L.A. Beat Poet Philomene Long Dies - By N.L. Belardes

LA Beats: John Thomas and Philomene Long


When I went to grad school, historian John Arthur Maynard who wrote Venice West spoke a lot of Philomene Long-Thomas. He interviewed her more than once about the L.A. Beats and her husband who had died, poet John Thomas.



Philomene Long

He visited her and they talked long hours about days of LA poets and abstract artists.

I enjoyed his stories and appreciated that I was allowed to read Thomas and Philomene's works in the mid-1990s. With fondness I remember only good times in thinking about my days under Maynard talking L.A. Beats.



Philomene Long and Allen Ginsberg

It seemed Philomene would live forever.

Just got this email:


Friends -I just received word that my friend and fellow poet, Philomene Long-Thomas, passed away on Tuesday, possibly Monday, of this week. She was found in her Venice Beach apartment on Tuesday. I don't have anymore details about her passing at this time. I am sad and surprised because I did not know that she was ill. Perhaps it is a God-send that she did not suffer much (although she suffered mightily at the loss of her beloved husband, John Thomas). We had talked about doing a Queen of Bohemia book that would combine the two LRB I published for her back in 2002 for a trip she had planned for Ireland this fall, but it was still in talk phase. I remember John told a story about how, when he first met her, they had shared a cup of tea and how after she had sipped from it, he had turned the cup in his hand so that he might sip from the same spot that she had sipped...I thought it was about the most romantic thing I'd ever heard of. She has gone home to sip from the same cup as her beloved John and God bless them both!


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This entry was posted by Matildakay, on Thursday, August 23, 2007. You can leave your response.