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Twentieth-Century Boy: Notebooks of the Seventies

Duncan Hannah

4.02 · Rating details · 171 ratings · 40 reviews

A celebrated New York City painter's rollicking and vividly immediate account of his life amid the city's glamorous demimondes in their most vital era as an aspiring artist, roaring boy, dandy, cultural omnivore, and far-from-obscure object of desire.

Duncan Hannah arrived in New York City from Minneapolis in the early 1970s as an art student hungry for experience, game for ...more

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Hardcover, 480 pages

Published March 13th 2018 by Knopf Publishing Group

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Apr 14, 2018 Tosh rated it it was amazing

Shelves: books-bought

Although a few years older than me, and the fact that we never met, until I had him sign his book at a public event, I feel somehow I know Duncan Hannah. I first discovered his artwork through Dennis Cooper's fantastic blog, and his paintings just spoke to me directly. First of all, I have a thing for illustrations from the mid-century, especially drawings from the various titles of the Hardy Boys, and somehow Hannah's work reminds me of that type of work. But done on a plane that's serious art Although a few years older than me, and the fact that we never met, until I had him sign his book at a public event, I feel somehow I know Duncan Hannah. I first discovered his artwork through Dennis Cooper's fantastic blog, and his paintings just spoke to me directly. First of all, I have a thing for illustrations from the mid-century, especially drawings from the various titles of the Hardy Boys, and somehow Hannah's work reminds me of that type of work. But done on a plane that's serious art but still humorous. In that blog I saw various photographs of Hannah, and it struck me as a dandy who lived in harsh circumstances, yet, kept his chin up and his hair marvelously cut. His sense of style and some of the artwork reminded me of this dandy art duo David McDermott and Peter McGough, who not only dressed from the past but also their artwork went back to the 1920s or even earlier. But their work has a contemporary edge, just like Hannah's paintings. I should have been surprised, but reading Hannah's book, he was or is a friend of McDermott.

Still, this is not imitation, but the meeting of the minds at work here. Hannah was born straight and foppish. It's in his nature and this is why his notebooks of the crazed 1970s in New York City so thrilling. In essence, he has character, or I should say, if I were a movie producer, he has that "It" quality. The reason why I feel like I know or should know him is that it's uncanny we have the same taste in literature and music. I know, because he lists all his listening and reading material on a regular basis in this book. Which is not tedious to read, but essential to know, because his taste is very much what is Duncan Hannah. The fact he paints portraits of his literary and cinematic heroes is another self-expression. I suspect that these works are self-portraits more than anything else. And I say that not as a criticism, but as praise.

"Twentieth-Century Boy" is Hannah's journal, and it's not a memoir. It reads like one is experiencing these adventures at the instant it happened, and his reflection is only seconds or hours after the incident. Sexual in nature, and always curious about an adventure, Hannah from the very beginning had or still has high standards. His sexual fun is enticing, and a joy to read, but also his encounters with the great from Bryan Ferry to Bowie to Dali to Warhol to Debbie Harry, and beyond, to the various artists who lived and operated in Lower Manhattan during that era are excellent co-stars in his book.

What's surprising is that he very much led the life of a desperate alcoholic, yet, by his photographs, he didn't look drunk. He was always well-dressed and has an exceptional self-awareness. Perhaps he's blessed. Nevertheless, he's a hero of mine. I don't have a brother, but in my head, he's the older brother to look up to. Praise Duncan Hannah and his book "Twentieth-Century Boy." ...more

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Mar 19, 2018 John Spiller rated it liked it

For some inexplicable reason, I am obsessed with the New York art and music scene post-WWII to the mid-80's. So when I saw "Twentieth Century Boy" by Duncan Rathbone Hannah, I snapped it up and consumed it feverishly in a weekend. Hannah was there, man, Zelig-like. Attended Bard and Parsons in the early 70's. Lower Manhattan habitue, residing in a weird intersection of art/music/drink/depravity. He used his David Cassidy good looks to curry favor with gay men who thought they just might be the o ...more

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Aug 04, 2018 Jennifer Ozawa rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: borrowed, pop-culture, 2018, 4-stars, kindle, nyc, memoir, rock-n-roll, seventies

Slight, breezy autobiography by a guy who drank and slept around a lot.

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Jan 14, 2019 Mary rated it really liked it

I like oral histories, New York in the 70's, music, movies, books and art so this book of journal entries by artist & scenster Duncan Hannah was pretty perfect for me. ...more

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Mar 30, 2018 Kevin rated it really liked it

Artist Duncan Hannah began keeping a journal when he was 17, living with his parents in Minneapolis and in constant pursuit of sex, drugs and the budding punk rock scene. "I'm writing these journals to capture my youth," he confesses. "I'd like to fulfill a dream and become a pop star, but I can't sing!" By the end of these journals (1981, at age 28), the transplanted New Yorker's oil paintings were earning him lasting fame.

Like Patti Smith's JUST KIDS, Hannah's TWENTIETH-CENTURY BOY captures th ...more

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Jun 23, 2018 Andrew Careaga rated it really liked it

I'm not a big fan of the diary/journal genre, so at the outset I wasn't sure what to make of this book. I decided to give it a listen (audio book, read by the author) at the suggestion of a friend who shares my taste for the pre-punk demimonde of New York and because the book title is borrowed from one of my favorite songs by '70s-era glam rocker T-Rex.

Author Duncan Hannah, a well-to-do Minnesota kid-turned-New York City bohemian/artist, documented his life and times in journals he kept from his ...more

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May 01, 2018 Blane rated it it was amazing

Shelves: memoir, pop-culture, 2018

I absolutely LOVED this book! Obvious touchstones have been mentioned in other reviews ('Andy Warhol Diaries', 'Just Kids', 'Catcher In The Rye'); another (for me, anyway) is Sebastian Horsley's 'Dandy In The Underworld'. What makes this collection of Hannah's notebooks/journals special is that they are presented (so he claims) in relatively unedited form and in chronological order...written from when he was 17 through about 28. We get a glimpse of what it is like to be those ages where most of ...more

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Jul 08, 2018 Ray rated it really liked it

I really enjoyed this book although I barely knew who the author was beforehand. If you were a teenage rock n roll fanatic in the late 60's to late 70's- read it. This comes from his journals, with detail that brought back memories of teen life in NJ and NYC. Got a cheap thrill knowing that we were at the same T.Rex show although I was in the balcony while he was hanging out with the stars. And I was two tables behind him and Andy Warhol at an early Talking Heads show at CBGB's. Great anecdotes ...more

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Aug 04, 2019 Brian rated it it was amazing

A completely charming and entertaining read. A fun and gossipy account of downtown New York in the 1970s with a lesson to learn at the end. Duncan Hannah is charismatic, maddeningly frustrating, and ultimately irresistible.

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Aug 18, 2019 Ben Robinson rated it it was amazing

Fabulously indiscreet chronicle of boozed-up promiscuity among the privileged 70s NYC artworld in-crowd. I loved this to bits and I bet he did too.

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Dec 22, 2018 Maureen Stanton rated it really liked it

A precocious talented art school student is lost and found in the demimonde of NYC art scene in the 1970s. This compilation of Hannah's diaries from the decade is compelling even as it remains somewhat superficial (as many diaries of young people are). But like the diaries of Sylvia Plath, Hannah is a gifted writer, and he is an acute observer, even if the starry-eyed name dropping is sometimes too much. This book makes me crave a memoir from Hannah, wherein 40 years later, he adds that layer of ...more

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Feb 12, 2018 Kayla rated it did not like it

Shelves: giveaway

I feel bad giving this book a one star review but it just really was not for me. The author seemed self-centered and very narcissistic in his writing. I assumed the story would obviously be about his life in the 70s as the title suggests but it got really old reading about his sexual escapades and how he was so beautiful and wonderful and everyone either wants him or wants to be him, over and over again. I didn't find the story enjoyable at all and really struggled to finish it.

Thank you to Goo ...more

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Sep 15, 2018 Supineny rated it liked it

Well, I always wondered what those other kids were doing, those ones on the downtown scene who seemed to be out every night getting wasted, dressed up as if in costume and being inexplicably connected to everybody and everything going on around them. Duncan Hannah's book affords a lurid look into his scene - what was he doing? Well, it seems like he was going through all the usual young artist meandering and confusion, except he took phenomenal quantities of liquid courage. The book is filled wi Well, I always wondered what those other kids were doing, those ones on the downtown scene who seemed to be out every night getting wasted, dressed up as if in costume and being inexplicably connected to everybody and everything going on around them. Duncan Hannah's book affords a lurid look into his scene - what was he doing? Well, it seems like he was going through all the usual young artist meandering and confusion, except he took phenomenal quantities of liquid courage. The book is filled with the sort of entertaining details one would hope for in this territory -- his social life is endless, filled with cameo appearances ranging from ongoing friendships with the likes of Richard Lloyd of Television, to chance encounters with Bowie, Ferry and Lennon. And filled with a sense of where the city's rock scene was going as the underground scene evolved from the New York Dolls, through the CBGB era, and on to the No Wave era.

He is forever getting beaten up, tossed in the gutter, waking up after blackouts, and having delirium tremens. But, somehow, he never seems to suffer from any other health problems, he always have attractive girls throwing themselves at him, and he seems to have developed a way of courting and managing the many gay men who might take some sort of interest into this dandified pretty boy.

I can't quite imagine what this book would seem like to a reader who was no, more or less, of Hannah's generation, or who did not live in New York during the 70s. It seemed like a fun romp down memory lane. The Soho Weekly News. New York Rocker. Club 57. He gets a cat from Patti Smith. He auditions, unsuccessfully, to replace Billy Ficca as drummer in Television. His girlfriend towards the end of the book is Terrance Summer, the bikini'ed dominatrix on the cover of 'Buy the Contortions'.

The thing about the diaries, is that they were written to be read. While there are some journal-keeping entries -- the ongoing lists of records, books and films he's interested in at the time -- you get the sense that they lack the flat earnestness of many a diary. And they feature an awful lot of juice -- god knows what was edited out of the final book, but basically if he wasn't fucking some amazing or crazy woman, if he wasn't running around seeing cool bands and meeting scenesters, if his drunkedness wasn't frighteningly over the top, it doesn't seem like it made it into the book. On top of that, there is an ongoing theme of seeing ghosts, which has the air of peppering the book with a tall tale or two. And if the ghosts are fictitious, what else is? Lord only knows.

His relationships with women are interesting and generally a bit lurid -- there's a lot of feverishly described young love and lust early on, followed by a period in which we are hearing an awful lot about how much he's drunk and precious little about sex anymore. One is not surprised when his live in girlfriend moves on sometime after a particularly pathetic drunk episode in the bedroom, involving piss, broken glass and lots of blood. The book comes to a kind of climax as he describes the story of his life with his girlfriend, Terri. She is a dominatrix by trade, his sweetheart in her leisure time and, he notes casually in passing, it seems like she writes a whole lot more than he does. That affair comes to an end with a colorful set piece involving a flying mayonnaise jar than nearly kills Hannah, and his near-murderous response.

I found myself reaching for Google time and again to find out who people really were. Like Terri, the once wonderful, eventually too crazy girlfriend, seems to have been fairly well known on the scene herself, and her books on S/m well received (Terrence Summer, if you want to pry a bit.)

After the storm, finally, is AA, a nice girl, and apparently he lives happily ever after painting unfashionable paintings. We're happy for him -- it's a happy end. Reasonable. And it's an odd feeling to sense that it was my prurient interest that kept me captivated for so long by his diaries. I'm not really that interested, I have to admit, in the tale of a chastened and reasonable young man learning to paint conservative paintings. Now that irresponsible, younger version of that young man, the one constantly flirting with death -- now that was a story! ...more

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Jul 19, 2020 Glen Helfand rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

We live in an era of media restoration--streaming films from that have been carefully attended to so that they appear close to how the appeared at the time. Lately I've been watching films from the 1970s that are crisp in their visuals, the past isn't seen through fading film stock and scratches, but with an uncanny clarity. Duncan Hannah's "Notebooks" have that quality. The first line of his preface is "This is not a memoir." (Perhaps this is a slight riff on Public Image LTD's "This is Not a L ...more

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Apr 05, 2019 Peter rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: memoir-bio, non-fiction

It caught me by surprise how much I enjoyed Duncan Hannah's diaries from the seventies. He was between 17 and about 28 or so during this time. Duncan lived the kind of life many of us probably dreamed we could step into when we were in our twenties. He did all the drugs, drank all the booze, slept with too many people. He saw Bill Evans play the same week that he saw the Stooges (if my memory serves). He hung out with Danny Fields and Nico and shared a cab with Andy Warhol, Bowie, and Bryan Ferr ...more

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Apr 24, 2018 Jay rated it really liked it

Interesting look into the 70's through the eyes of a kid coming up, trying to figure himself out. Fun cameos by all kinds of folks on the art and punk scene in 70's NYC. Surprising well written by someone so young, especially at the beginning when he was only 17. The sex talk, in a modern context, can sometimes read a little creepy, but it's not like he's writing it now looking back. It was written at the moment. All in all sounds like Duncan Hannah has a pretty sweet dong. ...more

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May 01, 2018 Tia rated it really liked it

Shelves: memoir, nyc

These are unvarnished journals and while it's fascinating to tag along through his debauched high school years in Minneapolis, and college years and beyond in New York, you can feel the toll of the alcohol and substance abuse, and feel for the sad girls who throw themselves his way. To his credit, you also get a sense of the artist and the dedication to his work. He seems quite aware of the advantages that came his way thanks to his upbringing and his appearance. ...more

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Jan 23, 2019 Tracy rated it really liked it

I enjoyed this book very much. A little peek, perhaps, into the minds of my parents when they were teens/young adults. Duncan Hannah was born the same year as my mom! In these journals, he comes across as a likable kid and goes through what most of us do in youth - searching for yourself, your people, your scene - but the backdrop of HIS journey are the bars, clubs and shitty apartments of glamtastic 1970s New York. Well edited and entertaining.

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Jun 06, 2018 Jay Gabler rated it liked it

If you find it hard to imagine what it might be like to be an art-school student in New York in the '70s, just casually hanging out with the likes of Nico and Warhol, this book will take you there. Also, there's sex on almost every page. I reviewed 20th Century Boy for The Current. ...more

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Aug 07, 2018 Don rated it it was amazing

What a great collection of tales! Each diary entry reads like a series of verbal Polaroids taken in the 70’s glitzy & gritty underground of Manhattan... Painterly documented by a young artist pulling colors from an eclectic clique of up-and-coming artistic cohorts & major Rock ‘n Roll maestros of the day... all covered in a syrup of booze and sex!

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Aug 22, 2018 Adam Swift rated it liked it

A well written, smart memoir of life in 1970s NYC with cameos from at least a dozen of my favorite bands should be catnip to me. Would have been a solid four star read if it wasn't for the constant nagging suspicion that much of the events were way too convenient and a little massaged after the fact. ...more

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Jan 10, 2019 Katie Shields rated it liked it

A 70's memoir of sex, drugs and rock 'n roll that kept me rapt for 250 pages, but flamed out halfway through. But isn't that the 70's? It starts off fresh, wild and exciting, but then those things that made it unique become monotonous, repetitive and without meaning. ...more

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Apr 03, 2019 Steven rated it really liked it

Fun fucking book to read....esp. you like Stooges, Roxy and up to say Talking Heads...sort of superficial but that's the fun, these are a young man's journals, lots of art, drinking and fucking...Hockney, Patti, Television, Rivers, Dlugos, Warhol and that whole crowd... ...more

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Jun 24, 2019 Andrew Moyes rated it it was amazing

This was an amazing read. It's compiled from authors years of journals and you truly feel like a witness to each situation. Lots of name dropping from the avant garde rock'n'roll world of the 70s & 80s. ...more

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