The Sorrows of Priapus

by Edward Dahlberg

Records the author's response to human violence and carnality in this fable of the ancient world and pre-Columbian America.

118 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1957

About the author

His first novel, Bottom Dogs, based on his childhood experiences at the orphanage and his travels in the American West, was published in London with an introduction by D. H. Lawrence. With his advance money, Dahlberg returned to New York City and resided in Greenwich Village. He visited Germany in 1933 and in reaction briefly joined the Communist Party, but left the Party by 1936. From the 1940s onwards, Dahlberg made his living as an author and also taught at various colleges and universities. In 1948, he taught briefly at the experimental Black Mountain College. He was replaced on the staff by his friend and fellow author, Charles Olson.

He was an expatriate writer of the 1920s, a proletarian novelist of the 1930s, a spokesman for a fundamental humanism in the 1940s. For a number of years, Dahlberg devoted himself to literary study. His extensive readings of the works of Dante, Shakespeare, Thoreau and many others resulted in a writing style quite different from the social realism that characterized his earlier writing.

He moved to the Danish island of Bornholm in 1955 while working on The Flea of Sodom. The Sorrows of Priapus was published in 1957, becoming his most successful book thus far. He later moved to Mallorca, while working on Because I Was Flesh, an autobiography which was published in 1964. During the 1960s and 1970s, he became quite prolific and further refined his unique style through the publication of poetry, autobiographical works, fiction and criticism.

Reviews

[Nathan "N.R." Gaddis]

“Edward Dahlberg is a grossly underrated, and a terribly unknown writer. The subtle reasons may be many, but they all come down to essentially one reason: he is not for sale.” --Gilbert Sorrentino

Edward Dahlberg has this book, The Sorrows of Priapus. I’m not sure about the other version of this title to which is appended “Consisting Of The Sorrows Of Priapus And The Carnal Myth” because the edition I read--a rather attractive first edition from New Directions--indicates no such thing on cover or title page and it wasn’t until page 56 that I was jarred by a second title page plus dedication (to William Carlos Williams) but it was in regard not to “The Carnal Myth” but rather, “The Myth Gatherers.” I would like to read this piece called “The Carnal Myth” because it sounds as dirty as does “The Sorrows of Priapus.”

“You can find no meaning in Dahlberg, none that you can’t get from a thousand lesser writers. Mailer is a titanic thinker next to him; your mailman or boss has more enlightened or informed ideas. There is nothing in Dahlberg except his greatness: he is the real thing.” --Gilagainagain.

Listen: one can learn things from Sorrentino and I learned the following :: “The Sorrows of Priapus” and “The Carnal Myth” were published separately at first, eleven years apart, but belong together. Read them both. I’ll do my best as well.

I did not get what I was expecting to get when I picked up this slim little volume, loaded with drawings by Ben Shahn, feeling like a kid again ready for story-time. No story. Who would want that? Let me tell you of that which I was reminded :: Theroux’s color essays, but about sex instead of colors. And who can’t recall “What is not odd about love and sex?” from his Laura. Did you know that there are no generally agreed upon linguistic conventions which would determine the degree of necessity required for one sentence to follow upon the heels of another?

What Dahlberg gets right in “The Sorrows of Priapus” :: that the human being is neither animal nor angel, but is a disgusting (my word) creature.

And listen, there was something about the second “piece” (call them what you will, but do pay attention) which recalled for me a Dream of the Vollmann variety, but placed within the lower hemisphere, concentrating upon Mexico. Both it, I mean of course “The Myth Gatherers,” and “The Sorrows of Priapus” are infused like vodka by vanilla beans with mythical, dreamical knowledge that there’s more going on than mere facts.

I will have more Dahlberg, please. Listen (relying upon Gilbert here againagain), the early Dahlberg ain’t what the later Dahlberg became. Early = Bottom Dogs, From Flushing To Calvary, Those Who Perish, And Hitherto Unpublished And Uncollected Works :: Later = Because I Was Flesh and Can These Bones Live. Dahlberg, I believe, is awaiting my dollars-turned-to-spades at the local Village Bookshop. See you soon, Edward.

[Jonathan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Did not work at all for me, not least because of the many many statements of semi-profundity were based on either completely incorrect or grossly generalized "facts" about (looking at the second section in particular) the cultures of the indigenous peoples of the American continent.

It may be that I simply have not understood what he is doing.

I did not see much of interest in the Hellenistic/Hebraic fable evocation either.