Also a Poet: Frank O'Hara, My Father, and Me

A staggering memoir from New York Times-bestselling author Ada Calhoun tracing her fraught relationship with her father and their shared obsession with a great poet

When Ada Calhoun stumbled upon old cassette tapes of interviews her father, celebrated art critic Peter Schjeldahl, had conducted for his never-completed biography of poet Frank O'Hara, she set out to finish the book her father had started forty years earlier.

As a lifelong O'Hara fan who grew up amid his bohemian cohort in the East Village, Calhoun thought the project would be easy, even fun, but the deeper she dove, the more she had to face not just O'Hara's past, but also her father's, and her own.

The result is a groundbreaking and kaleidoscopic memoir that weaves compelling literary history with a moving, honest, and tender story of a complicated father-daughter bond. Also a Poet explores what happens when we want to do better than our parents, yet fear what that might cost us; when we seek their approval, yet mistrust it.

In reckoning with her unique heritage, as well as providing new insights into the life of one of our most important poets, Calhoun offers a brave and hopeful meditation on parents and children, artistic ambition, and the complexities of what we leave behind.

Author: Ada Calhoun
Publisher: Grove Press
Published: 06/14/2022
Pages: 272
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.95lbs
Size: 9.06h x 5.98w x 1.34d
ISBN: 9780802159786

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal Prepub Alert 01/01/2022 pg. 23
Kirkus Reviews 02/15/2022
Library Journal 04/01/2022 pg. 91
Publishers Weekly 04/18/2022
Booklist 05/01/2022 pg. 14
Shelf Awareness 06/15/2022

About the Author

Ada Calhoun is the New York Times bestselling author of St. Marks Is Dead, Wedding Toasts I'll Never Give, and Why We Can't Sleep. She has written for the New York Times, the New Republic, and the Washington Post.