REVIEWS AND ARTICLES 2024-2026

Jim Burns

Paperback 6" x 9" 361pp ISBN 978-1-913144-77-7  published May 2026

Comments on previous collections:

“This collection of reviews and essays is an entertaining homage to bohemia by one of its own. Jim Burns – a veteran fringe poet recently celebrated in these pages as ‘an offbeat prowler’ – takes a ‘personal’ look at various post-Second World War writers, artists, musicians and patrons whose talents and innovations have been obscured by the glare of their more famous contemporaries.”

                                                                                                                 Times Literary Supplement

“The vast majority of these essays are as fresh and original today as they were when first written a few decades ago and many are a sheer joy to read. Partly this is due to Jim Burns’s encyclopaedic knowledge, though equally enjoyable is the clear, thoughtful style and boundless enthusiasm for the subjects he brings to the book.”

                                                                                                                 Morning Star

“What Jim Burns seems to do very well is dust off the years from forgotten figures, the neglected, the overlooked, even those who never truly reached any level of recognition. Burns sees in many of them qualities that have been missed.”

                                                                                                                 Beat Scene

“Jim Burns’ fourth collections, Bohemians, Beats and Blues People, illuminates neglected twentieth century bohemians through wide-ranging highly informative and entertaining essays.”

                                                                                                                  Tears in the Fence    

Jim Burns’s earlier collections of essays were Beats, Bohemians and Intellectuals (Trent Books, 2000); Radicals, Beats and Beboppers (Penniless Press, 2011); Brits, Beats & Outsiders (Penniless Press, 2012); Bohemians, Beats and Blues People (Penniless Press, 2013); Artists, Beats & Cool Cats (Penniless Press, 2014). His poetry collections were Laying Something Down (Shoestring Press, 2007) and Streetsinger (Shoestring Press, 2010).      

 

 CONTENTS

CHAPTERS AND ACCIDENTS: A WRITER’S MEMOIR…1

RESTING PLACES : ON WOUNDS, WAR AND THE IRISH REVOLUTION…8

THE GLEAM OF SOCIALISM : BRITAIN’S COMMUNIST PARTY 1920-2020…12

WITH AND AGAINST : THE SITUATIONIST INTERNATIONAL IN THE AGE OF AUTOMATION…18

FORGED IN SPAIN…26

BLISSFUL BLINDNESS  : SOVIET CRIMES UNDER WESTERN EYES…34

BERNARD KOPS (1926 – 2024)…41

MARTIN BAX (1933-2024)…43

A BOOKSHOP OF ONE’S OWN : HOW A GROUP OF WOMEN SET OUT TO CHANGE THE WORLD…45

REED RAPTURE : THE SAXOPHONE ON MOVIE SOUNDTRACKS…51

WRITING ON THE WALL : GRAFFITI, REBELLION AND THE MAKING OF EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY BRITAIN…56

AN AXIS OF ABSTRACTION : ART IN CORNWALL  AND YORKSHIRE – THEN AND NOW…63

JAZZ  WITH A BEAT : SMALL GROUP SWING, 1940-1960…65

CALIBAN SHRIEKS…72

A DEATH IN PARIS ;  THE SAD CASE OF DICK TWARDZIK…78

RADICALS AND ROGUES : THE WOMEN WHO MADE NEW YORK MODERN…83

A DEVILISH KIND OF COURAGE…90

BUGHOUSE  DOPE : SELECTED ESSAYS AND ARTICLES…99

GREGORY CORSO : TEN TIMES A POET…106

MASSACRE IN THE CLOUDS : AN AMERICAN ATROCITY AND THE ERASURE OF HISTORY…111

INFANTILISED : HOW OUR CULTURE KILLED ADULTHOOD…116

A NASTY  LITTLE WAR : THE WEST’S FIGHT TO REVERSE THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION..124

BALZAC’S PARIS  : THE CITY AS HUMAN COMEDY..129

THE ‘DEATH’ OF THE LIFE ROOM..134

SPANISH SKY SPREADS ITS STARS : THE STORY OF THE THALMANN BATTALION AND THE FIRST GERMANS IN ARMED STRUGGLE AGAINST FASCISM..136

RED MERSEY : THE COMMUNIST PARTY IN LIVERPOOL AND BIRKENHEAD, 1920-1940…139

THE PARTY  IS ALWAYS RIGHT : THE UNTOLD STORY OF GERRY HEALY AND BRITISH TROTSKYISM…143

QUEENS OF BOHEMIA AND OTHER MISS-FITS…150

CHURCHILL’S SPANIARDS : CONTINUING THE FIGHT IN THE BRITISH ARMY 1939-1946…157

A MOVEMENT OF MIND : ESSAYS ON POETS,..164

SAN FRANCISCO REDS : COMMUNISTS IN THE BAY AREA, 1919-1958…171

TO TEST THE JOY : SELECTED POETRY AND PROSE…178

FROM THE MOMENT THEY MET IT WAS MURDER : DOUBLE INDEMNITY  AND THE RISE OF FILM NOIR…183

THE HOUR OF ABSINTHE : A CULTURAL HISTORY OF FRANCE’S MOST NOTORIOUS DRINK  192

DOROTHY PARKER IN HOLLYWOOD ..198

MAKING NO COMPROMISE : MARGARET ANDERSON, JANE HEAP, AND THE LITTLE REVIEW 205

THE SECRET PAINTER – 212

RUSSIAN LIBERALISM  - 219

MINNIE PALLISTER : THE VOICE OF A REBEL -226

ALBERT  MALZ 233

MAXWELL BODENHEIM - 251

THE FIERY SPIRITS : POPULAR PROTEST, PARLIAMENT AND THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION -257

LEON BIBEL : FORGOTTEN ARTIST OF THE NEW DEAL -264

‘OUR LITTLE GANG’ : THE LIVES OF THE VORTICISTS -272

NATHAN ASCH -279

FASCIST YOGA : GRIFTERS, OCCULTISTS, WHITE SUPREMATISTS AND THE NEW ORDER IN WELLNESS -287

ELIZABETH GURLEY FLYNN : THE REBEL GIRL, DEMOCRACY AND REVOLUTION -294

SURREALISM, BUGS BUNNY, AND THE BLUES : SELECTED WRITINGS ON POPULAR CULTURE -306

BRILLIANT EXILES :AMERICAN WOMEN IN PARIS 1900-1939 -314

THE TWO ROBERTS -321

IDA LUPINO : FORGOTTEN AUTEUR : FROM FILM NOIR TO THE DIRECTOR’S CHAIR – 327

MENACE OF OUR TIME: THE LONG WAR AGAINST AMERICAN COMMUNISM –333

“DON’T LET’S ASK FOR THE MOON ….” : NOCTURNES AND ATKINSON GRIMSHAW -341

THE SKAGEN ARTISTS’ COLONY -344

THE NORTHERN ART WORKERS’ GUILD AND THE ARTS AND CRAFTS MOVEMENT IN MANCHESTER – 351

WHEN THE STORM FELL SILENT -356

A BLACKLIST EDUCATION AMERICAN HISTORY. A FAMILY MYSTERY AND A TEACHER UNDER FIRE -360

HARD STREETS : WORKING-CLASS LIVES IN CHARLIE CHAPLIN’S LONDON – 364

MONTMARTRE : THE BIRTHPLACE OF MODERN ART -370

JOHANN MOST : LIFE OF A RADICAL -376

CHAIM SOUTINE: GENIUS, OBSESSION, AND A DRAMATIC LIFE IN ART - 386

CAFÉ SOCIETY : ART AND SOCIABILITY IN BELLE ÉPOQUE PARIS -393

NEW DEAL ART : CULTURE AND CRISIS IN THE GREAT DEPRESSION -401

 

   

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