Parker Tyler
Encyclopedia
Harrison Parker Tyler, better known as Parker Tyler (6 March 1904, New Orleans - June 1974, New York City
) was an American author, poet, and film critic. Tyler had a relationship with underground filmmaker Charles Boultenhouse (1926-1994) from 1945 until his death. Their papers are held by the New York Public Library.
He wrote The Young and Evil
(Paris: Obelisk Press
, 1933) with Charles Henri Ford
, an energetically experimental novel with obvious debts to fellow Villager Djuna Barnes
, and also to Gertrude Stein
. Tyler and Ford co-edited the Surrealist magazine View
until it folded in 1947.
A writer for the journal Film Culture
, Tyler is one of the few film critics to write extensively on experimental film
and underground film
. His Screening the Sexes: Homosexuality in the Movies (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1972) was one of the first books about homosexuality
and film, preceding Vito Russo
's The Celluloid Closet (1981).
His books of film criticism include
He often wrote for the View, the Kenyon Review, Partisan Review, Evergreen Review, and the cineaste magazines Film Culture, and Film Quarterly. Some of his books are collections of his magazine work.
Tyler's books became popular -- and some old titles reissued after being out-of-print for years -- after Tyler was mentioned several times in the novel Myra Breckinridge
(1968) by Gore Vidal
.
Black Sparrow Press published his poetry, including a complete and corrected text of The Granite Butterfly, first published with Bern Porter
, Berkeley, Calif., 1945, as:
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
) was an American author, poet, and film critic. Tyler had a relationship with underground filmmaker Charles Boultenhouse (1926-1994) from 1945 until his death. Their papers are held by the New York Public Library.
He wrote The Young and Evil
The Young and Evil
The Young and Evil is a 2008 short film directed by Julian Breece, in which a sexually promiscuous teen actively pursues unprotected sex in order to catch the HIV virus...
(Paris: Obelisk Press
Obelisk Press
Obelisk Press was an English language press based in Paris, France, which was founded by Jack Kahane in 1929.Kahane, a novelist, began the Obelisk Press after his publisher, Grant Richards, went bankrupt. Going into partnership with a printer, Kahane, as Cecil Barr, published his next novel...
, 1933) with Charles Henri Ford
Charles Henri Ford
Charles Henri Ford was an American poet, novelist, filmmaker, photographer, and collage artist best known for his editorship of the Surrealist magazine View in New York City, and as the partner of the artist Pavel Tchelitchew...
, an energetically experimental novel with obvious debts to fellow Villager Djuna Barnes
Djuna Barnes
Djuna Barnes was an American writer who played an important part in the development of 20th century English language modernist writing and was one of the key figures in 1920s and '30s bohemian Paris after filling a similar role in the Greenwich Village of the teens...
, and also to Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein was an American writer, poet and art collector who spent most of her life in France.-Early life:...
. Tyler and Ford co-edited the Surrealist magazine View
View (magazine)
View was an American literary and art magazine published from 1940 to 1947 by artist and writer Charles Henri Ford, and writer and film critic Parker Tyler. The magazine is best known for introducing Surrealism to the American public....
until it folded in 1947.
A writer for the journal Film Culture
Film Culture
Film Culture was an American film magazine started by Adolfas Mekas and his brother Jonas Mekas in 1954, and is now defunct. It is best known for exploring the avant-garde cinema in depth, but also published articles on all aspects of cinema, including Hollywood films.Past contributors include...
, Tyler is one of the few film critics to write extensively on experimental film
Experimental film
Experimental film or experimental cinema is a type of cinema. Experimental film is an artistic practice relieving both of visual arts and cinema. Its origins can be found in European avant-garde movements of the twenties. Experimental cinema has built its history through the texts of theoreticians...
and underground film
Underground film
An underground film is a film that is out of the mainstream either in its style, genre, or financing.-Definition and history:The first use of the term "underground film" occurs in a 1957 essay by American film critic Manny Farber, "Underground Films." Farber uses it to refer to the work of...
. His Screening the Sexes: Homosexuality in the Movies (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1972) was one of the first books about homosexuality
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
and film, preceding Vito Russo
Vito Russo
Vito Russo was an American LGBT activist, film historian and author who is best remembered as the author of the book The Celluloid Closet ....
's The Celluloid Closet (1981).
His books of film criticism include
- The Hollywood Hallucination (New York: Creative Age, 1944)
- Magic and Myth of the Movies (New York: Henry Holt and CompanyHenry Holt and CompanyHenry Holt and Company is an American book publishing company. One of the oldest publishers in the United States, it was founded in 1866 by Henry Holt and Frederick Leypoldt...
, 1947) - The Three Faces of the Film: the Art, the Dream, the Cult (New York: Thomas Yoseloff, 1960)
- Classics of the Foreign Film: A Pictorial Treasury (Secaucus, NJ: Citadel Press, 1962)
- Sex Psyche Etcetera in the Film (New York: Horizon Press, 1969)
- Underground Film: A Critical History (New York: Grove PressGrove PressGrove Press is an American publishing imprint that was founded in 1951. Imprints include: Black Cat, Evergreen, Venus Library, Zebra. Barney Rosset purchased the company in 1951 and turned it into an alternative book press in the United States. The Atlantic Monthly Press, under the aegis of its...
, 1969) - The Shadow of an Airplane Climbs the Empire State Building (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1973)
He often wrote for the View, the Kenyon Review, Partisan Review, Evergreen Review, and the cineaste magazines Film Culture, and Film Quarterly. Some of his books are collections of his magazine work.
Tyler's books became popular -- and some old titles reissued after being out-of-print for years -- after Tyler was mentioned several times in the novel Myra Breckinridge
Myra Breckinridge
Myra Breckinridge is a 1968 satirical novel by Gore Vidal written in the form of a diary. It was made into a movie in 1970. Described by the critic Dennis Altman as "part of a major cultural assault on the assumed norms of gender and sexuality which swept the western world in the late 1960s and...
(1968) by Gore Vidal
Gore Vidal
Gore Vidal is an American author, playwright, essayist, screenwriter, and political activist. His third novel, The City and the Pillar , outraged mainstream critics as one of the first major American novels to feature unambiguous homosexuality...
.
Black Sparrow Press published his poetry, including a complete and corrected text of The Granite Butterfly, first published with Bern Porter
Bern Porter
Bernard Harden "Bern" Porter was an American artist, writer, publisher, performer, and scientist.In 2010 his work was recognized by an exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.- Biography :...
, Berkeley, Calif., 1945, as:
- The Will of Eros: Selected Poems 1930-1970 (Los Angeles: Black Sparrow Press, 1972)