Peter Wortsman

The Laboratory of Time, and other cutup poems, Peter Wortsman's third collection of experiments in the form, lets time be told in the way we live it, sometimes stretching a second into seeming eternity, sometimes compressing eternity into a second. The first part, titled "The True Glue," comprises recycled assemblages of words cut out of the newspaper that make a newfangled poetic sense. The second part, titled "The Five Books," is an admittedly unorthodox retelling of biblical narrative, the poetic sap and zap of it extracted by means of a vertical transcription. Exhalations burdened with meaning, they are forever being uttered, stuttered and forgotten, trashed and mulched to fertilize new formulations. What else is a cutup poem after all, or any kind of poem for that matter, but a wild flower sprouting out of the dirt

ERIC HOFFER BOOK AWARD CATEGORY FINALISTRavens in Berlin . . . Parakeets in Brooklyn . . . Chickens in Tel Aviv . . . Spiders in Cognac. City creatures spark the imagination and intellect in words and art by this father-daughter team. Odd Birds & Fat Cats (An Urban Bestiary) is an illustrated collection of brief observations on city creatures. Inspired by the tradition of the medieval bestiary, bestiarum vocabulum, a 12th-century bestselling genre that chronicled animals and beings both real and fantastical, the book features pithy impressions of birds and animals that delight, confound, and edify, written by Peter Wortsman, coupled with detailed naturalist artwork by his daughter, Aurélie Bernard Wortsman. Featured creatures include: Pigeons: “When, finally, it takes flight . . . this asphalt-colored bird is like a piece of the pavement which by some fluke of gravity broke loose and is foolishly falling upward by mistake." Seagulls: “Fallen splinters of eternity, they hang overhead with the equanimity and mild disdain of angels in a medieval altarpiece, and unlike pigeons, refuse any direct contact with man." Ants: “Micro-managers in three-piece bodies, ants parody human antics to a tee. Or is it the other way around?" Dust mites: “Every time you scratch yourself or comb your hair, you are feeding the tiny intruders with the detritus of self." With four-color images throughout, printed in a beautiful hardbound edition, this one-of-a-kind volume will please the discerning animal lover, traveler, art lover, iconoclast, and literati on your gift list—and, of course, also you!

A personal look into the mind of one of Europe’s first and foremost women of letters. At times poetic but not a poem, prosaic but not an essay, a letter is often pure writing for writing’s sake. Such is the case for Rahel Varnhagen von Ense, née Levin, the illustrious German-Jewish Berlin literary salon hostess from the early nineteenth century. She penned over ten thousand letters to more than three hundred recipients, including princes, philosophers, poets, family members, and the family cook. Written with a wink at posterity, collected and first published after her passing by her husband, Karl August Varnhagen von Ense, these letters constitute a singular contribution to German literature. Varied in subject—from family affairs to linguistic, literary, and pressing social concerns—the poignant lyricism of her letters is all the more remarkable when we take into account that High German was not her first language; she grew up speaking, reading, and writing primarily Yiddish. Her shaky social status as a woman and a member of a precarious minority, combined with an astounding lucidity and a rare capacity to put her thoughts into words, made her a force to be reckoned with in her lifetime and thereafter as one of Germany’s preeminent women of letters. As we see in I Just Let Life Rain Down on Me, her voice is as fresh and original as that of any of the recognized poets and thinkers of her day. As Rahel herself put it: “[O]ur language is our lived life; I invented mine for my own purposes, I was less able than many others to make use of preconceived turns of phrase, which is why mine are often clumsy, and in all respects faulty, but always true.” Compiled and translated by Peter Wortsman, this rewarding volume affords English-speaking readers the first privileged peek at the mindset of one of Europe’s first and foremost women of letters.

In these days when real-life horrors and recurring violence seem almost normal, THE TATTOOED MAN TELLS ALL is a tonic for that dangerous acceptance. THE TATTOOED MAN TELLS ALL is a work of the imagination very loosely based on a series of interviews Peter Wortsman conducted in Vienna in 1975 with witnesses to and survivors of Western Civilization's worst excesses. As transcriber-translator-adaptor of this material assembled from tape and memory, Wortsman served as middle-aged secretary to his 23-year-old self, picking up where he left off. The interchange recorded on tape was painful to revisit, painful as much for his interlocutors' merciless bluntness as for the insufficiency of his response and the time it has taken him to make something of it. Once a taboo topic zealously avoided, the subject of which he speaks has since been loaded with a leaden label, idealized and idolized, riddled with spotlights, torchlit for moral uplift, hagioscopically highlighted with a reverence formerly reserved for the Crucifixion. This play is devoted to the things left unsaid." I was particularly struck by your account of the visit to Auschwitz (Snapshots and Souvenirs). The behavior of the people was wonderfully human and moving -- the sort of thing even the best writers find it almost impossible to invent. The unexpected in human behavior is difficult to take out of the air, as opposed to the usual ...] It is precisely these unforeseen details which establish the authenticity of the text, and which give it literary value. Excellent writing."--Paul Bowles"THE TATTOOED MAN is socially engaged, literary theater, that in an interesting form makes the inconceivable palpable. The experience proves deeply moving, and yet without a raised forefinger, able to make us grasp the value of oral history."--Marcel Lorenz"In the premiere of THE TATTOOED MAN, we are not confronted with an ordinary stage play. ...] Perhaps the author wants to make clear to us that we must never forget that the memory of the monstrous acts of the Nazi regime must always remain painful, so as not to countenance a collective amnesia."--Ingrid Rosine Floerke, Scharfer Blick/Kritikerclub"I admired your play THE TATTOOED MAN]. You handle both subject and dialogue with just the right degree of passion and distance. It's an area I'd never dare tackle. Congratulations."--Sir Arnold Wesker, British Playwright"In these days when real-life horrors and recurring violence seem almost normal, THE TATTOOED MAN TELLS ALL is a tonic for that dangerous acceptance."--The Valley AdvocateDrama. Literary Nonfiction. History. Jewish Studies.

Like driftwood, words, phrases and severed sentences come floating by. Part fisherman, part scavenger, I spread my net and rescue these bits of debris from the deep. I can't say why certain severed statements catch my eye. Floating fragments of meaning, they sparkle and speak to me. And by a peculiar lure beyond my conscious ken, they sometimes come together. The pairings are not always opportune. Some sniff at each other's nether parts in passing, as dogs do, and promptly part in pursuit of other more enticing scents. But on occasion something clicks. This is my second published assemblage of such felicitous couplings. Some readers may relish the result. If not, just toss it back into the tide.

Macabre and fantastical, Hoffmann's wildly imaginative tales offer an unflinching view of human nature and sing clearer than ever in a masterful new translation Whether a surrealist exploration of the anxieties surrounding automation, or a mystery concerning a goldsmith, missing jewels, and a spate of murders, each tale in this collection reveals the complexities of human desire and fear. Hoffman, whose most famous work is "The Nutcracker," is often compared to Edgar Allan Poe. Hoffman's massive influence qualifies him as the godfather of the German Romantic Movement which led to the horror genre. The macabre, fantastical nature of his subject matter inspired a broad swath of culture, with two of the longer stories in this collection "The Sandman" and "The Automaton" influencing Philip K. Dick's original inspiration for Blade Runner. The murder mystery "Mademoiselle de Scud ry" is perhaps one of the earliest prototypes of the detective genre story. Music and madness flow through E. T. A. Hoffmann's phantasmagoric stories. The ringing of crystal bells heralds the arrival of a beguiling snake, and a student's descent into lunacy; a young man abandons his betrothed for a woman who plays the piano skillfully but seems worryingly wooden; a counselor's daughter must choose between singing and her life. Peter Wortsman's masterful new translation allows Hoffmann's distinct and influential style to shine, while breathing new life into stories that seem both familiar and uncanny.

Like a farmer rotating his crops, Peter Wortsman periodically ploughs words back into the mulch of meaning. Romanian migr DADA poet Tristran Tzara (aka Samuel Rosenstock, 1896-1963) gave it a name: cut-up (or "d coup " in French). Wortsman reverts to cutups when he's too distracted, depressed, dumbfounded or deranged to write in the regular manner. As the isolation of virtual lockdown during the seemingly interminable Covid-19 pandemic stretches into its third year, Wortsman, a modern-day monk, languishes in the solitude of his cell, longing for meaningful communion. Absent belief in a transcendent being, cutups take the place of prayer.

Peter Wortsman, best known for his prose fiction and plays, takes stock of life in late middle age. In the short personal essays that comprise Epiphany of a Middle-Aged Pilgrim, Essays in lieu of a Memoir, author Peter Wortsman, best known for his original prose fiction and stage plays, and his translations from the German, follows in the footsteps of French essayist Michel de Montaigne, taking stock of life in middle age. His perspectives, including childhood fear, chronic insomnia, ironing a shirt, getting a haircut, having a skin cancer removed, travel at home and abroad, a consciousness of getting older, et al, and concluding with a reflection of life in lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic, make for a rich mosaic of memories meant to spur readers to seek out their own epiphanies. Literary Nonfiction. Memoir.

Fiction. First published in 1991, and now issued in a second edition, comprising short short fictions most written in the Eighties, A MODERN WAY TO DIE by Peter Wortsman, "predates the in-vogue term flash fiction, but it's surely one of the cornerstones of the tradition," (according to short-form pioneer Peter Cherches). As Wortsman notes in the book's original foreword, these texts appeared "in the absence of big things to say... guided only by the precarious optimism of the pen." Conceived as a disjointed compendium of narrative treatments of life's common denominator, death, the book's spare hit and run aesthetic gravitates from enhanced neon hyperrealist reportage to nightmare parable to plummet the surreal substrata of the American Dream.

The alumni of Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons (VP&S) have made remarkable strides in medicine, academia, public health, and industry. In this they follow in the footsteps of Samuel Bard (1742–1821), a prominent early American physician and a founder of what would become VP&S. In The Caring Heirs of Doctor Samuel Bard, Peter Wortsman offers a selection of profiles of Columbia-educated doctors who have made a fundamental difference in the lives of others. The physicians profiled in this book represent the complete spectrum of MDs. They have charted new fields of medicine, resolved long-standing biochemical mysteries, discovered the causes and cures of diseases, developed vaccines, pioneered surgical procedures, helped halt epidemics, and cared for imperiled populations. Some have run hospitals, medical schools, universities, the National Institutes of Health, the National Library of Medicine, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, city health departments, and major pharmaceutical concerns. Others practiced at the White House, climbed mountains, or flew to outer space. Still others wrote pioneering papers, edited prestigious medical journals, and authored prize-winning books and best-selling novels. In each case, the clinical training, scientific thoroughness, and humanistic values inculcated at Columbia had a formative influence on their thinking and practice. In telling their stories, The Caring Heirs of Doctor Samuel Bard illustrates the importance of clinical rigor and humanistic caring in the practice of medicine and offers readers a rare insight into the heart and soul of American medicine at its best.

Fiction. These FOOTPRINTS IN WET CEMENT are just that: stories--some experienced, some homespun, some dredged from the fertile detritus of dreams; impressions gathered and ruminations fermented over the past decade or so--the fleeting imprint of a life left to harden in the ephemeral mold of language. Straddling the tenuous borderline between the narrative and the poetic, they are all the product of a pressed aesthetic.

Fiction. 16 year old Elgin Marble has had enough of a world that is decidedly vertical. When his father, an upstanding elevator man, is marked for disposal, Elgin joins an underground group called the Crabs. This illicit group tirelessly digs tunnels in the hope of one day breaking through to the outside. But who are the Crabs, and can they be trusted? Elgin's mother, Ellen, is worried sick about her son. The ruthless school principal, Mr. Orion, warns her that Elgin is in big trouble and blackmails her for sexual favors. Together they go underground to search for the boy. Meanwhile, agents of the IVT (Institute for Vertical Thinking) are also hot on his trail, and the Crabs are feeling the heat.