Robert Coover

[Tom]

Firstly I would like to apologize to the venerable Coover for his late entry into this pantheon. I have barely scratched the surface of Coover having read a scant 6 books.

Novels
The Origin of the Brunists (1966)
The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop. (1968)
The Public Burning (1977), completed 1975[2]
Gerald's Party (1986)
A Night at the Movies or, You Must Remember This (1987) (themed anthology)
Pinocchio in Venice (1991)
John's Wife (1996)
Ghost Town (1998)
The Adventures of Lucky Pierre: Director's Cut (2002)
Noir (2010)

Short stories, Novellas, Plays & Collections
Pricksongs & Descants (1969) (collection)
The Babysitter (1969) (short story)
A Theological Position (1972) (plays)
A Political Fable (1980) (novella)
Spanking the Maid (1982) (novella)
In Bed One Night & Other Brief Encounters (1983) (collection)
Whatever Happened to Gloomy Gus of the Chicago Bears (1987) (novella)
Dr. Chen's Amazing Adventure (1991) (novella)
Briar Rose (1996) (novella)
The Grand Hotels (of Joseph Cornell) (2002) (novella)
Stepmother (2004) (novella)
A Child Again (2005) (collection)
"The Case of the Severed Hand" Harper's Magazine 317 [1898] (July 2008): 74-80
"White-Bread Jesus" Harper's Magazine 317 [1903] (December 2008): 79-88
"Going for a beer" The New Yorker (March 14, 2011)
"Matinée" The New Yorker (July 25, 2011)
[edit]Non-Fiction
The End of Books (1992) (essay)

Dzanc books will be re-issuing his books for e-reader sometime in the next year: http://www.dzancbooks.org/reprint-cat...

The Dalkey Archive will release this interesting critical book soon: http://www.amazon.com/Robert-Coover-G...
& their latest ROCF is dedicated to him.

[Tom]

Here are my 6 titles read, note how lamely I exhaust the short books:


The Origin of the Brunists
Spanking the Maid
Briar Rose
A Political Fable
The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop.
Stepmother

Hopefully I can add to this list over the next year.

[MJ]

I started with Gerald's Party, which probably isn't the best entrypoint. Mr. NR gives A Night at the Movies that distinction, which I have, and will read one night when there's nothing on at the movies.

[Tom]

I will surely read both of those at some point. The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop.has been my favorite so far as it has the obsessive mania of The Mezzanine; of course, Universal Baseball came first. Pricksongs & Descants along with The Public Burning are likely to go down first.

[Nathan "N.R."]

I've got five down and the rest to go. Will do.

Readness:
Baseball
Gerald
Movie night
Lucky
Pricks

Next is The Public Burning which will be the final volume of my original encyclopedic novel list. Pinocchio and John's Wife are on my shelf.

Dzanc is also publishing a sequel to Brunists next year along with the catalog re-issue.

I'm still waiting for that RCF volume. Still.

[Tom]

Dzanc is also publishing a sequel to Brunists next year along with the catalog re-issue.

I'm excited for this as I think it difficult to attain.

[mark]

i've read Public Burning and Gerald's Party. thought both were interesting. tried Pinocchio in Venice but couldn't finish it.

[Nate D]

In the last few weeks, I found both Ghost Town and Spanking the Maid in different dollar bins (my eyes always snap to the Grove logo immediately), so I'm just embarking on this one now.

[Nathan "N.R."]

James wrote: "Public Burning next, definitely, then Brunists and on from there. "

I would like to find my way to both of these before the publication of the Wrath, but alas, it may only be the one, what with this pile of books just to my left. [sheesh, I've only got five Coovers read?]

[Nathan "N.R."]

Coover may be completionized by myself in 2014. Present score follows ::

Novels
The Origin of the Brunists (1966)
The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop. (1968)
The Public Burning (1977), completed 1975
Gerald's Party (1986)
A Night at the Movies or, You Must Remember This (1987) (themed anthology)
Pinocchio in Venice (1991)
John's Wife (1996)
Ghost Town (1998)
The Adventures of Lucky Pierre: Director's Cut (2002)
Noir (2010)
The Brunist Day of Wrath (2014)

Short stories, Novellas, Plays & Collections
Pricksongs & Descants (1969) (collection)
The Babysitter (1969) (short story)
A Theological Position (1972) (plays)
Hair O' The Chine (1979)
A Political Fable (1980) (novella)
Spanking the Maid (1982) (novella)
In Bed One Night & Other Brief Encounters (1983) (collection)
Whatever Happened to Gloomy Gus of the Chicago Bears (1987) (novella)
Dr. Chen's Amazing Adventure (1991) (novella)
Briar Rose (1996) (novella)
The Grand Hotels (of Joseph Cornell) (2002) (novella)
Stepmother (2004) (novella)
A Child Again (2005) (collection)
"The Case of the Severed Hand" Harper's Magazine 317 [1898] (July 2008): 74-80
"White-Bread Jesus" Harper's Magazine 317 [1903] (December 2008): 79-88 -- excerpt from Brunist Day of Wrath. http://harpers.org/archive/2008/12/wh...
"Going for a beer" The New Yorker (March 14, 2011)
"Matinée" The New Yorker (July 25, 2011)
[edit]Non-Fiction
The End of Books (1992) (essay)

[Nathan "N.R."]

Coover completionism 2014!!!!

Next year brings the massive bulk of The Brunist Day of Wrath but also a new, expanded edition of In Bed One Night, and Other Brief Encounters from Dzanc Books ; for which I'm eagerly awaiting the ToC.

By the end of this month I will have shelved all of Coover's books ; at least the ones I know are available ;;

Two items which are not on Tom's list in Post #1 ::
Hair O' The Chine: A Documentary Film Script; Ill. By Robin Mc Donald and Aesop's Forest and Plot of the Mice {the Coover portion of this b/w book is available in A Child Again}. I can add more details when they make their way thru the mails into my Coover=hands. (a few additional books contain material available elsewhere, zB, After Lazarus: A Filmscript.)

[Amy]

Clearly I have plenty of Coover novel reading to do! But here's my list so far.


Novels
The Origin of the Brunists (1966)
The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop. (1968)
The Public Burning (1977), completed 1975[2]
Gerald's Party (1986)
A Night at the Movies or, You Must Remember This (1987) (themed anthology)
Pinocchio in Venice (1991)
John's Wife (1996)
Ghost Town (1998)
The Adventures of Lucky Pierre: Director's Cut (2002)
Noir (2010)
The Brunist Day of Wrath (2014)

Short stories, Novellas, Plays & Collections
Pricksongs & Descants (1969) (collection)
The Babysitter (1969) (short story)
A Theological Position (1972) (plays)
A Political Fable (1980) (novella)
Spanking the Maid (1982) (novella)
In Bed One Night & Other Brief Encounters (1983) (collection)
Whatever Happened to Gloomy Gus of the Chicago Bears (1987) (novella)
Dr. Chen's Amazing Adventure (1991) (novella)
Briar Rose (1996) (novella)
The Grand Hotels (of Joseph Cornell) (2002) (novella)
Stepmother (2004) (novella)
A Child Again (2005) (collection)
"The Case of the Severed Hand" Harper's Magazine 317 [1898] (July 2008): 74-80
"White-Bread Jesus" Harper's Magazine 317 [1903] (December 2008): 79-88
"Going for a beer" The New Yorker (March 14, 2011)
"Matinée" The New Yorker (July 25, 2011)
"The Colonel's Daughter" The New Yorker (September 2, 2013

[edit]Non-Fiction
The End of Books (1992) (essay)

Quoted from Nathan "N.R." above:

Two items which are not on Tom's list in Post #1 ::
Hair O' The Chine: A Documentary Film Script; Ill. By Robin Mc Donald and Aesop's Forest and Plot of the Mice. I can add more details when they make their way thru the mails into my Coover=hands. (a few additional books contain material available elsewhere, zB, After Lazarus: A Filmscript.)

[Nathan "N.R."]

Amy wrote: "Clearly I have plenty of Coover novel reading to do! But here's my list so far."

Nothing to sneeze at. Do you plan completionization sometime in 2014 or 2015?

Amy knows this already, but be there lurkers who don't ; Robert Coover's Fable Land is now open and sending forth wide streams of promiscuous invitations :: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...

[Amy]

2014, definitely not.

Maybe 2015. I don't know, some of those books are pretty dense! (Also, we'll have the Brunists sequel to add to the mix). :D

On another note, I've just begun (this morning) "The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop."

Your posts and groups inspired me to get back to Coover. (Sorry, Robert Rankin).

[Jonathan]

I am up for working through the rest of his in 2014, which should be doable. Origin of Brunists and Pricksongs in early Jan I think, then see how we go from there...

[Amy]

Hey, Nathan "N.R." - What do you think about including various forewords and Intros written by Coover?

[Amy]

Oh, also - we need to add "The Colonel's Daughter" - The New Yorker: (September 2, 2013).

[Nathan "N.R."]

Amy wrote: "Hey, Nathan "N.R." - What do you think about including various forewords and Intros written by Coover?"

For Completionism I hold to the humble standard of merely all that's published in book form, under the name Coover. So stuff by him in other people's books is just dainties, but delicious none the less. Same for short stories ;; until they are assembled in bookform, and most of his will be next year, they are not Completionist-necessary.

But for bibliography, see :: Robert Coover and the Generosity of the Page.

[Amy]

Nathan "N.R." wrote: "
For Completionism I hold to the humble standard of merely all that's published in book form, under the name Coover. So stuff by him in other people's books is just dainties, but delicious none the less. Same for short stories ;; until they are assembled in bookform, and most of his will be next year, they are not Completionist-necessary. ..."

Makes sense to me!

[Nathan "N.R."]

Score update :: I've got six Coovers remaining, inclusive of the forthcoming expanded edition of In Bed One Night, and Other Brief Encounters. Brunist Day of Wrath got knocked out the day before today's release! And it's excellent.

[Nathan "N.R."]

Coover Completionized!!!