Beat Museum: : "The end is the beginning." Harold Norse, dies at 92.

links at the bottom: from the  Beat museum home page.
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We recently received word that Harold Norse passed away on Monday.  He was 92. 

The Beat Museum will be hosting a Memorial forHarold on Sunday, July 12th, time TBA


From the Beat Museum: "In 1951, Norse's talent was recognized by William Carlos Williams, who invited him to read at the Museum of Modern Art
in early 1952. Williams remarked on Norse's ability to "use the direct
image on its own," and became an important mentor to Harold. Williams
would later call Norse "the best poet of his generation," a profound
accolade considering Williams was mentor to such figures as Charles Olson, Denise Levertov, and Allen Ginsberg. Following the 1953 publication of his first book of poetry, The Undersea Mountain, which was reviewed in The New York Times and Poetry magazine, Norse left America for Italy.

In 1957, Norse was nearly deported from Italy when the Italian government deemed his poem "Victor Emmanuel Monument (Rome)," political fodder for the Communists.

Norse moved to Paris in 1960, on a tip from Williams, and at the Beat Hotel he met Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, William S. Burroughs, Brion Gysin,
and others, drawn by their interest in Buddhist meditation, which Norse
had recently taken up. Using the cut-up technique devised by Gysin and
Burroughs, Norse wrote his experimental novel, Beat Hotel. Originally
titled Sniffing Keyholes, the first chapter—which he describes as "a
sex/dope scene between a muscular black youth called Melo and a blond
Russian princess called Z.Z."— made even the often stoic Burroughs
laugh. During his time at the Beat Hotel, Norse began creating his
'random paintings' or Cosmographs (using the hotel's bidet).

Norse
returned to America in 1969, and with Carnivorous Saint: Gay Poems
1941-1976 became a leading gay liberation poet. For the last 35 years
he has lived in San Francisco's Mission District."


Some Friends Have Created a Memorial Website
http://haroldnorse.com/

Harold Norse Biography
http://www.beatmuseum.org/norse/haroldnorse.html

Details of Harold's Last Hours
http://www.corpse.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=402&Itemid=39


His last words were:
"The End is the Beginning"