The Upside of Falling Down

According to late Greek sources on classical mythology, Astyanassa (Ancient Greek: Ἀστυάνασσα) was Helen of Troy’s maid. The 10th century scholar Photius, citing Ptolemy Chennus, mentions the story that Aphrodite lent her magical embroidered band (kestos himas) to Helen, to ensure that Paris would fall in love with her, and that Astyanassa stole it.[1] The […]

Bob Flanagan (December 26, 1952 – January 4, 1996) was an American performance artist and writer known for his work on sadomasochism and cystic fibrosis. Flanagan was born in New York City on December 26, 1952 and grew up in Costa Mesa, California, with his mother, Kathy; father, Robert; brothers John and Tim; and sister, […]

Djuna Barnes (/ˈdʒuːnɑː/, June 12, 1892 – June 18, 1982) was an American artist, illustrator, journalist, and writer best known for her novel Nightwood (1936), a cult classic of lesbian fiction and an important work of modernist literature.[2] In 1913, Barnes began her career as a freelance journalist and illustrator for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.[3] […]

David Meltzer (February 17, 1937 – December 31, 2016) was an American poet and musician of the Beat Generation and San Francisco Renaissance. Lawrence Ferlinghetti described him as “one of the greats of post-World-War-Two San Francisco poets and musicians”.[1] Meltzer came to prominence with inclusion of his work in the anthology, The New American Poetry […]

Terry Southern (May 1, 1924 – October 29, 1995) was an American novelist, essayist, screenwriter, and university lecturer, noted for his distinctive satirical style. Part of the Paris postwar literary movement in the 1950s and a companion to Beat writers in Greenwich Village, Southern was also at the center of Swinging London in the 1960s […]