How Frank O’Hara Brought a Father and Daughter Closer Together

On today’s episode of The Literary Life, Mitchell Kaplan is joined by Ada Calhoun to discuss her latest book, Also a Poet: Frank O’Hara, My Father, and Me, out now from Grove Press.

From the episode:

Ada Calhoun: That’s what I think was so interesting about listening to the tapes was learning why [my father] loved [Frank O’Hara]. I loved Lunch Poems and I didn’t really understand what else my father had gotten from him. But I knew there must be a lot of things. And so hearing him do these interviews and what he what he saw in his glamor, his wit, and his charm, I think that was something my father tried to emulate. And there was something poignant that actually Frank O’Hara had these other qualities that I hadn’t known about that focused attention on people, the way that he loved people so well and the way that he loved children and how free he was. And those were things that my father did not take from him. And listening to those tapes, I really kind of wish he had.

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Ada Calhoun is the New York Times bestselling author of St. Marks Is Dead, Wedding Toasts I’ll Never Give, and Why We Can’t Sleep. She has written for the New York Times, the New Republic, and the Washington Post.