the Artistic Director of The Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church. He lives in New York City.

Born in Colchester, England and raised in New York City, Edmund Berrigan is a poet and musician. His books include Disarming Matter (Owl Press, 1999), Glad Stone Children (Farfalla, 2008), and More Gone (2019), a volume in the City Lights Spotlight Poetry Series. He also published a volume of memoirs, Can It! (Letter Machine Editions, 2013). He lives in Brooklyn, and performs music with the groups I Feel Tractor and Other Arc Ensemble. 

Poet and scholar Nick Sturm hails from Akron, Ohio, and is a lecturer in the English Department at Georgia State University. He has published widely on post-1945 American poetry. More information about his scholarship and archival research are available at his blog Crystal Set, nicksturm.com. He has a Ph.D. from Florida State and an M.F.A. from the University of Akron. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia.