Also a Poet

Ada Calhoun's memoir follows her discovery of interview tapes from the 1970s, when her father attempted to write a biography of poet Frank O'Hara. The tapes spark her own quest to complete the unfinished O'Hara biography, leading her through the New York art world past and present. The narrative weaves together three central figures: Calhoun herself, her father Peter Schjeldahl (an prominent art critic), and the charismatic poet O'Hara. Through research and interviews, Calhoun pursues both O'Hara's story and a deeper understanding of her complex relationship with her father. The book traces Calhoun's journey through archives, conversations, and memories as she encounters obstacles similar to those that derailed her father's project decades earlier. Her quest becomes as much about family dynamics and artistic legacies as about biographical research. Through its exploration of poetry, art, and family relationships, Also a Poet examines how creative pursuits can both unite and divide generations, while questioning what it means to tell another person's story - whether that person is a famous poet or one's own parent.

Readers praise Calhoun's honesty about her relationship with her father and appreciate how she shifted the book's focus when her original project about Frank O'Hara faced obstacles. Many note the book works on multiple levels - as a memoir, literary history, and exploration of New York arts culture. Readers liked: - The complex father-daughter dynamics - Details about 1960s-70s Greenwich Village - Integration of O'Hara's poetry and life - Raw emotional truth about family relationships Common criticisms: - Meandering structure - Too much focus on the author's father - Limited new insights about O'Hara - Unresolved narrative threads Ratings: Goodreads: 3.9/5 (2,800+ ratings) Amazon: 4.3/5 (250+ ratings) Sample reader quote: "What began as a biography of Frank O'Hara became something much more interesting - a meditation on art, family, and the stories we tell ourselves." - Goodreads reviewer

Just Kids by Patti Smith A memoir of artistic coming-of-age in 1970s New York City captures the same downtown cultural scene that O'Hara inhabited.

The Heavy Bear by Rosamund Bernier A portrait of poet Frank O'Hara's life through his relationships with visual artists and the New York School reveals intimate connections between poetry and painting.

Lost Father by Mona Simpson The story of a daughter's quest to understand her enigmatic father mirrors the core parent-child dynamics explored in Calhoun's work.

The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr An examination of the craft of memoir writing reflects on the challenges of writing about family and reconstructing memory.

Walking with the Muses by Pat Cleveland A firsthand account of New York's creative scene in the 1960s and 70s provides context for the artistic world O'Hara inhabited.

🔷 Frank O'Hara wrote many of his most famous poems during his lunch breaks while working as a curator at the Museum of Modern Art, leading to his collection "Lunch Poems" (1964). 🔷 The book's title "Also a Poet" comes from the epitaph on Frank O'Hara's gravestone, which reads "Grace to be born and live as variously as possible. Grace to be born and live as oneself. Grace to not be afraid: ALSO A POET." 🔷 Ada Calhoun's father, Peter Schjeldahl, was a renowned art critic for The New Yorker magazine for over 20 years and passed away in 2022, shortly after the book's publication. 🔷 The interviews discovered by Calhoun were conducted in the 1970s with O'Hara's friends and fellow artists, including Willem de Kooning, Larry Rivers, and Jane Freilicher. 🔷 The book was named one of the Best Books of 2022 by multiple publications, including NPR, Vogue, and The New York Times, and won the 2023 Gotham Book Prize.