Joe Brainard: I Remember - by Ron Padgett (Paperback)

About the Book

Artwork by Joe Brainard. Edited by Ron Padgett.

Book Synopsis

The American artist's much-imitated memoir, described by Paul Auster as "one of the few totally original books I have ever read."

Joe Brainard's I Remember is a literary and artistic cult classic, praised and admired by writers from Paul Auster to John Ashery and Edmund White. As autobiography, Brainard's method was brilliantly simple: to set down specific memories as they rose to the surface of his consciousness, each prefaced by the refrain "I remember" "I remember when I thought that if you did anything bad, policemen would put you in jail." Brainard's enduring gem of a book has been issued in various forms over the past thirty years. In 1970, Angel Hair books published the first edition of I Remember, which quickly sold out; he wrote two subsequent volumes for Angel Hair, More I Remember (1972) and More I Remember More (1973), both of which proved as popular as the original. In 1973, the Museum of Modern Art in New York published Brainard's I Remember Christmas, a new text for which he also contributed a cover design and four drawings. Excerpts from the Angel Hair editions appeared in Interview, Gay Sunshine, The World and the New York Herald. Then in 1975, Full Court Press issued a revised version collecting all three of the Angel Hair volumes and added new material, using the original title I Remember. This complete edition is prefaced by poet and translator Ron Padgett.

Review Quotes

Brainard was only in his early 50s when he died, but he published this masterpiece at 33. Each one of the more than 1,000 entries in the book begins with 'I remember, ' followed by seemingly mundane recollections presented mostly in a line or two. Individually, these evocative objets trouvés are gorgeous; collectively, they draw both an unsentimental self-portrait and a sharp picture of America. But the most wonderful thing about this book is that, as you sink into its mantra, 'I remember' shifts to you, the reader. This incantation will return to you things you didn't know you'd lost.--Hernan Diaz "The New York Times"

Though the book never strains for psychological insight or a totalizing worldview, its mix of naive wonder and deathbed reflection feels like its own kind of wisdom.--Andrew Chan "Bookforum"

A small but real American classic.--Dwight Garner "The New York Times"