Ирвинг Фиск: Өмір және шығармашылық жолы

Irving L. Fiske (born Irving Louis Fishman; March 5, 1908 – April 25, 1990) was an American playwright, writer, and public speaker. He worked for the Federal Writer's Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in the 1930s, where he was a writer and rewrite man on The WPA Guide to New York City, in print today. He corresponded with George Bernard Shaw, wrote an article now considered a classic, "Bernard Shaw's Debt to William Blake," and translated Shakespeare's Hamlet into Modern English. that later became Quarry Hill Creative Center, in Rochester, Vermont. Fiske joined Allen Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky in a First Amendment based defense of the Beat Generation coffee houses along Second Avenue in the East Village in 1964. Some business owners objected to the use of "obscenity" in the Beat poetry being read by poets like Ginsberg and many others. Ginsberg, Orlovsky, Fiske, and others won the case. The right of poets to use any language they choose is considered a part of their art, as well as a constitutional right. In the mid 1960s, Barbara opened a storefront, The Gallery Gwen, in New York's East Village. There, Barbara showed her paintings, along with those of others, and Irving began to give public talks on Tantra, Zen, Sufism, Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism, and atheism, among many other things. Irving became well known around the Village, and was soon speaking to standing room only audiences. Many associated him with R. Crumb's character Mr. Natural. Irving spoke out in favor of people finding their own creative path in life, enjoying themselves, being free of guilt and shame, and children's rights. He wrote letters for young men who were conscientious objectors to the Vietnam War. Irving was known in the Village as "The Forest Wizard," (someone had given him a card on the street one day and he made it a part of his persona); and in Florida, where he had a cabin on a lake, he was known as "The Socrates of the Ocala National Forest." Fiske also spoke at colleges and churches on the East Coast, such as Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont. Hundreds of young people, including many who became well known, such as Art Spiegelman (who dated, and lived with, Fiske's daughter Isabella) and Stephen Huneck, began to visit Quarry Hill Creative Center. Many stayed to build houses; Quarry Hill is now the oldest and largest alternative lifestyle group in Vermont, and one of the largest in New England. A controversial figure, in the 1970s, when his cabin in the Ocala Forest was burnt by arsonists, and the authorities did not give him a permit to rebuild, he launched a legal and media battle, claiming that the authorities were prejudiced against the young people he brought there as his friends, most of whom had long hair. He eventually got the permit and rebuilt the cabin. Fiske and his wife divorced in 1976. After a period of some tension, he and Barbara reached a state of friendliness and mutual support, with the shared desire to see Quarry Hill continue. With the assistance of her son, William, and others, Barbara created a corporation to own the land. Fiske — who went on with all the activities that entertained him and promoted a more sane future for humanity—became well known in the counterculture both in the United States and elsewhere. He died of a stroke in Ocala, Florida, on April 25, 1990. Most Saturday Review readers wrote in favor of the translation; as did such notable figures as William Saroyan, Orson Welles, Henry Miller, Upton Sinclair, Aldous Huxley, and George Bernard Shaw.

Allen, Monica. The Rutland Herald (April 29, 1990). "Communal Living Pioneer Irving Fiske dead at 82," The Burlington (Vt.) Free Press (April 30, 1990). The International Herald Tribune (May 1990). "Quarry Hill Founder Dead at 82," The Herald of Randolph (Vt.) (May 3, 1990).