I seem to live : the New York diaries /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:Mekas, Jonas, 1922-2019, author, artist.
Edition:First edition.
Imprint:Leipzig, Germany : Spector Books, [2019-2021]
Description:2 volumes (1555 pages) : illustrations, facsimiles, portraits ; 22 cm
Language:English
Subject:
Format: Print Book
URL for this record:http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/12319801
Hidden Bibliographic Details
Varying Form of Title:Jonas Mekas : I seem to live
Other authors / contributors:Mekas, Adolfas, 1925-2011.
König, Anne (Editor), editor.
ISBN:9783959052887
395905288X
9783959052900
3959052901
Notes:Cover title.
Includes index.
Summary:"I seem to live: the New York diaries, 1950-2011 is Jonas Mekas's key literary work. The first volume of this magnum opus, covering the period from 1950-1969, appears posthumously in the year of his death. It stands on an equal fooing with his cinematic oeuvre, which he initially developed together with his brother Adolfas after their arrival in New York. In 1954, the two brothers founded Film Culture magazine, and a weekly column for The Village Voice. It was in this period that his writing, films, and unflagging commitment to art began to establish him as a pioneer of American avant-garde cinema and the barometer of the New York art scene. An assemblage of Jonas's diaries from this exciting period, enriched with his own personal visual material, I seem to live: the New York diaries, vol. 1, 1950-1969 reads as a moving and subjectively condensed chronology of the postwar New York underground scene, which he shaped and defended through his writings"--Page 4 of cover
Description
Summary:

I Seem to Live chronicles the beginnings of New York's avant-garde film world and the emergence of a counterculture

Jonas Mekas' I Seem to Live picks up in the 1950s, where his extraordinary and popular memoir I Had Nowhere to Go left off. These were crucial years for the artist: Jonas Mekas and his brother Adolfas, having arrived in New York, shot their first experimental films, and Jonas began to develop the essayistic film diary format that he would use to record his day-to-day observations for the rest of his life. In 1954 the two brothers founded Film Culture magazine, and in 1958 Jonas began writing a weekly column for the Village Voice . It was in this period that Mekas' writing, films and unflagging commitment to art began to establish him as a pioneer of American avant-garde cinema and the barometer of the New York art scene.

Assembling Mekas' diaries from this exciting period, enriched with his own personal visual material, I Seem to Live offers an intimate, unparalleled view of the postwar New York underground scene from one of its most beloved fixtures.

The first installment of Mekas' diaries, I Had Nowhere to Go (1944-1955) , was published by Spector Books in 2017. I Seem to Live, the sequel to that work, will appear in two volumes: the present volume, covering the years 1950 to 1968, and a second, forthcoming volume, covering 1969 to 2004.

Jonas Mekas (1922-2019) was born in Lithuania and arrived in New York in 1949 via a wartime displaced-persons camp. Cofounder of the Anthology Film Archives, Mekas was a filmmaker, writer, poet, tireless advocate for experimental art and a New York City legend.

Item Description:Cover title.
Includes index.
Physical Description:2 volumes (1555 pages) : illustrations, facsimiles, portraits ; 22 cm
ISBN:9783959052887
395905288X
9783959052900
3959052901